2 Samuel 7:18-29

Gratitude’s Prayer

Intro

Every culture has rules around gift giving. Rules for how to act when you receive a gift, and therefore what to expect when you give one. While this may vary from culture to culture, what is not missing is a response. When someone gives you a gift, it always comes with some form of reciprocity. Some may expect to get a gift in return, others it is simply the gift of gratitude and the reciprocity of love. The absence of these most basic qualities actually ruins the point of gift giving in the first place. Here at Christmas time we think more than other times about giving and receiving gifts. While there is an intrinsic joy to giving gifts such that people will claim they do it for that reason alone. But that is not really true. If you give a gift, as I have seen with the most undisciplined children, there is no gratitude, and they decide that is not the gift they wanted to receive, so they throw it down in anger. I would challenge the parent who told me that in that situation they enjoyed giving little Johnny a gift. Not so, they have given not because they wanted to, but because they had to. It's a credit to capitalism that we have made what once solidified bonds of friendship and love mandatory.

The stakes are that much higher when the gift comes from God. Untold numbers throw the gift down, trample it under feet, and shake their fist at the gift-giver, saying it was not the one they wanted. “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Ro 1:21). The scriptures furnish us with ample evidence of both those having received from the Lord everything responded with gratitude, or else with hatred. In our text this evening, we see the proper response to God's gracious gifts. Which furnishes us with an inspired guide for how to respond to God's gifts today. Let us consider David's thanksgiving, David's Praise, and David's Petition, as models of prayer for us to use in our response to God's gift, of life and everything, but more so in this Christmas season, for the gift of His Son.

2 Samuel 7:18-29

David's thanksgiving

Notice David, upon hearing the message from the prophet Nathan, that the Lord would build David a sure house that would endure forever. He goes in and sits before the Lord. Presumably, this is into the tent he has pitched on Mt. Zion for the Ark of the Covenant. The same tent he was previously mortified that the Lord lived in, while e occupied a cedar paneled palace. Yet, that is not what humbles David. What humbles David, is God's covenant faithfulness to him.

"Who am I, O Lord Yahweh," David exclaims, using God's covenant name, as he considers the magnitude of what God has promised him. First, David is thankful that God has brought him thus far. Think of the countless times God preserved David from his enemies. All those nights spent on the run from Saul, the time he was forced to sojourn in Philistia, all driven by the promise that one day he would be king. And here he is, God preserved him through it all.

But also, that God has promised to continue that covenant keeping love to his house, as well. My contention is that this covenant came late in David's life, after he has been on the throne, the time when kings think about succession. Every man worries about his legacy, what he will leave behind him when he goes the way of all the earth, but more so those who are tasked with leading others, especially entire nations. As the king goes, so goes the nation, and here he has been given one of the most sure promises a king could desire—a sure house.

There is a curious little phrase at the end of v. 19 that translators have trouble with. I think the ESV gets it right. David is saying that God's covenant with Him, to build him a sure house, to ensure that he always has a son to sit on His throne is torah (instruction) for man. From this will come very much theological discussion, as the people of God wrestle over this promise, and wait, ultimately, for its fulfillment in the long waited for Messiah.

David may not be able to sound out the depths of this covenant promise, or how expansive it would truly be, but he sees the gravity of God's covenant with him, knowing that it will be instructive for all mankind. And how marvelous is is, when nearly a thousand years later, in David's birth place, Bethlehem, a child would be born to the virgin Mary. When for centuries no king sat on David's throne, and Israel was ruled by tyrants and oppressors from Babylon to Rome, then suddenly shoot comes forth from the root of Jesse, as God begins to fulfill what so long ago he promised to David. And as David gives thanks to God for that promise, we are still today instructed as we consider the covenant faithfulness of our God. We say, who are we that you should call us out of darkness and include us in the people of God because of your promise to David realized in His greater Son Jesus?

David's Praise

David proceeds in this prayer of gratitude to praise God for His excellency. For as good as the promise is, it could only be so because it came from a very great God. One unrivaled by any they have heard of. And God has shown His greatness through His redemption of Israel, calling them to be His people and becoming their God. Here we see one important way God reveals Himself to us--he shows us. First of course he tells us who he is: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands” (Ex 34:6–7). Then he demonstrates His character by what he does. He says he is gracious and then shows that by delivering Israel from Egypt. Then he brought them to the promised land and established them there. As we will consider next week, the Lord delivered them from their enemies and had (finally) given them rest. Again what is on display in David's prayer of praise is the Lord's covenant faithfulness. He has shown himself to be over and over again, a God who keeps covenant with His people Israel. And this despite all their unfaithfulness to keep covenant with Him.

The story of Israel is the story of every man. Bound fast in sin, we were slaves to death. But God made a way through His Son to redeem us from sin and death. He brought us out with great signs and wonders when he triumphed over the rulers of this world, putting them to open shame by dying in your place on a cross. Then, in His resurrection, he led a host out of captivity, delivering them to the promised eternal rest. What he had promised Israel, he has accomplished in Jesus for a new Israel. Not for a tiny strip of land in Palestine, but to give us the whole world. He has made us His people and promised to be our God.

As it did for David, praise for our redemption must be central to our life of prayer. Praise him for how great He is for saving you from sin, from calling you out of darkness, dying in your place, freeing you from sins dominion, and lavishing on you by His Spirit gifts as foretastes of the age to come. A rehearsal of that ole gospel story will do wonders for your disposition. for it will cause both gratitude and humility to spring up together. Gratitude for what he has done that we could never repay, and humility, as we consider it was our sin that made it necessary for him to pay such a cost to save ruined sinners.

David's Petition

David continues by moving to the third section of his prayer petition. Notice v. 25, "and now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word you have spoken." Notice what David is doing here. He says Lord, you have shown me great favor by revealing to me your promise concerning my house, which has given me the boldness to come and ask you to confirm that promise by blessing the house of your servant.

David prays for the God's will to be done, the very same thing we pray in the Lord's prayer. We are going to consider this next Lord's day morning when we look at John 14:14, for there Jesus says, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (Jn 14:14). Now, Jesus has a very specific meaning which we will consider flows from the context there, however what he expresses is inline with what David does here. He pray for things that are agreeable to the will of God because God has promised them.

I routinely tell parents this whose children have wandered away from the faith. God has given you a promise in His word, that as He is your God, so He will be the God of your children after you, on the basis of such covenant promises, we baptize our children. Not to presume on the promise but to plead with Him to confirm them. As Luther put so eloquently in His little book The Freedom of a Christian, he says,

the greatest contempt [you could give] is to suspect or to accuse someone publicly of being, in our opinion, a liar and wicked, which we do when we do not trust a person. So when the soul firmly believes the God who promises, it regards God as true and righteous. Nothing can show God greater respect! This is the highest worship of God: To bestow on God truthfulness and righteousness and whatever else ought to be ascribed to the One in whom a person trusts. Here the soul submits itself to what God wishes; here it hallows God’s name and allows itself to be treated according to God’s good pleasure. This is because, clinging to God’s promises, the soul does not doubt that God is true, righteous, and wise—the One who will do, arrange, and care for everything in the best possible way.

Trusting God's promises is one way we honor God by extolling His truthfulness, His faithfulness, and His righteousness. So we claim God's covenant promises trusting that the one who promised is faithful and we ask Him to confirm them by bringing them about.

Now let me answer an objection that may come. I am not teaching some name it and claim it prayer, that if you can name it and trust the Lord will give it to you, then its as good as yours. The absurdity of this unbiblical idea is apparent right away. David prays that the Lord confirm what the Lord has already promised, not something he has never promised. Has the Lord promised that if you pray for a new Mercedes S-class, and have faith, you will receive one? No, obviously not. Has He promised to remove every trial, and give you personal peace and affluence? No, not at all. But he has promised that he will never leave you or forsake you. He has promised that nothing can separate you from His love. He has promised that He is working all things, including that trial you are going through, together for your good. Above all, He has promised that if you confess your sins, he is faithful to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He has promised that if you have trusted in Him, he will give you eternal life.

David, staggered by God's grace to such a sinner as he was, marvels that God preserved him and singled him out for such an amazing promise. Then after praising God for who he is, and for what he has done, he calls on God to confirm His word of promise by blessing his house. There is the effectual prayer of a righteous man. A man accustomed to pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. One who knows that he is but a servant of God. Did you notice that? Over ten times, David refers to himself as your servant. David knows who he is, and in prayer, David confesses who God is, honoring him eminently by trusting in His very great and precious promises. And so should you, when you come, recipients of this same covenant promise since Christ Jesus, David's Son, is your Lord and king. God is faithful. It's not pious, or humble, to refuse to ask God to confirm His promises. It actually dishonors God, as Luther said:

What greater rebellion against God, godlessness, and contempt of God is there than not to believe the One who promises? What is this but either to make God out a liar or to doubt that God is truthful? Or, to put it another way, is this not to ascribe truthfulness to oneself and falsehood and vanity to God? In so doing, is one not denying God and setting oneself up as an idol in one’s very heart?

So trust the promises of God and follow David's example in his prayer of gratitude. Amen.