2 Samuel 7:1-17 – The Covenant of the Kingdom (Davidic), The Covenant of Grace, Part 4

Introduction

Many Christians and non-Christians I talk to struggle with the same thing but from a different perspective. The Christian has experienced God in a saving way and has felt the presence of Christ in them, especially when they were first converted. But, as time goes on, Christ's presence feels illusive. The struggle to feel and experience his presence is real. Non-Christians have not experienced God in a saving way and have never felt the presence of Christ in them. Many say they would believe if they could see him or feel him and know for sure that he exists. What are both looking for? The real presence of Christ.

The reality is that Christians have Christ living in them and though his presence may feel elusive, nonetheless, he is with his people, and non-Christians can know his presence if they “close with Christ”, put their trust in him.

In fact, the Covenant of the Kingdom, today’s topic, the Davidic Covenant, is related to this. It is a further revelation of the Covenant of Grace. In it, God promises David the king, that the true King, his descendant Jesus, would graciously reign over his people to permanently establish him as their God and them as his people so that they would have God's presence with them forever.

Today, we will see that Jesus Christ is the one who fulfills the Davidic Covenant. He is the King who is present with his people.

Background

The Davidic Covenant, Covenant of the Kingdom is a further progression in the Covenant of Grace and the last covenant before the new covenant. The background or context of 2 Samuel 7 is critically important to understand this covenant.

In 2 Samuel 5, David captures Jerusalem and establishes it as his capital, as it is more central than the previous capital, Hebron.

In 2 Samuel 6, the Ark of God’s presence is now in Jerusalem. David’s reign is synonymous with and subservient to God's rule. Though David is king, God is the true king of Israel.

God has given Israel peace from their enemies. God’s is graciously ruling over his people through his servant in the land of Promise. It appears that God has brought about his promises to Abraham.

Exposition

Thom Yorke, frontman of the band Radiohead, in an interview said , "I thought when I got to where I wanted to be, everything would be different. I'd be somewhere else. I thought it'd be all white fluffy clouds. And then I got there. And I'm still here." He was then asked, "Why, in the end, have you done what you've done?" Yorke replied, "It's filling the hole, that's all anyone does."

What would you do if you had accomplished everything you wanted, were incredibly famous, living in peace, and had tons of money? What would you want if you had the resources to have anything? A house with every amenity, including an indoor pool and private restaurant? A hand-built one-of-a-kind Bugatti La Voiture Noire? What do you really want?

Well, David, the man “after God’s heart” had it all, and yet he wanted God to be exalted above him and to dwell with his people.

This leads into our first point from verses 1-3, David’s godly desire: God to be exalted above all and dwell with man.

Verse 1 shows us how God had fulfilled most of his covenant promises to Abraham. God’s people were in the place he promised, Canaan. They had a king who God used to bring relative peace in the land. The final piece to this was establishing the monarchy in Jerusalem…Israel living in a settled place. They had been given rest by God from their enemies. Hebrews 4 tells us that this rest is a picture of the final rest after the last day of judgment. Yet, settled as they were, God was still dwelling with them in a moveable tabernacle.

Verse 2 shows us David’s godly desire. He looks at his fame, success, and possessions, especially his amazingly built dwelling place, and compares it to God's dwelling place. He lives in a permanent home, and God lives in a tent. He knows that God is with his people (the essence of the Covenant Formula) in the Tabernacle, a moveable place, but he wants God's presence to be permanently fixed in Jerusalem, the capital of God's kingdom of priests, the holy nation. For the Covenant Formula and the Covenant promise to Abraham to be fulfilled, David knew that God must permanently dwell with them.

Verse 3 shows us how God's prophet, Nathan, sees King David's relationship with God. He tells David that God is with him and that he should do whatever is on his heart. To Nathan, David's desire for a permanent place for God's presence is a slam dunk. God is with David. This idea of God being with us is the heart of the Covenant.

Let me take a moment to talk about the will of God. How do you discern it? We do not have to seek some illusive will of God. It is found in God’s revelation of his redemptive plan, and his very character and nature. God’s will is found in the transformation of our minds and desires to God’s. We should conform our thinking and our behavior to match God’s. When this happens, and we know, understand, and love the heart and mind of God, our desires start looking like God’s, and the freedom to do what we want without guilt and shame comes. Augustine said in a sermon on 1 John 4:4-12, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” Essentially, this is what Nathan said to David.

You might ask, how can I get to this? I’ll talk about this at the end of the sermon, but, in short, you must make your life circle around him and his presence in you and in his people. If you don’t, you can expect unease in your life regarding decisions and such. The remedy is to drink in Christ individually and corporately.

This brings us to our second point, what is God’s will? Verses 4-7 show us God's humility or heart: God desires to dwell with men.

What do humans truly long for? A Buddhist poem written in the 12th century by Hoshi, after he visited a Temple, expressed our true longing: "Gods here? Who can know? Not I. Yet I sigh, and tears flow tear on tear." The very thing that this man longed for is the very thing that God desires for humanity and ultimately gives us through Christ.

In verses 4-7 God gently corrects Nathan. He tells Nathan that David’s desire doesn’t align with the timing and purposes that God had in mind. God is not looking for humanity to do anything for him, nor does God need anything from man. Listen to Acts 17:24-25, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."

God tells David through Nathan that he never asked any of Israel's leaders for a permanent temple. God has been happy to wander with his people from the time he redeemed them from Egypt. God’s desire and plan was to move with his people. But why? Wouldn't God want to dwell in a beautiful place where everyone could go and worship him?

I believe that this prefigures the promise of the New Covenant which we will look at next week. Let me tease this out briefly. God's desire from the beginning of creation was that his images, people, would spread out through all the earth. They would live their lives walking with God in the cool of the day, living in fellowship with him. This was seen in the garden and is essentially the heart of God.

If God's purpose wasn't to display his glory in his images throughout the earth, then a static structure would make sense. In other words, if everyone was living in one place, then a permanent temple in one place might make sense. But, if God wanted to be with all his people all the time, then his temple shouldn't be in a permanent place, rather, his people would be the temple. Listen to what Paul says in Corinthians, "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?" and "…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

God wants to be not only with his people, but in his people. God's true temples are not made with hands, they are made by the Spirit of Christ, taking a heart of stone and making it flesh, making a new creature from a walking, breathing corpse. Jesus Christ, as the second Adam, is the true temple; he is Immanuel, God with us. He tabernacled with humans and by his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, made it so that we can be made after his image, living temples of the living God, with Christ living in us. This is what John says of Jesus in John 1:14, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt (lit. took up residence or tabernacled) among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

God didn't need a permanent dwelling place in a physical structure because Jesus took up residence among us while he lived on earth, and then by the Holy Spirit after our conversion, takes up residence in us. These verses are a picture of God's ultimate plan through Christ. God wandered with the Israelites, going with them, which was him leading them, and they being with him. This is the essence of the Covenant Formula, "I will be your God and you will be my people." God shows his humility and his love for us by being content to live in us and lead us in our lives to the places that he desires us to go. God's heart is a heart of humility and kindness, he desires to dwell with/in us.

Do you feel and know God's presence like this? Do you believe that God is with you? Do you believe that you are a temple of God himself? Do you want God to be with you all the time? Do you want the world, your friends and neighbors, to know that you are God's and God is yours? Does your life look like this is the case? Do you want to be set apart for God? These are hard questions. You might be saying, "I know that it is true that I am the temple of the Holy Spirit, but I don't sense his presence. Sometimes I don't even know if I want his presence. Pastor, please help me. Show me how to desire him. Show me how to do this."

How can you do this? Quite frankly, you have to practice the presence of God. You must do what Paul tells us to do in Colossians 3:1-4, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." You must remember and practice the reality that you have died to your old self and your old desires. You have been raised with Christ, and so you must seek Christ and his mind. You must believe that to truly live is Christ.

Let me be honest with you. I can't tell you exactly how to do this. Why? Because this is a heart thing. If you want to change your affections, you must change your thinking and practices. You must seek God in prayer for help and then do the thing that you desire. I will give you some practical things to do at the end of this sermon that can help, but Acts 2:42 and 45-46 are helpful. In short, we must live our lives together as if Jesus is our true food and true drink.

Our last and final point is God's commitment: God will fulfill his covenant promises in Jesus the Christ who dwells with us found in verses 8-17.

These verses are all about what God will do and contain nothing about what man will do, except that they will sin and receive discipline from their loving Father. These verses start with God telling Nathan exactly what he should say to David after he told David that God is humble and desires to dwell with men.

God starts his words to David by saying that he is Yahweh Adonai, or the Lord of armies. He is the Almighty, Eternal One, with no beginning or end, who has done many things and promises in this covenant to do other things. Let's briefly look at them.

First, God took David from shepherding sheep to shepherding people. God made David into a prince or king over his great people. God made David who he is. God made David king over Israel. But this great king who was a shepherd was eclipsed by a greater Shepherd, the Shepherd of the flock of God, even Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the shepherd-king who is the king that didn't come from nothing, but was everything, all in all, and made himself nothing so that he could rescue the sheep of God. Jesus Christ is the true and humble shepherd of the sheep.

Second, God, the Lord of armies, used his armies to defeat David's enemies. In fact, it wasn't just God's armies that were with David and fought for him; God himself was with David wherever he went. God is the leader of armies who goes with and fights his people's enemies. God did for David what he did for Israel as they conquered the land of Canaan. This foreshadowed what God would ultimately do through the true and ultimate Warrior, Jesus Christ. He would destroy the greatest enemy, even sin and death. In Christ, God gives us the victory over our greatest enemy. God himself fought for us against the world, flesh, and Devil in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Christ lives in us fighting for us.

Third, God promises to David that he will make a great name for him, like the names of the great ones of the earth. What is this about? God's covenant promise to make Abraham’s name great is also promised to David’s offspring. This simple statement shows continuity with the Abrahamic covenant. The ultimate one with the great name, however, is the offspring of Abraham, of David, the very Son of God, Jesus Christ. His name is great. His name will be made great. In fact, in Philippians 2, we read that his name is above every name, and at the sound of his name, one day, every knee will bow, submitting to his rule, whether willingly or not, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord all to the glory of the Father.

Fourth, God promises to David that he will make a place for God's people to dwell where they will never be disturbed by wars or trouble again. The violent people will one day never afflict God's people, God will give rest to his people from those who are trying to destroy them. This is the promise of God's eternal rest that the forever King, Jesus will bring about. God's people will be in his place, and live under his rule and blessing. This covenant promise is fulfilled in Christ alone when he returns and will judge all people, remake the earth with fire, and plant his people in the new heavens and earth as their eternal dwelling.

Fifth, God, Yahweh, makes his covenant declaration that he will make David a house. God will build David a house, not the other way around. God will make a forever dynasty from David. His offspring will reign in his kingdom forever. Though David will die, one will come from David's descendants, whom God will give the kingdom to. This one will build a house for God's name, and God will give him the kingdom forever. People expected this to be Solomon, and it sure looked like it, with all of the peace that came during his time, but there is a slight hint that there would be a line of kings, and one forever king would reign permanently, but the line leading up to it would do evil and would be disciplined for it, but there is no need to fear, because God's steadfast love, his covenant faithful promise will remain. Though it looks like God's covenant promises are ended and David's line is ended, this dynasty won't be like Saul's, which was taken away; no, eventually, Jesus will come and will, after his resurrection, be enthroned as the forever king.

Jesus' kingdom will never end. He will be the king who brings peace and permanence to his people. The covenant with David is the same promise that God made to Abraham. Jesus is that offspring who will fulfill all the promises of Abraham. Jesus' name will be great. Jesus will be a blessing to those who bless him. The Father will curse those who curse Jesus. Jesus will bless the nations by bringing them into his kingdom. Jesus is the serpent-crusher, the flood of judgment and the ark of safety, the blessing to the nations, the true law-giver and fulfiller, and the true king.

David responds in verse 22-24, "Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God."

David saw the reality of the Covenant of Grace that God, through the forever king, would establish himself as his people's God, and they would be his people. This is the Covenant Formula, and this covenant with David shows us that this is simply another piece of the full puzzle of redemption. Jesus Christ is the one who would fulfill the covenant of works with his covenant of grace. These covenants pointed God's people to the ultimate solution to the problem that Yorke and the Hoshi were having. Yorke couldn't find what he was looking for and Hoshi couldn't relate to a personal God. Jesus Christ is the one who fulfills the covenants and makes God our God, and makes us his people. Jesus is the fulfillment of all God's promises, the answer and hope of humanity.

Application

You have probably heard me repeatedly say that you must practice the presence of Christ. Some of you may be getting frustrated with me saying this. You may want to ask me to tell you the steps to get there. How can I truly walk as if Jesus is my King and he is with me?

I understand your concern and desire and I hope this answer doesn’t seem too simple. Basically, you must submit yourself to the simple means of grace.

What are they? The overarching thing you must do is be led by the Spirit of Christ, living by him, walking by him, and keeping in step with him. You must submit all of your life to the power and presence of the living God by walking in his empowering presence. Here are 9 things to do that can help in this regard.

First, you should be asking God to show you the truth of the preeminence and beauty of Christ. You should cry out and tell God that you believe but need help with your unbelief. Second, you should be repenting, asking God to forgive any unbelief in your heart that he is not truly with you and that his presence is inadequate. Third, you should be exercising faith that when God says that he lives inside of you and is always with you, it is true. Fourth, you should be living out your faith by communing with God daily in prayer, praying as if he is a real person and wants to be with you and commune with you. Fifth, you should be reading your Bible with faith as often as you can. Sixth, you should not be forsaking the gathering together of the saints in weekly worship. Seventh, you should be joining other Christians in regular gatherings where you are worshiping God, praying together, singing together, and living out the gospel together. Eighth, you should be meeting together with other Christians in a more private setting, and trying to work out the gospel of Christ together as you are living your life. Ninth, you should be engaging yourself in God's mission to tell other about Jesus.