2 Samuel 7: God’s Promise to David, David’s Prayer
Passage
At this point in the book of Samuel1, the kingdom is firmly in David’s hands. There are no more members of Saul’s household to worry about, he’s firmly established his city in Jerusalem, he’s even brought the Ark there, so God is “with him” in all the meanings of that phrase. So what’s next for King David? He realizes that he’s living in comfort in a palace while the Ark is still in a tent! There is a prophet named Nathan who, upon hearing David mention this, responds with, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you” (verse 3). Which is good advice, knowing what Nathan knew at the time, but God has other ideas in this case, and informs Nathan of such:
But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:
“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’
“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
“‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”
Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
As is so often the case, when David hears the word of the LORD he responds with prayer:
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:
“Who am I, Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign LORD, is for a mere human!
“What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign LORD. For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant.
“How great you are, Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, LORD, have become their God.
“And now, LORD God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, so that your name will be great forever. Then people will say, ‘The LORD Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant David will be established in your sight.
“LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”
Thoughts
It made sense to include both of these sections in one post, but I’ll break up my thoughts into the two pieces, following the NIV headings: God’s Promise to David, and then David’s Prayer.
God’s Promise to David
I don’t think Nathan was doing anything wrong when he gave David his initial advice—“Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”—but we can definitely see that what makes sense to people isn’t always what God has in mind. It’s definitely true, the LORD was with David! It just happens, in this case, that God has other plans that David and Nathan couldn’t have known about.
A Rebuke?
That being said… there could be maybe a certain amount of arrogance in David’s attitude; the only reason that I say that is that the first part of the LORD’s response sounds a bit like a rebuke:
This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” (verses 5–7)
I don’t speak/read ancient Hebrew, so I can’t read the original text, but in the translation to English I’m reading that could sound like God is rebuking David. I’m not convinced either way; I read the text (especially verse 5) in a few versions, and it could just be a rhetorical question, or it could be a pointed rhetorical question.
David’s Descendents
Whether the LORD is rebuking David or not, the bulk of God’s message to David has nothing to do with David’s plan to build a temple; instead, God is mostly focuses on how much blessing he’s going to shower onto David and his descendents! God is going to establish David’s kingdom forever!
In fact, this message from the LORD is one of the key passages in the Old Testament in the timeline of Jesus, since David’s everlasting kingship, throughout his descendents, will ultimately extend to Jesus Christ, who is the final and eternal ruler.
Yes, God does come back to the topic at hand, and mentions that David’s son is the one who will build a temple for Him, so David can know that yes, a temple will be built, but as is so often the case, God seems to be thinking about bigger things than just the topic at hand.
That being said, it’s worth taking a look at this prophecy from God and seeing how it applies directly to David’s immediate descendent, Solomon (though I don’t think David yet knows that Solomon will be next in line for the throne—we haven’t yet heard the story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba—he probably just knows it’s going to be one of his sons2), and how it applies indirectly to Jesus:
| Text | Solomon | Jesus |
|---|---|---|
| 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. | It’s obvious how this applies to Solomon; we know that Solomon is going to be king after David, and we also know that Solomon’s reign is going to be very peaceful, as God has been speaking about in the previous verses, which will not only give him time and resources to build the temple properly, but also means that he won’t be a “man of blood” as his father David was. (See 1 Chronicles 22:7–9.) | Jesus was also a descendent of David, and Jesus’ kingdom has been established much more firmly than David’s or Solomon’s ever were! In fact, the whole reason for God granting David’s line an eternal kingdom was to get to Jesus. |
| 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. | Again, pretty obvious how this prophecy was directly fulfilled: Solomon succeeded David as king and built a temple to God. We don’t usually think of it as being “Solomon’s kingdom,” however, we typically think of it as “David’s kingdom,” where Solomon was just the next king in the line. | We don’t always think of it this way, but Jesus built God’s church, which is His “house” in a more permanent way than the temple—great and magnificent as it was—could never be. And yes, Jesus will definitely be on the throne, ruling His kingdom, forever. |
| 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. | Figuratively speaking, God would be with Solomon (and the rest of David’s descendents) as a “father.” | Literally Jesus is the Son of God. |
| When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. | A father disciplines his children, and whenever Solomon—or any of David’s descendents—or even David himself!—disobeyed God, He would discipline them. I notice that it mentions “a rod wielded by men,” however; it’s not always going to be God punishing His children directly, it’s sometimes going to take the form of God sending nations—nations who don’t even know Him—to punish His children. This is something that we’ll see God’s prophets wrestling with later on; why is God sending foreign nations—nations who are even more wicked than God’s people!—to punish His own people? Why would God allow those other, wicked nations to “win?” | Jesus never did wrong, and so there was never anything he did that the Father needed to punish him for. And yet, Jesus took on the punishment for my sins; God punished Jesus instead of punishing me. |
| 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever. | If we follow the rest of the history of the nation of Israel through the Old Testament, we see that there is always a descendent of David on the throne. Even after the nation is split into two, with Israel in the North and Judah in the South, there is still always a descendent of David on the throne in Judah3. When the nation of Judah is finally conquered by the Babylonians there is a period of time when there is no king on the throne (as the LORD had warned way back in Deuteronomy 28:15–68), and then… | … in the New Testament, Jesus, a descendent of David, takes the notion of a kingdom that lasts forever to a whole new level. It’s no longer a question of David’s descendents, man after man, becoming successive kings, or even Jesus’ descendents. Jesus himself is ruling forever. Something that couldn’t even be contemplated with a human king, but Jesus is God. |
David’s Prayer
This prayer is a great example of why the Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart4. David decides to build a temple for the LORD, the LORD comes back and says no it’s not your job to do it but here is how I’m going to bless you to make your kingship eternal, and David responds with a prayer in which he acknowledges that he’s not worthy of all of this, and recognizes that God is doing it for the sake of His own will.
Based on all we know of David, this is not just words on his part. I think David does recognize that God isn’t doing all of this because David deserves it. Much of David’s prayer back to God is one of worship, and that is right and proper. All of us, looking back, should read this passage and have the same reaction that David had: God was doing something wonderful through David—we should never look back and think that David was such a good king that God rewarded him. David didn’t think that way, and neither should we. (Was David a better, more moral, more decent, and more worshipful person than I ever will be? Yes! Despite his moral failings, which are captured in great detail in the Old Testament, David was a much more godly man than I am. So godly, in fact, that he recognized that he wasn’t godly enough to deserve the blessings he received from God. A very Christian response to the Grace of God, I would say.)
Now Keep the Promise You Have Made
We can almost break this prayer into two parts: verses 18–24, in which David praises the LORD for what He is doing, and verses 25–29, in which David asks God to do… what He has already said He was going to do? What’s that about? I think this prayer can actually serve as an example for Christians, in our own prayers, in a couple of ways.
Looking at the Why
First, the part about David asking God to do what God had just finished telling David He was going to do. (God: “I’m going to establish your kingdom forever.” David: “Oh LORD, please establish my kingdom forever!”) We shouldn’t read this as if David is doubting God’s promise to him, we should read this as David focusing more on who God is than on what God is going to do. Let’s see the relevant passage again, with some highlighting:
“And now, LORD God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, so that your name will be great forever. Then people will say, ‘The LORD Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant David will be established in your sight.
“LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”
(verses 25–29, emphasis added)
David’s prayer is more focused on why God is going to extend David’s kingdom to eternity: for the glory of God Himself!
Am I saying that we should only ever bring our requests to God in prayer when we want to highlight how answers to our prayers will bring Him glory? No; in fact, I think the human heart would quickly warp that type of prayer into spiritual arm-twisting: “Give me what I want, God, so that You can be glorified” is the type of prayer that I doubt would typically be as honest as David’s prayer was. It’s more likely that the human heart would be meaning the opposite, as a form of spiritual blackmail: “If you don’t answer my prayer, God, you won’t be glorified!”
That being said, I do think the modern Christian could think more about the glory of God in our prayers than maybe we do. It’s not wrong to bring Him our petitions, but how much time do we spend praising Him? How much time do we spend thinking or praying about His glory? How often do we pray—as Jesus did in the garden—“this is what I want, LORD, but what I want even more is for You to be glorified, so do as You will”?
How often do we look at the promises of God to us, written in the Scriptures, and take the time to praise and magnify God for what He has done and what He has promised to do, as David does here? How often do we take it further, and look at what God has done and what He has promised to do and praise Him for who He is? And recognize that He did it for His glory?
Lack of Faith
Although I think the main reason David prayed his prayer the way he did was to focus on the glory of his God, I do think there’s another way in which this prayer can be a model for the modern Christian: sometimes we lack faith. Sometimes, even if we’re sure God is going to answer His promises, we get weak. Sometimes we know in our heads that Romans 8:38–39 is true—“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—but our hearts just… aren’t so sure. “God will always protect me,” we sometimes think, “but… what if He doesn’t?”
When such doubts hit us, I think the very best thing we can do is pray to God that He will do the things He has already promised; we know that Romans 8:38–39 is true, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong to pray for it anyway. I think it’s wrong if we’re always doubtful of God like that, but I also think that humans are prone to temporary doubts along those lines, and when we have them we should pray about them, not ignore them.
I don’t read David’s prayer like this; I don’t think David is having a moment of doubt. But his prayer did lead me to thoughts about whether we should be praying to God about things He has already promised us, and momentary doubts was a topic that came to mind.
Punishments
One thing I also noticed about David’s prayer is that it didn’t address everything God said in His message to David: God mentioned that when David’s descendent(s) do wrong God will punish them with a rod wielded by men, which David doesn’t address in his prayer.
I have a feeling this is because David trusts God, and knows that He will do what is right—if David’s descendent(s) deserve punishment, God will mete out the right level of punishment. Of course, it might also be that David didn’t want to dwell on those parts of God’s message…
Remember that 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel were originally one book, not two. ↩︎
I say “probably” because sometimes stories aren’t told in chronological order, they’re told more “thematically,” so I don’t have enough learning to know for sure that this conversation with God is taking place before David’s sin with Bathsheba. But it definitely comes earlier in the book of Samuel. ↩︎
If memory serves, I think there might have been a brief period when there wasn’t, when someone tried to usurp the throne and the real heir to the throne from David’s line had to be temporarily hidden until he could be restored to the throne, but even when we read that story, there is little suspense: we know that David’s descendent will be back on the throne. ↩︎
A couple of times recently I’ve quoted this without giving any citations; let’s remedy that. For the Bible calling David “a man after God’s own heart,” see 1 Samuel 13:14 or Acts 13:22. I think there are other examples as well—I could be wrong—but these are good representative examples. ↩︎
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