Now these are the last words of David David the son of Jesse saith, And the man who was raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel saith,
This verse opens the last words of David. Before he speaks, God names him four ways — son of Jesse, exalted man, anointed one, singer — and each name says something about the man God chose to speak through.
Chapter 22 and chapter 23 sit side by side on purpose, and the contrast between them is sharp. One writer traces it to what David had come out of in each case.
At the end of his trials, when he looked back at his enemies, he sings of joy and triumph — it is all exultation. After his experience of the blessing, it is, "Although my house be not so with God." The end of all the sorrow and trial with Saul is rejoicing, exultation, and strength… while in the second, the result of the place of honour, blessing and triumph, is deep and bitter sorrow — the confession, "My house is not so with God!"
The verse repeats one word before David gets a word in — "oracle" in the ESV, "says" in older translations. One writer draws out what that repeated word tells us about the speaker.
The first verse is not part of David's last words. It sets before us, with great solemnity, what marked the man who spoke these words. This is a matter of the greatest importance. The first point is that God inspired him to speak them. The twice repeated word "says" shows that David spoke in oracles. So God inspired him in all four ways this verse presents him. God inspired him as "the son of Jesse," in the humble character of his human descent. God inspired him as "the man who was raised up on high," in the character He gave him when He raised him up as a man. God inspired him as "the anointed of the God of Jacob," in his character as king of Israel, the people who had received the promises. And last of all, God inspired him as "the sweet psalmist of Israel," in his character as prophet bringing grace to his people.
David names his low birth first, then his high place. He gives God the credit for the move from one to the other.
David was just about to pass away from this world. His last words present the vision that was before him — what God enabled him to see of the coming kingdom of Christ. First David speaks of what he was by nature: "the son of Jesse," of very humble origin. Then he praises the grace of God that made him "the man who was raised up on high." The Lord Jesus came from the same line, as becoming Man. Yet "He emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant"; and because of this "God has highly exalted Him."
Samuel had anointed David with oil. But the title reaches past David to Someone he saw only in vision.
This once despised but now exalted One is likewise "the Anointed of the God of Jacob." He is the centre and the sum of all God's purposes for Israel and for the Gentiles — and of the heavenly counsels also. David was speaking of the things "touching the king"… Samuel had anointed him with the "horn of oil." But the Anointed of the God of Jacob passed in vision before David's soul. He too, with Abraham, looked on to the day of glory, and saw Him who was at once David's "Son" and David's "Lord."
One writer weighs this last title against the crown, and finds the crown the lesser thing.
All the sweetness and melody and divine character of this voice come out when David becomes simply a Voice, like John the Baptist, to speak of Another… He is the anointed of the God of Jacob, the One whose glory it is to bring out of the poorest material a vessel for His praise. As anointed in this way, he is Israel's "sweet psalmist" rather than her king. And our hearts certainly judge of him so: what is the king compared with the psalmist? And no wonder. Here David is only the channel through which God's own living water has flowed to the lips of the thirsty ever since.
Another writer says what the title meant in practice, and who it points to.
As the "sweet psalmist of Israel," David was the leader of the praises of Israel to Jehovah (1 Chronicles 25:6), just as the Lord Jesus leads the praises to the Father now, in the midst of the church (Hebrews 2:12).
David's place as type of the Messiah did not soften his view of himself. It sharpened it, and bright hope and deep self-judgment ran side by side to the end.
God put into his mouth the words that looked ahead to the Messiah. David himself knew that God had made him, in a striking way, the ancestor and type of the Messiah. This very fact made his own shortcomings, errors, and sins more keenly felt… So we find a double current in the heart of David. His faith was bright and undimmed in the joy that was coming with the true king who would surely sit on his throne. But meanwhile his was the softened spirit, the broken and contrite heart of a man who knew what moral humbling means… Is it not important to see this? The sense of our failure, and of what we are, is never meant to dim the brightness of our confidence in the Lord.
- Oracle. The repeated word — "oracle" in the ESV, "says" in older translations — marks this verse as a formal declaration. God names David as inspired before his last words begin.
- Son. He starts with his humble descent from Jesse, so that everything after it reads as gift, not achievement.
- Raised. The lift from low place to high is God's doing. It points on to One who humbled Himself, and whom God highly exalted.
- Anointed. Samuel's oil made David king; the title looks past him to David's Son who is also David's Lord.
- Psalmist. The crown fades beside the song. As psalmist, David becomes a voice for Another, and God's living water still reaches thirsty lips.
The Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me, And his word was on my tongue.
David's last recorded words do not begin with his reign. They begin with his mouth. What he is about to say is not his own. Two questions follow: what happened to David while God spoke through him, and why he put this on record at the end of his life.
The verse stands at the head of David's parting words.
There is something deeply moving and comforting in the last words of "the sweet Psalmist of Israel." It is good and helpful to listen to the "last words" of any saint of God or servant of Christ... So "last words" carry weight and value. That is true above all when they come to us not just as the fruit of a matured judgment, but, as in David's case, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
David does not say the Spirit gave him ideas that he then put into his own words. He says the word itself was on his tongue.
Here we have solemn divine authority, and at the same time the clearest statement of what inspiration is. Inspiration uses man — all of man. To express itself, it uses every feature of this human instrument. If he says something, it is as an oracle; if he speaks, it is the Lord speaking by him. Man has mixed in nothing that is of himself: "His word was on my tongue." God uses what He wants of man to present His thoughts in the complete integrity of His Word.
This does not erase David. He is still the one who sings, in his own voice.
So he was used — he was the singer, but the Holy Spirit was the composer of the music. David's songs were "the songs of the Lord," and by them he prophesied according to the mind of the Spirit. His tongue was "the pen of a ready writer." The Lord, as the apostle says, was speaking in David (Hebrews 4:7).
David gives himself a small place in his own last words.
David becomes simply a Voice, like John the Baptist, speaking of Another. That is when all the sweetness, melody and divine character of this voice is found... Here David is only the channel through which God's own living water has flowed to the lips of the thirsty ever since.
Some treat inspiration as a general influence on a writer's thoughts. David's own words go further.
David was a saint of God. Was he under a delusion about this? He clearly would not have dismissed the thought of verbal inspiration as something no sensible person could accept. He believed in it. He was conscious of it. This was his recorded testimony at the close of a long life, near the end of his prophetic ministry.
The verse also keeps two things apart: what God made known to David, and how God brought it through his tongue.
What David said did not come from his own heart or mind. He was the vessel of the Spirit of the LORD. This is inspiration, and we read of it in 1 Corinthians 2:13... David was the speaker, but God's word was on his tongue. What he spoke under the guidance and control of the Spirit of God was what God had made known to him. This is revelation... The youngest child of God can rest with assurance on the truth of the Scriptures. They not only give us God's revelation; they have come to us inspired by the Holy Spirit, in words that He has chosen.
What follows in the passage shows what the Spirit was speaking about.
Again we have David's own acknowledgement that he was only the instrument of the Spirit... Here again the immediate context shows that He was speaking about Christ. All God's counsels centre in Him. I do not mean to limit the inspiration to these direct predictions; far from it. Every word, whether for the individual or the nation, is always perfect. But Christ is the centre of God's thoughts, and it is the great work of the Spirit to point to Him.
One objection says the Bible writers never claimed inspiration for their own writings. This verse answers it.
"It is very remarkable that nowhere do we find the inspired writers — Jewish or Christian — declaring their own writings inspired." This is a mistake. See 2 Samuel 23:2 and 1 Corinthians 14:37. And there is "Thus says the LORD" a thousand times over — "The LORD spoke to Moses," and so on.
- Source. David traces his words past himself. The Spirit spoke by him, so what he says carries divine authority, not a king's opinion.
- Instrument. Inspiration used the whole man — his history, his voice, his gift — yet he mixed nothing of his own into the message.
- Words. The claim reaches the tongue, not just the thought. The Spirit gave the very words, and David said so at the end of his life.
- Subject. As a channel, David became a voice for Another. The Spirit's great work is to point to Christ.
- Certainty. Because the words came this way, they still refresh the thirsty. The youngest believer can rest on Scripture.