2 SAMUEL 7 (1 - SUMMARIES OF TWO READINGS)
[p. 28] 2 SAMUEL 7 (1 - SUMMARIES OF TWO READINGS)
In 2 Samuel 7 we see David as the spiritual man, having been greatly favoured of God and given rest from all his enemies. Now he thinks of the ark of God dwelling under curtains while he dwells in a house of cedars. He did well that such a thought was in his heart but he wanted to go beyond what was allotted to him. There was a preparatory course which he had to take in God’s school, and it is a course which many of us need to take. God, as it were, said through Nathan, ‘You are going too fast, David, I have something else in My mind first. I have not dwelt in a house and I have never spoken about having a house of cedars. You must learn first what I have done for you and what I will do for you’. There is first God’s personal election, taking David from the pasture grounds to make him great. We need to think first of the greatness that God confers and the place which He appoints for His people, “a place of their own” where they will “be disturbed no more”. It is really the blessed place in Christ which He accords to His people through grace. He plants “them, that they may dwell”.
Then Jehovah makes us a house. Ephesians 2 is a wonderful chapter to read; it is all God’s actions for us. We are slow in learning that this is the great matter. Ephesians 1 and 3 are both on the same line. Before the house can be built there must be secured the kind of persons which are to occupy it. This is what we see in 2 Samuel 7, persons who go in and sit before God in the restfulness of what He has done. It seems sad to think that believers may be on [p. 29] the wrong line in thinking what they can do for God, and may be diverted thereby from the blessedness of what God has done for them. It is only as we are in the restfulness of knowing this that we can go in and sit before Him. That is what He wants. He not only does this greatness but He longs to make His servants know it (verse 21). This is spiritually greater than Solomon building the house. I think that we can see that there is a loftier note in this chapter than there is in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple.
Then Christ is spoken of as David’s seed, God’s Son (verses 12, 14). We are brought to think of Christ as the true builder and as God’s Son whose kingdom God will establish for ever, Christ effecting all for God and being established by God for ever. One can understand after this chapter those great celebrations of God which David voiced in the Psalms. Some of our own choice utterances have come into our mouths from David. Such are, Jesus in the fulness of joy at God’s right hand having seen no corruption, crowned with glory and honour, now singing God’s praise in the midst of the assembly, and as Son giving effect to the whole counsel of God, and, in particular, building the house. He is the builder of the house and He is over it as Son.
David, representing the spiritual believer, accepts the adjustment of all this. He went in and sat, or tarried, before Jehovah. This is what we want more of. What we have here is one of the most worshipful utterances that we have in Scripture. “Who am I?” at the commencement is a blessed disallowance of all that he was naturally. It is now altogether what God had done and what God would do.
“Thou hast brought me hitherto”. How blessed to be brought to God! “A great while to come” — as we take this up it goes on into eternity. We shall “be conformed to the image of his Son”; “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is”, 1 John 3: 2. There was a greater building in David’s soul than ever Solomon built of stones and timber.
Then, “Who is like thy people ... ?” (verse 23). Notice the word ‘went’ is in the plural — a beautiful hint of the Trinity being engaged in this wondrous redemption, “to make himself a name”. Verse 24 is the covenant established. Then the thought of David’s house is much before him as blessed of Jehovah. There is a striking scripture in Zechariah 12: 8, “He that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David as God, as the Angel of Jehovah before them”. It is striking that this is reached through the deep sorrow and mourning that they pass through when they see how they have wounded Christ. I believe that God is building David a house at the present time in the sense that He is securing a family after the pattern of David, those who can sit before Him in the deep worshipful appreciation of what He is for His people and what He is in Himself. Have we found in our hearts such a prayer as this?