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.