2 Samuel 7:18-29
18 Then went king David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? 19 And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? 20 And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant. 21 For thy word’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them. 22 Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? 24 For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, Lord, art become their God. 25 And now, O Lord God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said. 26 And let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of thy servant David be established before thee. 27 For thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. 28 And now, O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: 29 Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.
More is written concerning King David in the Old Testament than any other biblical figure. He stands out in redemptive history. While David experienced many highs and lows in his walk with the Lord, no highs were higher perhaps than what we find in 2 Samuel 7. Greater than his victory over Goliath and greater than all of his conquests for Israel was his being blessed to enter into covenant with God and play a key role in God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. David was given a privilege that very few in redemptive history have had. In 2 Samuel 7:1-11, we saw his desire to build the Lord a house and God’s response in promising to build David a house instead. In 2 Samuel 7:12-17, we saw God’s covenant promise with David to show goodness to his descendants and to bring One from his descendants who would establish God’s kingdom forever. Now, in 2 Samuel 7:18-29, the final portion of the chapter, we see David’s response to God’s promises. How would you respond? What is the appropriate response to grace of this magnitude? The simple answer is humility. David’s words, “Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” sum it all up. Who are we that God would extend His goodness to us? The appropriate response is being humble before God in recognition of God’s surpassing greatness in all things. In his response, David highlights three things that he has learned about the Lord in His dealings with David that produced humility in David. These three things are revealed to all God’s people who truly come to know Him through His Word today.
First, God reveals His holiness through His Word. David’s response to God’s covenant in verses 12-16 is to ask “Who am I, O Lord God?” Who was David, indeed? The text first tells us in verse 18 that David went in “and sat before the Lord.” This is the only time that anyone in Scripture is said to have done this. David is so in awe of God that he went immediately into the tent where the ark was and prayed. It is there, the only time in Scripture recorded for anyone, where David prayed to the Lord. He adopted the posture and expression of humility in sitting before the Lord and asking what he asked in verse 18. A. W. Pink once wrote, “Humility is that grace that gives the Lord His proper place.” That is where David was. He saw God for who He is and himself for who he was. Throughout Scripture, there are many examples of individuals and heroes of the faith used greatly by God that adopted similar responses to God’s grace in their lives: Paul (1 Corinthians 15:8-9; Hannah (1 Samuel 2:6-8); John the Baptist (3:30); Abraham (Genesis 18:27); Moses (Exodus 3:11); and many others. David saw himself as we must see ourselves…unworthy. Charles Spurgeon once said, “While others are congratulating themselves, I have to sit humbly at the foot of the cross and marvel that I’m saved at all.” A person who has truly been born again and come to a saving knowledge of Christ cannot be arrogant because if they have truly come to know God through Christ, they have seen themselves for who they truly are in comparison to God. In verse 19 David spoke of God’s purposes in his life and the amazing promise he had just received and he declared that God is so great that even this “was yet a small thing” to God. Yet, David recognized that God had done something unique for him. “And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?” highlights that God does not deal with all men this way. David was uniquely privileged in God’s grace. This statement also highlighted that, through these promises made to David, all of mankind might know God’s good, saving purposes toward them. From these verses (18-22), we see God’s holiness on display. We see His greatness and that there is truly nothing that can be compared to Him, either in moral purity or in His gracious dealings with His creatures. God stands alone. He did all of this to faithfully fulfill His Word (v. 21) and David is left declaring “thou art great, O Lord God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according all that we have heard with our ears” (v. 22). God is holy. There is none like Him. Nothing can be compared to Him. His promises and His Word reveal His holiness. They show us how great He is and how unworthy we are. It was for this that David was humbled, and you and I who truly see Him for who He is should be humbled before Him.
Next, God reveals His faithfulness through His Word. In verses 23-26, David remembered God’s past faithfulness to His people, Israel, and how that faithfulness continued and culminated in the promise that He had just made to David. David moved from his personal blessing from God’s dealings in verses 18-22 to the corporate blessing for God’s people in verses 23-26. The Davidic Covenant is a continuation or building of previous promises of God. First, God made a promise in Genesis 3:15 to send the “seed” of the woman to one day crush the serpent’s head. Next, the Lord established His covenant with Noah and with his “seed” to never destroy the earth again. This is because God had saving purposes for mankind. Genesis 22:18 revealed God carrying this promise forward to Abraham that through his “seed” the whole world would be blessed. In Abraham, God chose a people to reveal and carry out his saving purposes in the world, the people of Israel. David spoke to that here. First, he spoke to God’s salvation of His people in redeeming Israel from Egypt (Exodus 15:13). Next, he highlighted God’s security of His people in verse 24, that God had chosen them to be His forever (Romans 11:23-32). The same faithfulness that David and Israel experienced, you and I who are in Christ experience today. God has saved us who trusted in Christ (Colossians 2:13-15; Titus 3:5). He has also secured us and promised to never leave us (Hebrews 13:5; John 6:37-40; 10:28-29; Romans 8:35-39). In verses 25-26, we see that David prayed for God to fulfill His promises. Charles Simeon once said that the promises of God are “our warrant for asking” and “our security for receiving.” Our prayers are not to be rooted in our own selfish desires, but based on the promises and Word of God. This is what it means to ask in Jesus’s name (John 14:13-14). We ask according to God’s revealed Word, will, and character. God is faithful. He “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18; Numbers 23:19) and He does not change (Malachi 3:6). We can, therefore, call on Him and trust Him to always do what He has promised and to act according to who He is. Consider that no one else and nothing we know of is like that. We are all fickle and constantly changing. We crumble under pressure, change under shifting circumstances, and can be swayed and manipulated, but God does not and cannot. He is faithful.
Lastly, God reveals His goodness through His Word. In verses 27-29, David prayed for the Lord’s continued blessing upon his “house” because the Lord had “promised this goodness unto” him. He recognized that God’s promises toward him and all his people were good. What is the aim of God’s promises? His glory and the good of His people. That is always the aim of all that God does. The two things are actually linked because God is glorified when He reveals Himself as a good God. Ephesians 1:6 describes this combination as “the glory of His grace.” The context of that passage is that God has blessed believers with “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3), the first of which was the blessing of “adoption” (Ephesians 1:5). His people then respond to His never-ending goodness and kindness to us in “praise” (Ephesians 1:6, 12). God’s goodness toward David produced joy in the presence of the Lord. His goodness in our lives is meant to lead us to find our identity, our satisfaction, and our joy all in Him. In that, he is glorified. Psalm 16:11 says, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” True joy in life comes from experiencing and knowing God’s goodness. So many people live a rugged, outwardly religious existence while professing faith in Christ, but they never know true joy or peace because they have never truly come from knowing things about Christ to knowing Christ. That is where joy is found. It is one thing to know about God’s goodness and to know from a distance that God is good. It is quite another to live in it and experience it for ourselves by faith.
God is holy. God is faithful. God is good. His Word and His promises reveal these things about Him. David came to know, experience, and embrace by faith not just things about God, but who the Lord is. He came to know the Lord and this relational knowledge of God brought him to sit in the presence of the Lord with humility, trust, and joy. Knowing God, not knowing about God, is the greatest experience of life. It is what life is all about. In fact, that is how Jesus defined eternal life itself (John 17:3). Eternal life is not a quantity of life. All people live forever. It is about a quality of life, or type of life. It is life in right relationship with God. God has made a way for us to know Him; through His Word which testifies to His Son. Do you truly have joy in the Lord? Have you truly been made humble before the Lord? A person can know many things about God and never be humbled before Him and experience the joy of a right relationship with Him. They can know many of His promises, but never embrace them by faith in submission to His will. In Jesus, the Davidic Covenant and every other promise of God find fulfillment (2 Corinthians 1:20). Paris Reidhead once said, “Most Christians do not have fellowship with God; they have fellowship with each other about God.” The difference is a matter of eternal significance. You can hang out with other Christians, be a part of a church, know truths of Scripture, but unless you come to know God in Christ, you are lost. Do you really love the Lord? Is His glory your highest joy? Do you delight in His presence and in His salvation?