It strikes me that how David treats Mephibosheth in chapter 9 is a reflection of how God acted toward David in chapter 7.  Just as God remembered his promises to Abraham and Moses and worked them out through David in the process making even more generous and good promises to David, so David remembered his promise to Jonathan and worked them out through his goodness and generosity to Mephibosheth.

David experienced God’s grace and his response was to pass it on to Mephibosheth.  David recognized that he was blessed in order to be a blessing.

See any application for today?

Kip

After yesterday’s lengthy entry, I’ll make today’s short.  I need some help from you. 

David is bowled over by God’s magnanimous, far-reaching promise to him.  God had promised that David’s throne will endure forever.  Blown away by God’s grace and goodness to him, David asks God a question: “Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign LORD ?” (verse 19). 

The text does not provide a direct answer.  It’s one of those rhetorical questions where you feel like the answer should be obvious, but once you start thinking about it you begin to wonder. 

What do you think the answer to David’s question is?  Is this God’s usual way of dealing with man?  Is this “business as usual”?  I want to know what you think.

Kip

Throughout history God has taken the initiative to relate to his creation and his people, making bold, generous promises and expecting, as an appropriate response, faith and obedience.  The word that describes this is “covenant.” Here, God makes an astounding covenant with David.

David decides to build a “house” (i.e. a temple) for God.  Instead, God tells David that He will establish a “house” (i.e. a royal dynasty) for David.

After reminding David that it is the Lord who has made him king and delivered him from his enemies, God makes some promises to David that should ring somewhat familiar in our ears.

First, God promises to make David’s name great.  We’ve heard this before because God had already promised Abram the very same thing (see Genesis 12:2).

Then God promises His people a “home” of peace and rest.  Starting with Abram, God had promised a land to his people, and as part of His covenant with Israel at Sinai, God had promised peace and rest in the land, if the people obeyed Him (see Leviticus 26:6).

Finally, God promises David a “house” or “kingdom” that will endure forever.  This promise focuses on a particular descendant.  Here is where things get a little tricky.  This promise is partially fulfilled a little later in the person of David’s son Solomon, who does, indeed, build an impressive house for God.  However, Solomon’s rule, as glorious as it was, ended.  Because of Solomon’s disobedience, the kingdom was first rent in two and then eventually completely toppled by Assyria and Babylon.

So what happened to the promise?

Solomon was only an initial and partial fulfillment of the promise.  The promise is completely fulfilled much later in the person of Jesus Christ who was announced by the archangel Gabriel as follows: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32,33).  I would say that pretty much meets the criteria of the covenant.

Knowing what we now do about Jesus, we can see that God’s promise of an “offspring” to David (2 Samuel 7:12) was completely in line with His promise to Eve that her “offspring” would crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15), as well as His promise to Abraham that through his “offspring” all nations of the world would be blessed (Genesis 22:18).

And so to this day we pray “Thy kingdom come…” and await with eager anticipation the second coming of King Jesus and His eternal rule first over the House of Jacob in the Millenium and ultimately over the entire House of God, which includes His Bride, the Church, in the New Heavens and New Earth.

Interesting how much that promise to David can mean to us, huh?

Kip

“My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’  Your face, LORD, I will seek” (Psalm 27:8).   This verse clearly reflects the title of our current sermon series in David: “After God’s Heart.” 

David’s greatest desire and longing was to “dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). 

Why?  Why did David seek the LORD with his whole heart?  In Psalm 138:2, David says that the Lord’s “love,” “faithfulness,” “word,” and “name” are exalted “above all things.”  Clearly, the reason David seeks God before all other things is because God himself is greater and more excellent than all other things. 

In Psalm 139, as David eloquently ponders the Lord’s loving and infinite omniscience and omnipresence, he says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” (6).  Nonetheless, he continues, “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God” (17). 

Although our minds can only scratch the surface of the endless mystery and glory of God’s greatness and goodness, David makes seeking God his highest end. 

We are sorely tempted to seek after the fleeting, empty pleasures of this physical, temporal world.  And so we discover what John Cougar Melancamp so honestly sang, “Oh, yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.” 

This doesn’t have to be our theme song, if God is our heart’s pursuit.  We can sing like David: “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever” (138:8).   

Kip

This chapter is chalk-full of dumbfounding statements.  I have more questions than answers about what happens here.  Maybe you can help me out.

God strikes down Uzzah for an “irreverant act” which the text clearly describes as a spontaneous reflex intended to steady the Ark of the Covenant and keep it from falling off the cart.  Why did the Lord’s anger burn so hotly against Uzzah? 

Clearly, David wondered the same thing, because we read that “David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah.”  From the way it is written, it sounds like David is angry with God’s anger.  This itself is a startling thought.  

Maybe David thought God was overreacting. 

Maybe David was put out with God because His deadly response put a major wet blanket on the celebration. 

Maybe David, who was more sensitive than most to his own sin, was afraid that he was next in line for a thunderbolt.  David may have figured he wasn’t any better than Uzzah.  I can imagine him thinking, “ If what Uzzah did is all it takes to get incinerated by God, what chances do I have?” 

David decides the Ark is too hot to handle and returns to Jerusalem sans Ark, leaving it in the household of one Obed-Edom.

Wouldn’t you know, the God who just fried Uzzah now blesses the socks off Obed-Edom.  Go figure!  What is going on here?

David decides the blessings are worth the risk, so he goes and brings the Ark to Jerusalem, celebrating with all his might all along the way.

So, what are we to make of this?  What do YOU think this story is trying to tell us about God?  

Kip

It really isn’t that hard to figure out why David was considered a man after God’s own heart. 

Take this psalm, for example.  David is crowned king and wins great victories over his enemies.  Now, the normal human response to such success is to glory in one’s own greatness and accomplishments.  Not David.  Notice the emphasis in this psalm:

“O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength.
       How great is his joy in the victories you give!

 You have granted him the desire of his heart
       and have not withheld the request of his lips.

You welcomed him with rich blessings
       and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.

He asked you for life, and you gave it to him—
       length of days, for ever and ever.

Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;
       you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty.

Surely you have granted him eternal blessings
       and made him glad with the joy of your presence.”

With appropriate humility, David gives all the credit to God as the source of all that is good in his life.  As we have seen, David had made it a habit of not grasping for himself what God would give in His time and in His way.  Because of that, David was confident that all had come from God.

Not only does David say that God is the source of everything good, David also says that God himself is the ultimate good.  God gives great gifts, but the best gift of all is his very presence.  That is the eternal blessing that surpasses all others. 

David went beyond praising God as the source of all good to pursuing God as the  first, final, and definitive good.

That David valued God even more than God’s good gifts was one reason David was a man after God’s own heart.  He truly was “after God’s heart” more than anything else. 

I have to ask myself if I’m more interested in the blessings or the Blesser.  Sometimes I get that out of order. 

Kip

This Psalm is so RICH in precious, convicting, and comforting truths about God.  I’m tempted to write a blog entry a mile long.  But I won’t.  Instead, I would like to ask you to share what line in this psalm was particularly meaningful to you. 

The line that made me stop and think was this:  “…you stoop down to make me great ” (35).  What a great picture to give us perspective!  First of all, anything truly good that we might accomplish is completely dependent on God.  It is a gift from Him.  David knows that it is God who has chosen to take him from nothing and give him the throne of Israel.  Secondly, God’s greatness so far exceeds ours that He has to stoop and reach down in order to deal in our human domain of greatness.  The greatest human beings who ever lived were only playing around God’s ankles.  This picture should keep us humble and also infuse us with courage.  Whatever challenges we face, God towers far above them, not in indifference but in greatness.  God is bigger, yet he cares about what is happening down here with us.  Hallelujah! 

What’s your line?

Kip

We’ve all heard the saying, “Those who live by the sword die by the sword.”  This saying comes from the Bible, from Jesus’ own mouth.  In the garden of Gethsemane when Peter pulls a sword to defend Jesus, Jesus tells him to put it away and that “all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).  Of course, this proverb has its roots deep in history. 

David is taking a diplomatic tact as he returns from exile to public life in Israel.  However, David’s hot-blooded kin, namely Abishai, Joab, and Asahel, would rather use the sword to get things accomplished.  There is a good bit of blood spilled in this chapter.  Abner is able to put it to a stop by saying “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their brothers?” (One wishes Abner had thought like this before he had suggested mortal combat in verse 14). 

Sadly, by the time Abner says this, it is already too late.  The day has already ended in the bitter death of Asahel as well as several hundred Benjamites (the tribe Saul belonged to).  The battle ended that day, but bitterness had already set in.  The main characters walked away, but they didn’t forget.  David had demonstrated how to leave vengeance to the Lord, but this is a lesson most don’t want to learn.   Even today. 

Jesus said that if you hate your brother, it is just as bad as murdering him.  Jesus then went on to emphasize reconciliation.  God is a God who takes the initiative in reconciliation.  As his children, so should we. 

Kip

Everything seems a little upside down at the beginning of 2 Samuel.

You would have thought that the news of Saul’s demise would have elicited shouts of joy and relief from David and his men, whose lives had been made miserable by Saul.  Just the opposite happened:  “David and his men tore their clothes in sorrow when they heard the news.  They mourned and wept and fasted all day for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the Lord’s army and the nation of Israel, because they had died by the sword that day.”

Certainly the Amalekite mercenary expected a different reception.  He expected David to repay him handsomely for “killing” Saul.  However, that was an ill-chosen lie to tell David, who had, on at least two occasions, foregone the opportunity to slay Saul himself.  Evidently, the Amalekite didn’t know that David had a strong conviction about harming the Lord’s anointed.  The only thing the Amalekite got from David was a public execution.

David’s mournful words for Saul demonstrate a generosity of heart that  defies explanation:  “How beloved and gracious were Saul and Jonathan!  They were together in life and in death.  They were swifter than eagles, stronger than lions.” One wonders if David is talking about the same Saul we know, but there’s no hint of sarcasm.

Everything seems topsy-turvy, and yet there is something very right about David’s responses.  It’s not what we expect, but it is good.

Israel is a mess, but order is about to be restored.

Kip

David understood that vengeance is the Lord’s.  When given the opportunity to kill Saul, David said, “As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD himself will strike Saul…he will go into battle and perish” (1 Sam. 26:10-11). 

Not too long afterwards, David’s prediction came true: “So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day” (1 Sam. 31:6).  Those who had pursued David injustly met the justice of God.  The Philistines gave their gods credit for the victory, but it was really the Lord God of Israel who struck Saul down.  God was carrying out his plan, dealing with sin, and paving the way for his chosen man to be king. 

As odious as Saul had made himself, it is still hard to be happy about his tragic end.  One can’t help but feel some pity for Saul, whose jealousy, fear, self-centeredness, and lack of self control destroyed him from the inside out.  His life was so transparent; it was obvious how his sinful attitudes led to self-destructive behavior.  Maybe we see some of ourselves in Saul.  We try to be more subtle and sophisticated with our sin, but our lives are probably more transparent than we’d like to think.  Saul’s life and death remind us that there are temporal and final consequences for nourishing sin in our lives. 

Of course, we are deeply saddened by Jonathan’s death.  His humility, loyalty, and faith were of rare quality.  His life ended too soon.  He turns out to be the biggest victim of his father’s sinful choices.  It is sadly ironic that Saul’s attempts to preserve the dynasty for Jonathan only ended in Jonathan’s untimely death.  One of the hardest things in life to swallow is that sin doesn’t just affect the sinner.  Good people die because others sin.  It doesn’t seem right that Jonathan goes down with Saul.  We don’t know how God sorts that all out, but we must trust that He does.  

The path to the throne is now clear for David, but getting there won’t be as easy as it looks .  Life never is.  That is why David put his hope in God, not circumstances.  

And so should we.

Kip