2 Samuel 23:1–6

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 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 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."

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."

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

Here we have solemn divine authority at the same time as clearest affirmation 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 with the complete integrity of His Word. But if God speaks by David, He also speaks to David: "The Rock of Israel spoke to me."

This is now not merely the Spirit of God speaking through the experiences and the faith of an instrument God Himself has formed. It is a direct revelation: "the Rock of Israel spoke to me." On that divine revelation David rests in faith, whatever within him or around him seems set against it.

This is God's standard. Nothing less will do. Where among human rulers shall we find one who comes up to it? We may go down the entire list of those who have sat on the thrones of this world, and not find so much as one who matches the great qualities set out in this verse.

He pleads his fear of the people, which, if true, showed he was unfit to rule at all. For "he that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God"; and the fear of man cannot live together with the fear of God. It sets a trap. Scripture is full of examples of this. It spoils the life of even many a child of God — a shrinking from the path of full surrender to Him, in the fear of what flesh can do or say.

"The ruler over men shall be just, ruling in the fear of God." In comparison with other rulers, this was in measure true of David. But there were many things in which he fell short of this, as we have seen in this book, and as he confesses in verse 5. In Christ, in His lowly humiliation, we find perfect righteousness and perfect truth. He proved His character in His experiences of sorrow and rejection. This same truth and justice will shine out in beauty and splendour when He takes His throne over all creation. As Man He will rule in the fear of God, in perfect consistency with the character of the God of Israel and of the universe.

The one who is to rule for God's glory and man's good needs righteousness, obedience, and dependence. These are found only in that blessed One, who came not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.

Here, David sets up the divine standard of character for one called to rule over men. "He must be just"; and on that base of justice rises a structure of cloudless light, richest blessing and abundant fruitfulness. All this will only happen when the Son of David, now hidden in heaven, takes the throne of his Father and stretches out His sceptre over a restored creation.

He admits that his house was not with God as it ought to have been — and this was the fruit of his own sin. He himself had brought a sword into it, and that sword stayed drawn until he handed the house over to another. He was convicted, and he took note of the judgments that had come on him. Yet he goes on trusting.

There is rare beauty and power in the link between the "although" and the "yet" here. The first leaves a wide margin for the words of a convicted and humbled heart. The second opens the floodgates and lets in the full tide of divine mercy and loving kindness. "Although" puts man in the dust as a failing one; "yet" brings in God in all the fullness of His pardoning love.

God's covenant is eternal and secure. It is a new covenant. The old covenant was indeed ordered, but it was neither secure nor eternal, because it rested on man's responsibility. God sought the ground of the new covenant in Himself. Man does not enter this covenant as a party to a contract. This is why it can endure and never end.

He had learnt to look away from himself and his house straight to God, and to His everlasting covenant of grace. His sense of his own nothingness, as a man and as a king, was deep and real. So was his sense of what grace had done for him. The view of what God was had humbled him; the view of what God was had lifted him up.

This covenant did not rest on the faithfulness of David, but on God's purpose regarding Christ. God will fulfil everything He promised in Christ. All is sure, because everything spoken of here finds its answer in Christ risen from the dead. David found his salvation — all his salvation — in what God had promised about Christ. God's king, the Lord Jesus Christ, satisfies all his heart's desires too. David did not then see everything God promised, except in vision. God did not then make it grow. Solomon would not bring it about, though David was about to place him on the throne, and though Solomon's reign would picture Christ in the splendour and glory of the coming kingdom. These things could not come until the Lord Jesus had finished the great work of the cross, taken His place at the right hand of God, and returned from heaven to set up His kingdom.

He counted on the everlasting covenant that God had made with him, ordered in all things and sure. And he looked forward to that morning without clouds. The "sure mercies of David" will reach Israel through the risen Christ. Isaiah 55:3; compare Acts 13:34.

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 he had a softened spirit, the broken and contrite heart of a man who knew what moral humiliation means about himself and all his house. 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. Conscience must work without hindrance, and so must faith.

The Hebrew word means "worthless, lawless." It is not a proper name. It stands for evil itself, so we read of a "son of Belial" and a "daughter of Belial" in Deuteronomy 13:13; Judges 19:22; 1 Samuel 1:16; 1 Samuel 25:17, 25, and elsewhere. In the New Testament it stands in contrast to Christ, as if it meant Satan, in 2 Corinthians 6:15.

These thorns and briers picture those whom David calls "sons of Belial," thrust away because no hand can take hold of them. Remember that thorns were the sign of the curse at the beginning. They are, in fact, as botanists tell us, failed leaves — parts of a plant that cannot do what they were first meant to do. So this symbol ties sinners to the curse upon sin. And we may fairly see the thorn bush itself as a picture of sinful flesh.

The sons of Belial are the children of the wicked one. They are all of them thorns thrust away, because no hand can take hold of them. That is, the teaching and pleading of man cannot draw them to what is right. Whoever touches them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, and fire will burn them up completely in the same place — the very place where they are, like the burning of the weeds.

The Lord Jesus could not take up this great work of judgment when He came in grace. As He said, "I did not come to judge the world but to save the world" (John 12:47). But He will deal with all the evil when He returns. Judgment is God's strange work, yet it is necessary. God will not let evil men go on for ever filling the earth with corruption and violence. The hands of grace, held out to sinners when the Lord was here and through the many centuries since, cannot take hold of such men. They must be seized with an iron hand of government, and with the spear of divine judgment.

He sees clearly the judgment of the wicked... This will never be until Jesus executes the judgment.

So the men of Belial are as thorns. Whoever would touch them must carry iron and the shaft of a spear, and fire will burn them up completely in that place. This does refer to a judgment on earth. It is a figure drawn from thorns, and it does not unfold the final results of God's judgment concerning them.

In this David saw all his salvation and his every desire. He asks, "Will He not indeed make it grow?" (NASB). For what is of God will grow, while men's works will come to nothing, as verses 6 and 7 show. The sons of Belial ("worthlessness") are like unwelcome thorns, thrown away because human hands cannot handle them.