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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (2-1-1977 Strandtown Baptist Church)
We come to the close of a series on David. We are going to look at his last words, and then going to isolate verse 5 and apply it to ourselves at the beginning of a new year.
The last words of great and good men are always worth
remembering and noting. We are reminded that David was once a shepherd boy in
Bethlehem’s hills, the son of Jesse. But now he was exalted to be the king of
Israel and Judah, by the grace of God. He was also one who spoke under divine
inspiration and who was the sweet psalmist of Israel. The sweet voice of the son
of Jesse was soon to be hushed by death. It is worthwhile to press around the
deathbed and hear the last testimony of Israel’s greatest king.
David’s dying pillows must
have been stuffed with some very sharp thorns as he reviewed the years, but the
depth of his faith and hope is so clear in his last moments. He that ruleth
over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God (2 Samuel 23:3). Then he
gives a description of a king ruling, whose perfect fulfilment can only been the
coming Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. Before He comes it will be black as night
– a night of ignorance, sorrow and sin. But His coming will be like one of
those glorious Eastern sunrises without any cloud. Then tender grass springs out
of the ground as born from dazzling brightness and fertilizing rain. All things
rejoice in the reign of this king.
The blessings of Christ’s
reign are apparent now whenever he is welcomed, and in transforms lives and
families and communities – even at present. The full realization will come at
the Second Coming. Then there will be a glorious kingdom where the consequences
of sin will have no place. No more pain, disease, partings, death, no quarrels,
losses, crosses or disappointments. When the last trumpet shall sound, the dead
will be raised incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:52), and there will be the grand
gathering together of all God’s people. What a contrast to the present
situation where the whole of creation groans and travails in pain (Romans 8:22).
Verse 5 poses a problem of
interpretation. Various versions differ here. Is it a question or a statement?
The RSV translates asks interrogatively, Yea, does not my house stand so with
God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant. In other words, “Is
not my house in such a relationship with God that, because of His everlasting
covenant, this righteous king will spring from it?”. But the AV negatively
states, Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an
everlasting covenant. The Hebrew can be taken in both ways, as a question or
as a statement. Both are true. Was it not from David’s house that Christ came?
Yet it was also true that David’s own house and immediate family were a
disappointment, and there had not been the growth and spiritual development that
David would have wished for. But nevertheless, David’s consolation was that he
had not been let down by God who had made an everlasting covenant with him.
David’s oracle ends painting a
picture of the blessings from the king’s reign. As the king reigns in
righteousness and in the fear of the Lord, he must fight against evil. If the
kingdom brings blessing it also brings destruction to all that are opposed to
God. This side of the truth must not be suppressed. Thorns as well as tender
grass spring up in the quickening beams, and at the time of harvest the king
will order the reapers to gather the tares and destroy them, but at the same
time put the wheat into His barn (Matthew 13:30).
So we have the last words of King David. How fitting that in his last moments he should have a vision of his greater Son and the perfection of His coming reign.
As already explained, 2 Samuel
2:5 can be variously translated. We are going to look at the verse in the AV
sense, i.e. as a statement, a lament about David’s house. It was not as David
knew it ought to have been – Although my house be not so with God….
Although He make it not to grow… His family had blots and blemishes of
many kinds. They had cost him many tears. The responsibility was David’s in
part.
If ever a man had trouble in his
home, that man was David. Unjust persecution of Saul, trials from servants like
Joab, from a wife like Michal, from children like Ammon because of his treatment
of Tamar, a son like Absalom, who killed his brother and then rebelled against
his father. Outside his death room there was Adonijah who was trying to upset
his father’s will and seize the throne. Also Solomon who was better than some
of his brothers, but was still not all that he might have been. David also
suffered trials from his own subjects who forgot all he had done for him, and
rebelled and drove him out of Jerusalem.
Certainly there were trials of
all kinds, wave upon wave continually breaking on David until the very end of
his days. David was indeed a “man of sorrows”. This was the experience of
many of God’s greatest saints – Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and
Samuel were all men of sorrows, and whose sorrows chiefly arose out of their own
homes.
The sad fact is that parents cannot give grace to their
children, no matter how much they would like to. We may show those around us the
bread and water of life, but we cannot make them eat or drink. We can teach, set
an example, pray and wait, but we cannot convert. We can point the way to
eternal life, but we cannot make others walk in it. The plain fact is that at
our firesides and in our homes we get the first comforts, the sweetest joys –
and the deepest pangs. Yet there are blessings even in our most painful and
agonizing sorrows.
Home trials are one of the many means by which God
sanctifies and purifies His believing people. By them He keeps us humble, sends
us to our Bibles, teaches us to pray, shows us our deepening need of Christ,
weans us from the world. There is no special mark of God’s favour when the
Christian has no trials. They often provide spiritual medicine. An old preacher
once said, “It is necessary that troubles come because if they did not, we
would build a downy nest on earth, and then lie down and sleep. God puts thorns
in the nest in order that you may sing.”
In the midst of trouble, David
has this great consolation, Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant (2
Samuel 23:5). Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever
before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:16).
Though his family were a disappointment, and things did not promise well for the
future, yet David clings onto God’s promise that there will be establishment
of a kingdom that will last forever. The Messiah will come as the Son of David,
and will set up an eternal kingdom.
That covenant or promise was
personal and everlasting, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my
salvation, and all my desire (2 Samuel 23:5). Because the promise was made
to David, on its basis all believers in Christ are also in covenant with God. We
can use the same words which David used about the covenant made on the basis of
Christ’s death.
We need to remind ourselves of
this covenant. Perhaps we have sorrows at home or other griefs. We look out on
the New Year with all its unknowns and threats. What can we turn to? On what can
we lean? We can trust in the covenant with God. God has promised and pledged
certain things to us because we are His people. All things necessary for our
salvation, for present peace and final glory are provided for. All our souls
need from grace to glory is covered by the covenant.
It is an eternal covenant.
Salvation of souls is provided for all eternity. Our names have long been in the
Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). Our pardon, peace of conscience
through Christ’s blood, strength for duty, comfort in trial, power to fight
Christ’s battles, are all arranged for us from endless ages, and long before
we were born. We weep, pray and fight, bemoan our lot, but we ought to remember
that an almighty eye has long been on us. We have long been subjects of divine
provision though we knew it not.
The eternal covenant is ordered
in all things, and sure. The least things in our daily life are working together
for good (Romans 8:28), though we do not always see it at the time. The very
hairs of our head are numbered (Matthew 10:30). Not a sparrow falls to the
ground without our Father knows (Matthew 10:29). There is no luck or chance in
anything that happens to us. The least events are part of an everlasting scheme
or plan in which God has foreseen and arranged everything for the good of our
souls.
Let us cultivate the habit of
remembering the eternal covenant. It is full of strong consolation if properly
used. It does not destroy our responsibility; it is not mere fatalism. It is
intended to be a comfort and consolation in a world full of trials and sorrows.
There is much in our experience we do not know or understand at present. We may
be tempted to think all is in confusion. But God always acts wisely and well.
The Resurrection morning will reveal all. We must believe in the worst of times
that every step in our lives is ordered by the Lord with perfect wisdom and
perfect love, and we shall see it one day. “True faith has bright eyes and can
see even in the dark.”
An example of the consolation of
remembering the eternal covenant is seen in the life of Barnard Gilpin, a
reformer in the days of the Marian martyrdoms. He was famous because he never
murmured or complained about what happened to him. In the worst of times, he
always said, “It is all in God’s everlasting covenant, and must be for
good.” Towards the end of Queen Mary’s reign he was suddenly summoned to
leave Durham for London to be tried for heresy and probably be burnt to death.
He obeyed the summons, and said to his mourning friends, “It is in the
covenant, and must be for good.” On his journey his horse fell, and he broke
his leg. He was laid up at a roadside inn, and he was asked how he felt at his
pain and weakness. “It is all in the covenant, and must be for good.” Weeks
and weeks passed. The leg healed eventually, and he resumed his journey. Before
he arrived, Queen Mary had died, the persecution had stopped, and therefore
Gilpin was able to return to the North again. To his friends he said, “Did I
not tell you that all was working for good?”
True, this story has a happy ending, but Gilpin did not know that at the time. The significant thing was that every step of the way, though it meant suffering and threat, he met it with “It is in the covenant, and must be for good.” Let us learn to make practical use of the everlasting covenant as he did.
Are we in that covenant? What a tremendous thing, that of
all the billions on the face of the earth, past, present and future, God has
made a covenant with me. It is my personal possession. The exhortation comes to
use it and rejoice in it, and to say with David, “This is my salvation and my
desire.”
Think of the covenant. Roll the
burdens of your soul onto it more often than you do.
“I
know not the way I am going,
But
well do I know my guide.
With
a child-like trust I give my hand
To
the mighty friend by my side.
The
only thing I say to Him
As
he takes it is ‘Hold it fast.
Suffer
me not to lose my way
And
bring me home at last’”
