The Blessing of David

Our Frustrations

I wonder what it will be like in say, five or ten years time, when we look back on this time that we are currently in. God willing it will hopefully be a bit more stable then our current situation, which should give us an opportunity to reflect a bit better about what has happened.

I wonder to what extent we’ll see this time as a blessing?

Now of course, with anything like this, I’m sure our assessment of this time will be quite complicated. There will of course be some aspects at which we will see the degradation of society. But what about the positives?

While we’re still in the middle of it, it can sometimes be easy to focus on how things are falling apart. But as Christians, we should have a bigger perspective.

You see, we’ve got an insight that those who haven’t accepted Jesus don’t have. We can see God moving in ways that often seem imperceptible to non-believers.

Unfortunately, as believers, we can also struggle sometimes, particularly when we don’t take the time to notice. Life gets busy, and when this happens, what stands out is the struggles we face, because we have those immediate problems forcing our attention.

Now we can reflect on God’s action in the present, and this is a great way to help change our perspective. But we can go a step further than just seeing God in the present.

As Christians, we have the gift of having the greatest story ever told written down for us. It’s a story of seeing God’s work in humanity.

It’s a story where humanity has lost it’s way and don’t deserve to be restored, but yet God blesses and blesses and blesses.

You see, throughout the whole bible, we get this single story line and with it we get an arc of God’s work. And as we explore this arc, we start to see how we fit on it.

And even though the events of the Bible happened thousands of years ago, we see that through them we are blessed today.

You see there is power in this story line that helps us re-paint the picture of what we have today.

Now I just love going over the whole story line and looking at how it all paints a cohesive picture. But this morning, I’m just going to point out one early highlight, before narrowing in on the part of the David story we’re at today, to see how this part of the story continues this amazing arc.

Starts with a promise

That one early highlight in the bible I want to show is Abraham.

You see, after God’s good creation, the early chapters of the bible show us how crazy things get when you turn your back on God. But Abraham enters and suddenly there is hope.

It’s in Genesis 12, and God takes an unlikely childless man and gives him a promise that will change the course of history.

There are a number of elements to the promise, but it essentially boils down to the fact that through Abraham, he will be a blessing to all nations. The rest of the Bible is essentially how this promise is worked out.

Now, from this promise of Abraham, we find the birth of Israel and this quest to find peace - or shalom. There are lots of parts along this journey, but eventually it takes us to David and the story we’ve been exploring the last few weeks.

You see, there’s a bit of a problem. Israel are meant to be this vessel which will be a blessing to all nations. But they can’t even get themselves sorted.

As we’ve explored in recent weeks, they thought they could perhaps get it with a king just like the other nations - this of course proved a big disaster.

But this is why we need to reflect on this bigger picture, because it’s here that we see that even when people make an absolute mess of what they’re trying to achieve, God uses it for his glory.

You see, from Israel’s unwise decision to ask for a king, God used this as central pillar to his plan to bless - and so we get David.

Now in the part of the story we look at today, David is going to become entrenched in this story line.

Just like Abraham received that first major promise to start us in the right direction, today we’ll see a new promise that is going to start to flesh out this initial great promise.

David’s development

But before we look at this great new promise, I want to explore some elements of David’s character that we start to see.

Now, if you’ve been following the series, then you’ll know that last week I ended with the death of Saul.

We saw two parallel stories. One where David is having a great victory and in the process bringing people together in unity. And the story is a great defeat by Saul, which ended his selfish campaign to do things his own way.

Well that leaves us this morning at chapter 1 or 2 Samuel. What you’ll see at the start of this second book, is that the story line continues right where it finished in the previous book.

The first chapter gives us the immediate aftermath of Saul’s death, and the striking image we get of David is someone who amazingly didn’t see Saul as his enemy.

Despite all the wrong Saul did to David, David mourned his death.

One of the points I’ve been making throughout this series is that David has been given insight by God to see things differently - and this is a great example of that.

Striving for unity

From chapter 2, we move beyond this period of mourning, and see the progression of David becoming king.

Well, after enquiring of the Lord, David moves to Hebron where we’re told that the men of Judah came and annointed David the king over the tribe of Judah.

Well, that’s a good start, but as we saw last week, David is not someone who wants to continue disunity. We’ve seen that even for those who are against him, he is willing to reach out and bring people together.

And that’s exactly what we see next. He was told that the men from Jabesh Gilead were the ones that had honoured Saul’s body in death - and if you weren’t previously aware of David character you might be surprised, but David publicly blesses those who honoured Saul.

We’ll start to see that the people outside the tribe of Judah where David is now already king, start to notice this difference in him.

Now, the reason that David has only been made king of Judah and not the rest of Israel is because Saul still has a surviving son.

Jonathan may have died in the battle with his father Saul, as did two other brothers, but there was one more son still alive, and his name is Ish-Bosheth. Actually a bit of trivia, in the book of Chronicles we actually learn his name is EshBaal which roughly translates as “man of the lord”, but in 2 Samuel, he is given what might have been a nickname Ish-Bosheth, which actually translates as “man of shame”!

And there isn’t much to Ish-Bosheth. Actually, if you read closely, you’ll actually see that the real power lies with his army chief whose name is Abner.

Ish-Bosheth seems to become a bit of a puppet for Abner who tries to sway things his way.

Now, this week in NSW politics, we’ve seen some of the ugliness that appears in politics, and I’m sure you’re aware that this ugliness is nothing new. In fact, we see a great example of when things go astray right here.

I’m not going to go in detail exactly what happens. I’ll let you read the chapters for yourself to see what goes on, but the bottom line is we see a lot of conflict.

Interestingly, it would appear that David is absent from the fighting. It’s his followers who are doing the damage.

And how often do we see this today. The followers of Jesus - the one who has brought us shalom - are the ones who actually break the shalom by constantly attacking one another.

Well, this whole sorry affair comes to an end when Abner, the man holding up Ish-Bosheth, finally decides to come over to David’s side.

Now, if we didn’t know that David sees things differently, then his acceptance of Abner could be seen as David being somewhat naive. After all, this man has just been propping up the one person who is stopping David being king over a united Kingdom. Certainly David’s men thought David out of his mind in accepting Abner. For this is what David did.

But yet, this is what proved to bring everyone together.

Now we see all sorts of things happen which are outside of David’s control but ultimately bring him closer to the united kingship. Ish-bosheth is murdered. As for that matter, so is Abner, the one that enabled to unification to happen.

A cynic reading this might think that David’s actually behind it all - but that would misunderstand what God is doing here. David is allowing God to work in God’s own way - although even David stumbles on this matter at other times.

Finally, in chapter 5, David is finally king over a united Israel.

Now it’s interesting to note that David is thirty year old when he becomes king - and while I might be reluctant to make too much of this, but in Luke’s gospel, we’re told Jesus was about 30 when he started his ministry. Actually, you’ll see lots of little parallels between David and Jesus when you start looking.

The Ark in Jerusalem

Well, the first thing that the author of 2 Samuel tells us after he is annointed king over a united Israel, is that they capture Jerusalem and this becomes the capital of Israel.

You might be interested to note that here in chapter 5 verse 7 we get our very first reference to Zion. This name of Zion is going to take on a lot of significance later in the Bible. It’s the name that is normally used to symbolise the theological significance of the place - but time won’t let me explore that now.

Now that there new capital is secured, we then see another significant event - the Ark of the Covenant is brought into Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, I’m not going to detail exactly what happens here, but it’s worth your time reading it.

But what we do see, is something that can almost bring to mind that triumphal entry of Jesus.

In both events, there is this joyful humility as the king enters for something special.

In the case of David, he is wearing a simple linen ephod. Later he’s described as coming half naked. This is a stark contrast to what you would expect of a king who would normally be wearing fancy clothes to show his importance.

In the case of Jesus on Palm Sunday, he is on a simple colt - there’s a great simplicity about it.

In both events, there is this great joy that goes with it.

Why is this all so special?

Well, this is where you need to understand the full sweep of what God is doing. In both events we are witnessing pivotal moments in God’s progressive plan.

It might be more obvious in the case of Jesus because he’s about to go to the cross, and we understand how that fits into the whole scheme.

But here with David, we are seeing God’s plan start to take root.

We now have a kingdom which is characterised by God’s character that will create the form work for everything to come next.

We have the blueprint for a city that points us to the final culmination of all things - something we’re still waiting for.

But perhaps even more importantly, we now have a pattern for a king which will change all things.

And that’s going to take us to chapter 7, which I’ll focus on for the remainder of this message.

Davidic Covenant

This seventh chapter actually starts in a way which makes us think that we are going to continue on this theme of building a city around God.

Essentially we have David recognising that the Ark of God is in a simple tent, while he sits in luxury. The clear logic implies that David is thinking a temple to give God the place he deserves.

In fact, the direction of David’s thinking seemed so sound that even the prophet Nathan, who was with David at the time, agreed that David should do whatever he had in mind because it was very clear that God was with him.

But God had other ideas.

I have been saying that David has had this special insight so he could see things differently, but on this occasion, even David wasn’t able to see fully.

You see, it wasn’t that God thought that building a temple was a bad idea - in fact, it will happen later.

But you see, God is looking at this bigger picture - this big plan he has which stretches the entire story of the Bible. God has raised David to be a focal point, a pattern if you will, of what is to come.

He is the establishment of a new order of things, one that will point everything to Jesus, the one who will be the culmination of the plan.

So, we’ve just had our little conversation between David and the prophet Nathan where they’ve both presumed what’s next on the agenda, but that night, the Lord gives a message to Nathan to give to David.

To paraphrase, God says, look, why do you think this would bother me now. No, I want to turn the focus onto David.

From verse 8 you see how God is making it clear that He was the one who has been making David great. You see, God’s been moulding David for a very particular purpose.

And God promises that he will continue to establish David. He will strengthen him so wicked people will be kept at bay.

But it goes even further - because God promises to build up his offspring.

In fact, it culminates in the promise we get in verse 16 when God says: “Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.”

Now this is a promise no other king had ever received before and no other king has ever received since.

And we of course know now that this is ultimately fulfilled in the greatest king of all, Jesus Christ.

The story will follow that the kingdom will become divided again. That great work that David did to bring people together will be undone. But the line of kings from David is never broken.

Now to be sure, it is true that some five or so centuries later, the whole nation is taken into exile, and they don’t have someone from his line with a sovereign rule, but the line is never broken, and when Jesus comes, he takes the reign of a kingdom, which was foreshadowed by the kingdom of Israel, but is of a different nature.

David’s response

But let’s come back to 2 Sam 7, because after the Lord makes this promise to David through the prophet Nathan, we get David’s reply.

What is very evident is the humility in his response. He recognises the magnitude of what God has promised. I suspect he doesn’t fully understand exactly how it will play out, but he knows that God is up to something special with this.

Now I want to take you to the last sentence of his reply because this is where I want to tie everything together.

David ends his reply with: 2 Sam 7:29 “Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever in your sight; for you, Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed for ever.’”

This actually can help us join the dots of this great arc we see throughout the bible.

Remember I took you to that promise to Abraham at the start. When God promised Abraham that through his blessing he will be a blessing to all nations.

Well here we see the promise to Abraham and the promise to David intersecting. There is a blessing that is starting to grow and grow and grow.

It’s a blessing to David’s house, and it will last forever.

But this is the great thing when you see this in the perspective of the whole story line. Because when David talks about this blessing for the house of his servant, we start to see that it’s not just about David’s direct descendants. It’s a blessing that flows out. Today, we become Spiritual Israel, and so we become heirs of this blessing.

The blessing

So what is this blessing? Well, it’s the knowledge that you are secure. That God will not let you go. That you have a place at the table of the Lord.

It’s a blessing that you know that you can experience shalom, the peace from God. It’s a peace that transcends all the troubles of this world.

This blessing truly is the most amazing thing. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour - you are blessed.

Conclusion

At the start I talked about how we might assess this period when we look back in years to come. Now there are a lot of things we will be able to analyse, some good, some not so good.

But you know what? One thing that is for certain is that we can say that we are blessed!

We will be able to know that by the experiences we have. But more then that, we will know that because we’ll be able to see how our experience fits on this amazing story line that started with a promise with Abraham, was filled out with the promise to David, culminated in the work of Jesus, and now includes us with the greatest blessing of all.

Because the story line of the bible includes you! You are part of fallen humanity, but Christ died and rose again for you that you may have new life.

So while we can complain a lot about our troubles, always remember that you are blessed!

Let me pray...