And king David went in and sat before Jehovah, and said, Who am I, Jehovah Elohim, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?
God has just told David that he will not build a house for Him — God will build a house for David instead. Verse 16 records what David did next: he went in, sat before the LORD, and asked a question that leaves no room for pride.
David moves from planning to sitting. Commentators find meaning in the posture itself.
"Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, Who am I, O LORD God?" Here we have David's second attitude. Instead of going out to build for the Lord, he went in and sat before the Lord. There is great moral beauty and power in this. To someone who did not understand, he might have looked completely useless. But no one can ever stand as a servant who has not sat as a worshipper. We must have dealings with the Lord before we can act for the Lord. Show us someone who has truly taken the place of a worshipper, and we will show you someone who, when he rises to his feet, will prove an effective servant.
The chapter opened with David's plan and closed with David's praise. The change came from grasping which direction the giving runs.
David wished to give something to Jehovah, but Jehovah was going to give to him. David wanted to build a house for Jehovah, but Jehovah was going to build one for David (v. 10). "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), and giving is God's part... From verse 16 to 21 you see that David has understood this lesson. His thoughts are no longer on building a house, as they were at the start of the chapter. They are on God Himself (v. 20). He is humble and grateful before Jehovah.
A king asking "Who am I?" might sound like false modesty. Writers here take it as the natural effect of being close to God.
The first thing worth noting is the king's humility. He has no thought of pride. Communion with the Lord, instead of exalting a man, lowers him in his own estimation... David knows well where he came from, and he glories in it. That beginning exalts the God who took him from the sheepfold!
Another writer traces the disappearance of self to what filled David's sight instead.
And then the question, "Who am I?" In this we see the blessed fact that self was for the moment lost sight of. The brightness of divine revelation flung it into the shade. The glory of God set aside self and its poor little doings, and so did the rich magnificence of His actions on behalf of His servant.
The phrase looks back over a whole life, and forward past David's death.
God teaches David here that his own history, like that of his people, was to be a history of grace from first to last. God leads his thoughts from the sheepfold to the throne, and from the throne into the ages to come. He sees the whole course marked by the workings of sovereign grace. Grace had taken him up. Grace had set him on the throne. Grace had subdued his enemies. Grace was to carry him onward. Grace was to build up his throne and his house for all generations. It was all grace.
David's small question sits next to something enormous: a throne God has promised and has not yet set up.
Nothing will be fulfilled more surely than this. God will never give up Israel until He has established the throne in the Person of the true Son of David, the Lord Jesus. David bows to God. As it says, he comes and sits before Jehovah, saying, "Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come." Indeed He has, for as long as the earth lasts.
Believers, one writer says, have even more reason than David to ask this question.
We may say this in a deeper sense than even David. Our God has spoken to us of our house for a great while to come, even for ever. And again, in a deeper sense than he, may we not also say: What are we, that we should be brought this far?... His own love must account for it all; nothing else can. The lowest are lifted highest.
- Sit first. David stopped building and sat before the LORD; no one stands as a servant who has not first sat as a worshipper.
- Receive first. He wanted to give God a house; God was giving him one. Giving is God's part, and David's thoughts turned from his project to God Himself.
- Shrink first. "Who am I?" is what nearness to God produces: self drops out of sight when His actions fill the view.
- Grace throughout. From sheepfold to throne and on into the ages, David's whole story is one unbroken work of grace.
- Bigger than David. The promised house reaches to the true Son of David, the Lord Jesus. Believers may ask David's question in an even deeper sense.
And this hath been a small thing in thy sight, O God; and thou hast spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree, Jehovah Elohim.
God has just told David that he will not build a house for God. God will build David a house instead — a line and a throne that last forever. Verse 17 is David's answer: all God has done so far looks small beside what God has promised.
One writer weighs what God had already done for David against what God had now promised:
David had shed much blood. Also, there were enemies and evil close at hand. There were deeper lessons of grace that David still had to learn. God had done much for him. But everything He had done in the past was nothing compared with what He would do in the future. If a house of cedar was a great thing, how much greater was an everlasting house and kingdom. The Lord tells you that "He will make you a house." This reversed the matter altogether. The doings of the past were full of grace; the doings of the future would be full of glory. The hand of electing love had lifted David from the sheepfold to place him on the throne of Israel. "And this was a small thing in Your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of Your servant's house for a great while to come." The past and the future are both set out in brilliant array before King David. He has only to bow his head and worship.
The ESV ends the verse "have shown me future generations." Older translations read "have regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree." The writers quoted here use that older wording. The word behind "degree" is worth knowing:
The same word appears in Exodus 20:26 for the steps of an altar, and in 1 Kings 10:19 for the steps of a throne. In 2 Kings 9:13 it is the stairs, and in 2 Kings 20:9 the degrees of a sundial. In 1 Chronicles 17:17 it is a man of high degree… The word it comes from means to go up — to ascend.
So David speaks of a flight of steps he never climbed himself. One writer explains why that fits a shepherd made king:
"And have regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree." No wonder! He was the forerunner of Him who will rule the whole earth in a way no mortal man ever has.
David himself understood where the promise pointed:
In chapter 7 of the Second Book of Samuel we have seen the promise of a son whom God would raise up to David. This son would reign after him. God would be a father to him, and he would be His son. He would build the temple of Jehovah, and God would establish the throne of his kingdom forever. This was the promise — a promise which, as David himself understood, will be fully accomplished only in the Person of Christ (1 Chronicles 17:17).
The parallel account in 2 Samuel 7 attaches a warning about the king's possible sin. Chronicles leaves it out. One writer asks why:
His faithfulness, or that of his children, as a condition, does not appear in the book of Chronicles… Why is this left out in Chronicles 17? Because a greater than Solomon is before the mind of God. It is Messiah's kingdom that will stand forever. There is no room for such a word as "If he commit iniquity"… Its final and triumphant establishment rests on God's unassailable purpose, far beyond the reach of man's failure. David may not have grasped the full weight of the promise. But God looked on, through dark clouds of sin and long years of judgment, to a greater throne than Solomon's.
God did not raise David high for David's own sake. The promise had a wider aim:
David realised that the promise about his house, kingdom and throne had everything to do with the greatness of God and of His people Israel. God's promise to David wasn't simply to make David great. It was to carry out His purposes for Israel and the land of Israel, for His own glory and their blessing… When God speaks He doesn't tell lies or make exaggerated promises. It is good for us as Christians if we accept without question what God says in His Word. Any other attitude is unbelief.
- Small. David weighs all God has already done and calls it a small thing next to what God has promised.
- Given. David offered to build; God answered by building. The past was full of grace, the future full of glory.
- Raised. "Degree" is the word for steps, stairs, the marks on a sundial — God carried David up a stairway he never climbed.
- Reaching. The stairway runs past Solomon. David went before One who will rule the whole earth, and the promise is fulfilled only in Christ.
- Sure. Chronicles leaves out the "if he commit iniquity" of 2 Samuel. The promise rests on God's purpose, out of reach of human failure.
What can David [say] more to thee for the glory of thy servant? thou indeed knowest thy servant.
God has just promised David a house and a throne that lasts forever. David answers with no plan and no building project. He sits down, runs out of words, and rests on one fact: God already knows His servant.
David had wanted to build God a house. God's answer moved him from building to sitting.
"Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said, who am I, O Lord God?" Here we have David's second attitude. Instead of going out to build for the Lord, he went in and sat before the Lord. There is great moral beauty and power in this. To someone who did not understand, he might have looked quite useless there. But no one can ever stand as a servant who has not sat as a worshipper. We must have to do with the Lord before we can act for the Lord.
David's question is not mere modesty. Grace on this scale leaves a would-be worker with nothing to offer.
This promise came through David, and it is the only hope of the world as well. It is such a full declaration of divine grace that it shames and humbles man's self-righteousness, which is so ready to show itself even in a saint. David, who wanted to be a worker, now sits before God in rest and adoration. Even his prayer is now only, "Do, Lord, what You have said You will do!" He can suggest nothing, add nothing, to dim the glory of this abundant grace.
Silence like this is not emptiness. It is what happens when God's goodness passes in front of a person, as it did for Moses.
The Lord passed by Moses and proclaimed His goodness before His servant. What could Moses say, sheltered there, as he saw it and heard it all? He hurried, bowed his head, and worshipped. And so, beloved, it always is. So it is with us whenever He makes us aware of His goodness and His presence. So it was with David too, when he went in and sat before the Lord. Words are lacking, or die away into silence — the silence of worship.
Out of words, David leans on what God knows.
After hearing such great things from God, David is at a loss for words. He cannot find a way to answer the Lord. Yet he takes comfort in knowing that God knew His servant well. He sees too that God was not doing all these things only for David's blessing, but for His word's sake and according to His own heart. The glory of God is the highest consideration in this matter. God will fulfill His Word completely, according to the purposes of His own heart.
Twice in this verse David calls himself God's servant. That word does not stop with him.
"What can David say more to You for the glory of Your servant? You indeed know Your servant. Jehovah, for Your servant's sake … You have done all this greatness." This phrase "Your servant" carries our thoughts far beyond David, to the person of Christ.
Older translations say "for the glory of Your servant" where the ESV has "for honoring your servant." The same writer points to where Chronicles is heading:
Chronicles presents God's counsels and promises with regard to the kingship established in the house of David, counsels and promises which will be fully accomplished in Christ, "for whatever promises of God there are, in Him is the yes, and in Him the amen, for glory to God by us."
In this prayer David is at his smallest and at his most valued. The two grow together.
Had David ever such lowly thoughts of himself as when the Lord had spoken this way, and he sat before Him? Had he known before how precious he was to God? Never. Constant suspicion and anxiety need not undermine our best affections. If we understand God's thoughts and desires, we shall know deeper lowliness, and yet more simplicity and confidence in God in our souls.
- Sat — instead of going out to build, David goes in and sits. No one stands as a servant who has not sat as a worshipper.
- Speechless — the promise is so full that it silences self-righteousness. David can add nothing to it.
- Known — where words fail, David rests on God's knowledge of him. God acts for His own word's sake and His own heart.
- Servant — the title reaches beyond David to Christ. In Him God keeps every promise about the throne.
- Lowly — the moment that makes David smallest in his own eyes also shows him how precious he is to God. Lowliness and confidence grow together.
Jehovah, for thy servant's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness, to make known all these great things.
David wanted to build God a house. God said no, promised to build a house for David instead — and sitting before God, David names the two reasons for it: God's servant, and God's own heart.
David does not explain the promise by anything in himself. One writer, commenting on the same prayer in 2 Samuel, shows where God's priority lies.
He sees too that God was not doing all these things merely for David's blessing, but for His word's sake and according to His own heart. The glory of God is the highest consideration in this matter. God will fulfil His Word completely, according to the counsels of His own heart. Of course, when the name of God is supremely honoured, there will be marvellous blessing for His creatures too. But His glory is first.
Chronicles and 2 Samuel record this prayer with one difference: the reason David gives for it.
We read: "For your servant's sake … you have done all this greatness." This phrase "your servant" carries our thoughts far beyond David, to the person of Christ. 2 Samuel 7:21 is worded like this: "Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it."
"All this greatness" was never only about David's own name.
God's promise to David wasn't simply to make David great. It was to implement His purposes in relation to Israel and the land of Israel, for His own glory and their blessing. … When God speaks He doesn't tell lies or make exaggerated promises. It is good for us as Christians if we accept without question what God says in His Word. Any other attitude is unbelief.
The verse ends with a purpose: God made these things known. One writer asks why God reveals so much to us, and answers from David's words.
Why is it that God has given us so full a revelation of these things as He has by His word and Spirit, but that we might know and enjoy them now in our souls? As David says, "… you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it." God has given us intelligence of these things, so that knowing and enjoying them we may be sanctified by them.
David wanted to build. God said no — and then told him something far bigger than the project he had lost.
How sweetly and kindly God turned David away from his plan, by setting His own thoughts and purpose before him! If it is a question of building God a house, God must be the builder; otherwise what ruin results from man's building!
The same writer turns that exchange into a rule.
So if God has to take away a plan someone has long cherished, or something they were counting on, He more than makes up for it by what He reveals. Disappointments and trials suffered in faith and patience are simply God's preparations for the highest order of blessing.
Hearing all this did not puff David up. One writer links grace on this scale to true dignity.
Such grace was indeed a great thing to say and do, but not too much. What could be too much for God? It made David nothing. For that very reason David's heart just forgets himself. And there is no true dignity that is not built on self-forgetfulness. But the only thing that makes it real is the sense of the grace and the presence of the Lord.
David's own house fell into ruin. One writer shows where David's confidence went when it did.
David recognises the ruin of his house under the rule of responsibility. So he goes back to the eternal covenant, to "the sure mercies of David." Chronicles puts the stress on this truth. In 2 Samuel the same truth holds up the king's heart at the end of his life, when he has to face the ruin of his house, the fruit of his own failure.
- Cause. The greatness starts in God's own heart, not in David's merit. His glory comes first, and blessing for people follows.
- Servant. Chronicles gives the reason as "your servant" — a phrase one writer reads as pointing past David to Christ. Samuel gives it as God's promise.
- Gift. The aim is "making known." God tells His servant His plans so we can know and enjoy them now, not just wait for them.
- Exchange. David lost the house he wanted to build and gained the house God would build. What God reveals more than makes up for what He withholds.
- Result. Grace this large made David nothing and freed him to forget himself. The promise rested on an everlasting covenant, which outlasted his failing house.
Jehovah, there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
God has just told David that he will not build a house for Him. Instead, God will build a house for David — and David sits down before the Lord and answers with a confession about God Himself.
The chapter opens with David's plan to build. By verse 20 he is no longer talking about that plan.
David wanted to give something to the Lord, but the Lord was going to give to him. David wanted to build a house for the Lord, but the Lord was going to build one for David (v. 10). "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), and giving is God's part. The Lord does not need us to bless Him, but He is pleased to bless us. What He asks is that we sit at Jesus' feet and receive the abundant grace He gives us... From verse 16 to 21 you see that David has understood this lesson. His thoughts are no longer taken up, as at the start of the chapter, with building a house, but with God Himself (v. 20). He is humble and grateful before the Lord. Everything he says in these verses shows that he has learned from God. He thinks no more of himself, nor of his zeal, nor of his projects.
Before David says anything about God, he sits down. One writer weighs that posture alongside the words.
Notice the difference! "Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, Who am I?" "I" is sure to sink into obscurity when we sit before the Lord. We hardly know which to admire more, the posture or the words. "He sat," and he said, "Who am I?" Both are lovely, both in exquisite moral order... May we prove what it is to sit in the divine presence and there lose sight of self and all that belongs to it.
David is not stating a private opinion. He is voicing the truth God gave Israel to guard among nations full of other gods.
As Jehovah — the name means the self-existing One — He is the true and living God. There cannot be many gods, though there is more than one person in the Godhead. There is one self-existing Being who is also Almighty, but there could not be two... The question of idolatry had to be settled. God called Israel to hold to the truth that He is one, against the many gods of the nations around them. The Lord made known to them that He, Jehovah, was their God. He gave Israel the responsibility of guarding the truth that God is one. As a result, idolatry was a denial of this basic truth.
David links his praise to the promise he has just received. That promise reaches beyond his own family.
David's dignified reply, as he sat before the Lord, was beautiful and intelligent. There was no God like the Lord God. There was no nation so great and blessed as the nation of Israel. The land of promise belonged to them according to God's purpose and sovereignty. In that land God's Name would be blessed. David saw that the promise about his house, kingdom and throne had to do with the greatness of God and of His people Israel. God's promise to David wasn't simply to make David great... It was to carry out His purposes for Israel and the land of Israel, for His own glory and their blessing.
David's prayer moves from the Lord to the Lord's people.
Could any words show this admirable feature of David's faith so well? He valued the people all the more as the Lord's people because he had valued the Lord.
The same promise appears in 2 Samuel 7. The two accounts differ in aim.
One promise stands out. It served as a base on which believing Jews could build their expectations. You find it in 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17. Between the two there is this difference: 1 Chronicles 17 applies the promise directly to Christ, which 2 Samuel 7 does not show as clearly. The same distinction holds for the books themselves. Samuel is history. Chronicles is a brief summary. It connects the whole history through the family line, from Adam to Christ, and on to the hopes of Israel.
- Sit first. David stops building and sits down. In God's presence, self drops out of sight.
- Receive, don't repay. David wanted to give God a house; God was giving him one. Giving is God's part.
- One God only. "No God besides You" is the truth God gave Israel to guard. There cannot be many gods, so idolatry denies Him.
- God's glory, not David's. The promise of house, kingdom and throne was not to make David great. It served God's purposes for His people and His own glory.
- Ending in Christ. Chronicles traces the line from Adam to Christ. It applies the promise to Him directly, so David's praise of the God who stands alone points on to Christ.
And who is like thy people Israel, the one nation in the earth that God went to redeem to be a people to himself, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, which thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?
David has just heard that his house and throne will stand for ever. Instead of dwelling on his own future, he asks who is like Israel — the nation God Himself went to redeem.
The chapter opens with David wanting to build a house for God, and it ends with David talking about God. One writer traces that shift through the closing verses of the prayer.
David wanted to give something to the LORD, but the LORD was going to give to him. David wanted to build a house for the LORD, but the LORD was going to build one for David (v. 10)… From verse 16 to 21 you see that David has understood this lesson. His thoughts are no longer, as at the beginning of the chapter, taken up with the building of a house, but with God Himself (v. 20), and he is humble and grateful before the LORD.
The verse does not call Israel better than other nations. It says God went to redeem them, and made a name for Himself in doing it. One writer sets out what that took and what it produced.
This great God has seen fit to bless one nation in an outstanding way. No other nation was like Israel. God took great pains to redeem them from slavery in Egypt, to make them His own people (v. 23). By this unusual work He gained a name of high honour for Himself. He also did great and awesome deeds for the sake of His land, in the sight of His people whom He had redeemed out of Egypt — in fact from the nations and their gods. He separated Israel from all the nations and from their widespread idolatry.
God redeemed Israel to be His own people. That place carried two purposes.
Two things must be obvious to every serious reader of the Old Testament. First, God designed the nation of Israel to be a standing testimony against idolatry — a testimony to the unity of God, and that the LORD is the one, true God. Second, God designed Israel to be a sample of the happiness — the prosperity — of a people living under His direct government.
God has just promised David a lasting throne. David answers by talking about Israel. One writer shows why the two belong together.
David's dignified reply, as he sat before the LORD, was beautiful and intelligent. There was no God like the LORD God. There was no nation so great and blessed as the nation of Israel. The land of promise belonged to them according to God's purpose and sovereignty. In that land God's Name would be blessed. David realised that the promise about his house, kingdom and throne was tied to the greatness of God and of His people Israel. God's promise to David was not simply to make David great. It was to carry out His purposes for Israel and the land of Israel, for His own glory and their blessing.
David's praise has a striking quality. He has stopped measuring himself.
Such grace was indeed a great thing to say and do, but not too much. What could be too much for God? It made David nothing. But for this very reason David's heart just forgets himself. There is no true dignity without self-forgetfulness. But the only thing that makes it real is the sense of the grace and the presence of the Lord. David enjoyed it most deeply at this very time.
David speaks of Israel's redemption as finished. The same writer draws out what it means for Israel's future.
Now, it is one quality of what is divine that it does not wear out. What is human does. All the works of men's hands grow old, but not so with what is of God according to new creation — according to Christ. So the end will be brighter than the beginning… So it is with Israel. Their kingdom under Christ will be far more blessed than under David or Solomon.
He also warns against applying such promises only to the present age.
People blot out the future for Israel. They do not see that God maintains that people in His secret providence, although He can no longer own them publicly as His people. But He will by and by convert them, restore them, and exalt them as no people ever have been.
- Redeemed — Israel's uniqueness came from outside itself. God took great pains to bring them out of Egypt.
- Owned — The redemption had a stated goal. He made them His own people, separated from the nations and their idols.
- Renowned — By that same work God gained a name of high honour. Israel's blessing and His glory rise together.
- Witness — God kept them apart to be seen: a standing testimony that the LORD is the one true God, and a sample of life under His direct rule.
- Everlasting — What is divine does not wear out. Israel's kingdom under Christ will surpass anything under David or Solomon.
And thy people Israel hast thou made thine own people for ever; and thou, Jehovah, art become their God.
God has just told David that He will build David a house, instead of David building one for Him. David's answer is to look back at what God has already done, starting with one act: God made a nation His own forever.
The verse says God "made" Israel His people. One writer points to a single event: the rescue from slavery in Egypt.
No other nation was like Israel. God took great pains to redeem them from slavery in Egypt, to make them His own people. By this unusual work He gained a name of high honour for Himself. He also did great and awesome deeds for the sake of His land, in the sight of His people whom He had redeemed out of Egypt — in fact, from the nations and their gods. He had clearly separated Israel from all the nations and from their widespread idolatry.
The second half of the verse turns the relationship around: God became their God. Nothing in Israel produced that, and nothing in Israel can undo it.
This speaks of everlasting grace, and it is proof of how unchangeable God's purpose is. Israel did not deserve such a favour — that is clear. If they could ever have deserved it, they have certainly forfeited all claim to it. But it was not, and is not, a question of deserving. The question is one of God's sovereignty. He formed the tie by His own will. He will never break it, and He will never stop acknowledging it. What comfort all this is for us, who now know God the Father as our Father as well as our God.
Some readers soften "forever" into "for a long time," or read a condition into it. One writer refuses both, and points to what God said about His own name.
His word is clear and emphatic: "This is my name forever." He does not say, "This is my name for a time, so long as they continue what they ought to be." No — "this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations." Let my reader think about this. "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew" (Rom. 11:2). They are His people still, whether obedient or disobedient, gathered together or scattered abroad, visible to the nations or hidden from their view. They are His people, and He is their God.
Yet Israel's long history since David looks nothing like a nation owned by God. One writer draws a line here. God no longer owns Israel in public, but He has not let them go — and writing off their future does real harm.
Some people blot out the future for Israel. They do not see that God keeps that people safe in His secret providence, even though He can no longer publicly own them as His people. But by and by He will convert them, restore them, and exalt them as no people ever have been — not even Israel in the days of David and Solomon.
The same expectation is attached directly to the phrase "forever" in this prayer.
In all this work of God, He had made Israel His very own people forever. In spite of centuries of failure and disobedience on their part since that time, this purpose of God has not failed. They will be restored to greater blessing than they have ever known in the past, and will rejoice with unspeakable joy in the knowledge that the Lord is their God.
The same promise appears in 2 Samuel 7, but with a warning about sin attached. This chapter leaves the warning out, and one writer says the difference is deliberate.
If we turn to 2 Samuel 7, everything there seems to hang on man's behaviour: "If he commits iniquity," and so on. Why is this left out in 1 Chronicles 17? Because someone greater than Solomon is before the mind of God. It is Messiah's kingdom that will be established forever… Its final and triumphant establishment rests on God's purpose, which nothing can overturn. That purpose lies far beyond the reach of man's failure.
A settled promise could make asking look pointless. For David, the certainty is what drives him to pray.
In his thanksgiving David praises God for what He is… God's promise is absolute and unconditional, yet David prays that his house may be before Him forever. It is the certainty that it will happen that brings David before the Lord. Without a foundation as sure as God's promise, praying like this would have been presumption. But with such a word before him, his prayer becomes the expression of his faith.
- Redeemed — God brought Israel out of Egypt to make them His own. That rescue set them apart from the nations and their idols, and won Him a name of honour.
- Owned — God formed the bond by His own will, not by Israel's merit. Israel has forfeited every claim, and the bond still holds.
- Forever — the word hides no condition. They are His people whether obedient or disobedient, gathered or scattered.
- Interrupted — God no longer owns them in public, yet He keeps them. He will convert, restore and exalt them beyond anything seen under David or Solomon.
- Unconditional — 1 Chronicles drops the warning of 2 Samuel 7, because Messiah's kingdom rests on God's purpose. That certainty is what moves David to pray.
And now, Jehovah, let the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established for ever, and do as thou hast said.
The prophet Nathan has just told David that God will build him a house — a throne standing forever. In this verse David takes that promise and hands it straight back to God as a prayer.
Why ask God for what He has already sworn to do? David is not asking for something new. He asks for the very thing God just guaranteed. One writer explains why that is faith and not presumption.
God's promise is absolute and unconditional, yet David prays that his house may be before Him forever. It is the certainty of its accomplishment that brings David before the Lord. Without such a sure foundation as the promise of God, praying like this would have been presumption. But with such a word before him, his prayer becomes the expression of his faith.
Some would argue that if God has settled a matter, prayer adds nothing. The same writer draws the opposite conclusion from David.
Let us learn from this that the certainty of God's blessings in no way removes the need for prayer. Rather we should pray in faith, doubting nothing. We have the assurance of all things needful. That is why, when we make our requests to God, supplications and thanksgivings go hand in hand. God's word gives boldness — confidence — to draw near to the throne of grace.
One writer describes what David did with the promise before he prayed those closing words.
He does not seek Nathan's company to talk over this unspeakably wonderful promise. He sat before the Lord. All the thoughts in him, planning to work and to build the Lord a house, were forever hushed. He is in His presence as a worshipper, pouring out his grateful heart... He believes all he has heard; he trusts in every word. His prayer is "do as you have spoken."
We can copy what David does here. God speaks first, and our asking takes its shape from what He has said.
Let us take this attitude as a model for ourselves. We have received divine communications in our hearts. So let us sincerely ask God for the things He Himself has promised us. He loves to give us the things we ask of Him, and to grant them according to our thoughts and our desires. These are the fruit of communion with Him, so they are His own thoughts and desires.
David asks that the word stand "forever." No king in his line ever made that word good. One writer traces what happened.
Not one of them, good or bad, had God's words fulfilled in their reign. Hear what God said, "your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever" (2 Sam. 7:16). The last king of Judah was taken captive to Babylon... Was God's promise overthrown? It was not. If the historical account of David's seed ended in complete failure, then another seed of David must obviously come. Only so can God's promise to David be fulfilled. That Seed has surely come.
Another writer states the same certainty from the other side. It rests on a Person.
God will fulfil nothing more surely than this. He will never give up Israel until He has established the throne in the Person of the true Son of David, the Lord Jesus.
David's prayer ends with different words in Chronicles and in 2 Samuel. One writer sets the two endings side by side.
The first of these passages refers to the unconditional promises made to Abraham. The second expresses a desire that the descendants of David could not realise. David was the responsible king, and he says so himself in his last words: "Although my house is not so with God." Still, trusting in the promises of grace, he adds at once: "For He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure."
David's quoted words there follow an older translation of 2 Samuel 23:5.
- Word first. David prays for nothing God has not first told him. God's promise supplies what he asks.
- Then prayer. Because the promise is sure, asking is faith, not presumption. Certainty never removes the need to ask.
- Then rest. David let his plans to build fall silent. He sat as a worshipper and said only, do as you have spoken.
- Then Christ. No king in the historical line made "forever" true, so the promise waits on another Son of David.
- Then forever. Chronicles rests it all on unconditional grace. David's failing house never cancels the everlasting covenant.
Let it even be established, and let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, is God to Israel; and let the house of David thy servant be established before thee.
God had just promised David a house, a kingdom and a throne. In verse 24 David replies by asking God to keep His own word, for the honour of God's name.
David asks for nothing new. One writer sees this as the mark of real closeness with God:
In this prayer that ends the chapter we find the character of a true prayer of communion: Do as You have desired to do and as You have said.
Such prayer has no trace of self-importance:
The first thing worth noting is the king's humility. He has no thought of pride. Communion with the Lord, instead of exalting man, lowers him in his own estimation. David is well aware of where he came from. He glories in it, because it exalts the God who took him from the sheepfold!
Israel looked small next to the great nations around it. One commentator shows why its size sets no limit on its God:
What God has revealed is what rightly magnifies the glory of His name. And as "Jehovah of hosts" He is the God over Israel. Though Israel may seem small compared to the great population of other nations, their God is "the LORD of hosts." Then, along with the honour due to God's name, he asks again that the Lord would establish the house of His servant.
David asks God to be Israel's God in practice, and not in name only:
He acknowledges Israel's glorious privilege in being the people of such a God — the only true God. And he prays that the God of Israel will in fact be a God to Israel, and that He will fulfil everything He had spoken to him about his descendants.
The promise reached further than David himself:
David realised that the promise about his house, kingdom and throne was tied to the greatness of God and of His people Israel. God's promise to David wasn't simply to make David great. It was to implement His purposes in relation to Israel and the land of Israel, for His own glory and their blessing.
The later history of David's line raises a hard question:
Not one of them, good or bad, had God's words fulfilled in their reign. The last king of Judah was taken captive to Babylon. He was blinded, bound in brass chains and carried away in disgrace to that city. Was God's promise overthrown? It was not. If the history of David's line ended in complete failure, then clearly another seed of David must come, so that God's promise to David can be fulfilled. That Seed has certainly come.
One writer notes what this chapter leaves out, and what it points to instead:
Notice here that all question of the responsibility of David's seed is left out. The whole passage refers to the fulfilment of God's purposes in Christ, the true Son of David according to the promise. God takes the matter in hand. In the end He will Himself raise up the One who will build a house. Under His reign the people, established in power for ever, will enjoy the rest that God Himself will have obtained for them.
David asks that God's name be magnified forever. One writer explains what makes a lasting kingdom possible, and why its future beats its past:
Now, it is one quality of what is divine, that it does not wear out. What is human does. All the works of men's hands grow old, but not so with what is of God according to new creation — according to Christ. So the end will be brighter than the beginning. Man's idea is only a wistful look back at a lost paradise, and that is poor by comparison. What God shows us is a paradise of God. It will be the end of the paradise of man, not merely its restoration. So with Israel. Under Christ they will have the kingdom in far greater blessing than under David or Solomon.
- Word — David asks only for what God had already said. Commentators call that the prayer of closeness with God.
- Name — God's own promise magnifies His name. And "LORD of hosts" means a small nation is no limit to Him.
- Nation — David asks that the God of Israel be a God to Israel. The promise served Israel's blessing and God's glory, not David's greatness.
- Throne — No king in the recorded line saw these words fulfilled in his reign. So another Seed of David had to come — and He has.
- Forever — What is human wears out. What is of God does not. So the kingdom will be greater under Christ than it ever was under David or Solomon.
For thou, my God, hast revealed to thy servant that thou wilt build him a house; therefore hath thy servant found [in his heart] to pray before thee.
David has just heard from the prophet Nathan that God will build him a house, instead of David building one for God. Verse 25 explains why he now dares to pray: the promise came first, and the prayer answers it.
David is not inventing a request. He asks for the very thing God has just announced.
But it is the Lord's special promise to build him a house that brings him before the Lord. God's promise is absolute and unconditional, yet David prays that his house may be before Him for ever. It is the certainty of its fulfilment that brings David before the Lord. Without such a sure foundation as the promise of God, praying like this would have been presumption. But with such a word before him, his prayer becomes the expression of his faith.
The "house" David asks about is not a building he offers God; it is a family and a throne God gives him. The exchange is deliberately one-sided.
David had the thought to build a house for the Lord. God will be a debtor to no man and will build a house for David. In Solomon's days both houses were built as a picture: the king's house and the temple. But once man's obedience and faithfulness counted as a factor in keeping them going, all was lost. The temple fell, and David's house went into captivity.
So why does Chronicles leave out the warnings that 2 Samuel keeps?
In 2 Samuel 7 everything seems to hang on man's behaviour: "When he commits iniquity," and so on. Why does Chronicles 17 leave that out? Because a greater than Solomon is before the mind of God. It is Messiah's kingdom, and God will establish it for ever. Its final and triumphant establishment rests on God's unassailable purpose, far beyond the reach of man's failure.
Most prayer starts from a lack. David's starts from what God had just revealed to him.
The highest prayer does not spring from a sense of need. It springs from the desires and the understanding that God's revealed purposes produce — purposes He will fulfil in love to His people and for the glory of Christ. Finally he asks that his house may be the place of God's own blessing. In short, he desires that Jehovah Himself will accomplish the purposes of God that had awakened all his affections.
David's words were not produced by his own ambition. They were produced by what God had just said to him, and they are offered as a pattern for the believer.
In the touching message he received from the Lord through Nathan the prophet, God unfolded the future of his house and throne, and of God's kingdom on earth. This produced in David's heart God's own thoughts and desires. He "came and sat before the Lord," and after thanksgiving and praise he poured out those new desires in prayer and supplication. It is a striking illustration of the prayer of communion our Lord speaks of: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7).
The verse twice calls David God's servant, yet here he only sits and speaks to God.
Instead of going out to build for the Lord, he went in and sat before the Lord. There is great moral beauty and power in this. To an undiscerning eye he might have looked quite useless sitting there. But no one can ever stand as a servant who has not sat as a worshipper. We must have to do with the Lord before we can act for the Lord.
If God has already sworn to do it, why pray? The answer drawn from this verse is that assurance is the fuel of prayer, not its replacement.
Let us learn from this that the certainty of God's blessings in no way removes the need for prayer. Instead, we should pray in faith, doubting nothing. We have the assurance of everything we need. So when we ask God for things, supplications and thanksgivings go hand in hand. God's word gives boldness — confidence — to draw near to the throne of grace.
- Told, then bold. David prays because God spoke first. Without that word, asking for an everlasting house would have been presumption.
- God builds. David offered God a house; God gave him one instead — He will stay in no one's debt.
- Purpose, not performance. Chronicles drops the warnings that 2 Samuel keeps. The throne rests on God's purpose, out of reach of human failure.
- Sit, then stand. No one serves well who has not first sat before the Lord; David's prayer came out of communion, not ambition.
- Sure, so ask. Certainty never cancels prayer. It gives the confidence, so asking and thanks go together.
And now, Jehovah, thou art that God, and hast promised this goodness unto thy servant;
In this chapter God promises to bless David's house and to establish a kingdom that lasts for ever. David prays that promise back to God, and verse 26 raises a question: why pray for what God has already promised?
David does not start with his own need. He starts with who God is. Older translations read "You are that God" where the ESV has "you are God." One writer draws out the force of that title:
In 2 Samuel 7 David the king "sat before the LORD." As he drew near to God in this way, he at once confesses a sense of his own smallness. And as he stays in God's presence, the greatness and majesty of God fills his soul. In his prayer and thanksgiving he speaks of God in seven distinct ways. He ends on a note of praise which gladdened the heart of the blessed God: "And now, O Lord God, You are that God." That is a name God uses of Himself — "I AM HE," the SAME, the self-existent One.
One writer starts with God's purpose in making David king. He then asks why 1 Chronicles leaves out a condition that stands in 2 Samuel 7:
To carry out His purpose God took David from the sheepfold to be king of Israel, and He gave the shepherd boy a name like the name of the great men of the earth. But David's faithfulness, or that of his children, as a condition, does not appear in the book of Chronicles. If we turn to 2 Samuel 7 all there seems to hang upon man's behaviour. "If he commits iniquity," and so on. Why is this left out in 1 Chronicles 17? Because a greater than Solomon is before the mind of God. It is Messiah's kingdom that God will establish for ever. There is no room for such a word as "If he commits iniquity." … Its final and triumphant establishment rests on God's unshakable purpose, far beyond the reach of man's failure.
God has already bound Himself by His word. That could make asking pointless. In fact it works the other way round:
God's promise is absolute and unconditional, yet David prays that his house may be before Him for ever. It is the certainty of its accomplishment that brings David before the Lord. Without such a sure foundation as the promise of God, it would have been presumption to pray like this. But with such a word before him, his prayer becomes the expression of his faith.
The same writer turns this into a rule for our own asking:
Let us learn from this that the certainty of God's blessings in no way removes the need for prayer. Rather, we should pray in faith, doubting nothing. We have the assurance of all things needful. That is why, when we bring our needs to God, asking and thanksgiving go hand in hand. God's word gives boldness — confidence — to draw near to the throne of grace.
The prayer keeps calling David God's servant. One commentator sees that word reaching further than David himself:
For the same reason we read (vv. 18-19): "What more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant. For your servant's sake, O LORD, … you have done all this greatness." This phrase "your servant" carries our thoughts far beyond David, to the person of Christ.
The prayer's closing words differ in the two records. The same writer compares the ending in 1 Chronicles 17 with the ending in 2 Samuel 7, then turns to David's last words. The ESV puts those words as a question; the older wording quoted here keeps them as a statement:
The first of these passages refers to the unconditional promises God made to Abraham (Gen. 12:2). The second expresses a desire that David's descendants could not fulfil. David was the king who stood under responsibility, and he says so himself in his last words: "Although my house be not so before God." Still, trusting in the promises of grace, he at once adds: "Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in every way and sure; for this is all my salvation, and every desire, although He make it not to grow" (2 Sam. 23:5). He sees the ruin of his house under the rule of responsibility, so he goes back to the eternal covenant, to "the sure mercies of David."
- God first. David starts with who God is: the self-existent One who says "I AM HE."
- Promise, not performance. Chronicles leaves out the "if he commits iniquity" of 2 Samuel. The kingdom in view rests on God's purpose, far beyond the reach of man's failure.
- Certainty fuels prayer. The promise does not make asking pointless. It turns asking into faith instead of presumption, and ties thanks to every prayer.
- Wider than David. The repeated "your servant" carries the thought past David to Christ, whose kingdom stands for ever.
- Sure when all else fails. His own house fell into ruin. Still he rested on an everlasting covenant, ordered in every way and sure — the "sure mercies of David."
and now, let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee for ever; for thou, Jehovah, hast blessed [it], and it shall be blessed for ever.
David's prayer ends where it began: with the promise God had just made to him through the prophet Nathan. His closing words hold two things together that sound like opposites. He asks God for blessing, and in the same breath he says the blessing is already given and cannot be lost.
David asks God to do what God has already promised to do. One writer explains why that is faith rather than empty repetition.
It is the Lord's special promise to build him a house that brings him before the Lord. God's promise is absolute and unconditional, yet David prays that his house may be before Him for ever. It is the certainty of its accomplishment that brings David before the Lord. Without such a sure foundation as the promise of God, it would have been presumption to pray like this. But with such a word before him, his prayer becomes the expression of his faith.
The same prayer in 2 Samuel 7 ends with different words. One writer traces the two endings back to two different promises.
Verse 27 says: "for You, Jehovah, have blessed it, and it shall be blessed for ever"; whereas 2 Samuel 7:29 says: "For You, Lord Jehovah, have spoken it; and with Your blessing shall the house of Your servant be blessed for ever." The first of these passages refers to the unconditional promises made to Abraham (Gen. 12:2). The second expresses a desire that David's descendants could not fulfil. David was the responsible king, and in his last words he says so himself: "Although my house is not so before God."
In 2 Samuel 7 God warns that David's son may fall into sin. That warning never appears in this chapter. One writer explains what God is looking at here instead.
David's faithfulness, or that of his children, never appears as a condition in the book of Chronicles. If we turn to 2 Samuel 7 all there seems to hang upon man's behaviour. "If he commits iniquity," and so on. Why is this left out in Chronicles 17? Because a greater than Solomon is before the mind of God. Messiah's kingdom will stand for ever. There is no room for a word like "if he commits iniquity." … For its final and triumphant establishment it rests on God's unassailable purpose, far beyond the reach of man's failure. Maybe David did not grasp the full meaning of the promise. But God looked on past the dark clouds of sin and the long years of judgment, to a throne greater than Solomon's.
David's family did not stay faithful. Yet he held the same certainty when he died. His last recorded words say so, even after everything had gone wrong.
This very sweet song of praise ends with the words, "… for You bless, O Lord, and it shall be blessed for ever." David's heart rested firmly on the promise of God to bless, and despite all he went through, and the failure of his house, this same confidence in God stayed with him to the end. In David's last words we hear the king saying, "Although my house is not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire" (2 Sam. 23:5).
God spoke to David first, and David answered in prayer. One writer holds up that order — hearing first, asking second — as a model for us.
Let us take this attitude as a model for ourselves. Once God has spoken into our hearts, let us sincerely ask Him for the things He Himself has promised us. He loves to give us the things we ask of Him. He grants them according to our thoughts and our desires. These are the fruit of communion with Him, so they are His own thoughts and desires.
- God speaks. David asks for the very thing God had just announced through Nathan. That is why his prayer is faith and not presumption.
- God blesses. The house earned nothing. The blessing traces back to the One who gives it, and Chronicles states it as a settled fact.
- God omits. There is no "if" here. The warning about sin in 2 Samuel is missing, because this account looks at God's purpose, not man's behaviour.
- God reaches. A greater than Solomon stands behind the promise. The throne rests on God's purpose, far beyond the reach of any human failure.
- God holds. David's house failed, yet he died still resting on the same word. A blessing that depends on God alone outlives the people who receive it.