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Bible Reading
2 Samuel 7:1-17
Good morning, everyone. This morning's reading is from 2 Samuel 7, verses 1 to 17. I personally find it helpful in looking at God's word sometimes to imagine myself in that place. So you might like to close your eyes and just listen, and either picture yourself as a servant in the palace, or David, or from Nathan's perspective, or if you could be the proverbial fly on the wall. So chapter 7, beginning at verse 1.
While the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, here I am living in a house of cedar while the ark of God remains in a tent.
Nathan replied to the king, whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.
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 out of Egypt up to this day. I have been moving from place to place with the tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers who I commanded to shepherd my people, 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 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.
This is the word of the Lord.
Opening Prayer
Let's take time to pray.
Father, thank you that you are a promise-keeping God and that in answer to the promise made to David, you sent your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that you promised to build him a house forever and we hear from the Apostle Paul that we are God's temple. You dwell in us by your Spirit. Surely, Lord, David could not have foreseen the significance of what was promised him that day, but we can. And so from this perspective we give you thanks and look back now at the beginnings, the promise, the point at which this came to bear and ask, Lord, that you would bring it to bear in our lives for Christ's sake. Amen.
You Can Choose to Live Under a Blessing
Well, we're talking about fathers today and I'm just wanting to ask you about your relationship with your father and for some that exposes immediately a sense of vulnerability. Perhaps there are regrets from your side. Perhaps there were difficulties in your experience as a child. Fathers are so important. It's such a significant relationship for every one of us, but it's a relationship over which we have so little control. So please be encouraged today that whatever your relationship with your earthly father, good, bad, or indifferent, whether that's continuing or whether that's now in your past, you can choose to live under your heavenly father's blessing.
There is a big envelope over the top of all this today. God our Father is bringing a blessing to bear on us. David is like the microcosm. David is like the kind of test bed. We can see the, if you like, the foundations being banged in in the life of David and on that he will build, but it is his promise.
If you recall last week, we had David crouching in a cave. He had a knife in his hand and his enemy, the King of Israel, Saul, was crouched before him. He decided not to stick it in and we talked about revenge last week.
Well, no longer is David crouching in a cave. We've moved quite a long way through. 1 Samuel to the end now and we're in chapter seven of the second book of Samuel.
This time David is in a palace. In fact, a palace made of cedar. The King of Tyre has sent him the timber that he needed to construct this kind of wonderful edifice and he's at rest.
I'm imagining him with a glass of port in his hand and the fire's going and he's sitting there musing. It says at the beginning, did you notice that the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies.
David, the warrior, 13 years on the run from King Saul, hiding in a cave. He's in a palace. He's at rest. And you kind of begin to hear his mind turning over.
He's a man after God's own heart, of course. And so even in that situation, his first thought is probably not for himself. I know he might be just sitting back thinking, wow, how did this happen to me?
But his thoughts, David is so close to God. His thoughts are always focused on God and what is he doing? How did I get here? What is God up to?
David Has a Good Idea. God Has a Better One.
And he has this question. Perhaps it arises from his heart. God has been so good to him. Now, Lord, what can I do for you?
Verse two. He says to the prophet Nathan, here I am living in a palace of cedar while the ark of God remains in a tent. If you know Israel's history, when they journeyed from slavery in Egypt across the wilderness in those years, God gave Moses a plan for a place of worship called a tabernacle, just a fancy word for a tent, in which the ark of God, the place where God dwelt, was housed.
A particular structure and so on. You can see that reflected later on in Solomon's temple that comes to the end of our reading. Solomon actually builds it. It's structured in a way that introduces people to God very carefully, very deliberately, very strategically.
And that tent is still where the ark of God is. And yet David is in a palace and you can see where his mind is going. Let's build a house for God.
And the prophet Nathan encourages him. He says, man, whatever you have in mind, go ahead because the Lord is with you. And he goes his way.
The first thing we need to notice today is that David has a good idea. His heart is in the right place. He's on the right track. And the prophet affirms him, like what could go wrong?
And God uses that orientation, that desire and says, okay, now let's see what we can do with that. David has a good idea. God has a better one.
Go tell my servant David, this is what the Lord says. Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? This question hangs in the air. David, you want to build a house for me? Listen up. I'm going to build a house for you.
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 who will come from your own body 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. When God uses the forever word, please notice. I will be his father. He will be my son.
The house God is going to build for David, the house God is going to build through David will not just be bricks and mortar, but he's talking about a dynasty. He's talking about a family line. It's a forever dynasty. This is much more than David could ever hope or imagine and it is a forever dynasty that will forever lock in those blessings that God has been pouring out on David for not just David and his successors, but for his people and we will see for the world.
It's Still Just a House
Things move on. We see that Solomon, David's son, does in fact rule after him and does in fact build the temple and a significant part of Israel's story is kind of focused on what sort of happens around this period of Israel's history.
It's like the last week of Jesus' life in the Gospels. The big story which is moving so quickly suddenly slows down and there's this real focus on these conversations and thoughts and God's response.
In fact, it's actually recorded twice, both here in 2 Samuel and then in 1 Chronicles. So a bit like the Gospels, this is so significant we have it replicated, repeated and you can compare those two versions of the story.
Sometimes there's a word or a phrase or an extra insight. So two strains of Israel's recorders are keeping this story for us. We have them both.
Let's go to 1 Chronicles in chapter 28. Here's what it says. He's addressing the people.
King David rose to his feet and said, listen to me my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of God, for the footstool of our God and I made plans to build it but God said to me, you are not to build a house for my name because you are a warrior and have shed blood.
He said to me, Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts for I've chosen him to be my son and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out my commands and laws as is being done at this time.
So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and of the assembly of the Lord and in the hearing of our God, be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever.
And you my son Solomon acknowledge the God of your father and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him he will be found by you but if you forsake him he will reject you forever.
Consider now for the Lord has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary, be strong and do the work.
There's that language again, father and son. And then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement.
So here's the kind of handover moment. David has prepared. David has gathered stone and timber and jewels and gold and silver and materials. He's gathered everything Solomon will need.
He's come to the end of his reign and he's literally handing over. And you can see that joy in David's heart that this work will be completed and there's the father-son language again.
And so it comes that Solomon completes this wonderful project that God has established or put in front of them. David knew what it meant to live under God's blessing. He wants his son Solomon to have the same experience.
And again this is important because even if our heavenly father was distant for us or that relationship was broken or disappointing in some way, he can still live under that same blessing from God, our heavenly father, the best blessing of all.
And so you can kind of see that, you know, it's like bud and flower, isn't it? There's something promised and it comes to pass and the glory of it was, you know, such a joy to David and to his people.
It's finally done. Solomon dedicates the temple but even after all this effort and expense and building according to the plan that God had passed on, it's still just a house.
Solomon says as much when he dedicates it in 1 Kings chapter 8. It's still just a house.
Heaven and earth cannot contain you, Lord. How much less this house we have built for you.
Yes, it is a place for people to go and meet with God but it cannot contain him. It's not that kind of building.
Our Problem Is That God Is Too Small
And so as I said about, you know, hiking and climbing mountains, wherever you look in this remarkable story, in this place of promise or covenant or testament, that there's always more. You know, David thinks he's got it, like it blows his mind that he can sit in a palace and be at peace from all his enemies but God says, I'm going to establish a dynasty through you.
And he actually gets to the point where he can hand on the plans and all the materials that Solomon will need to build this temple and like that's just the greatest thing you could ever imagine. But it's bigger than that.
And I think so often when we come to, you know, our own walk with God, we are stuck in the same place that it says David is stuck in. God is too small. We can't imagine what he wants to do for us. We can't imagine what he wants to do through us. We just literally can't imagine it.
And, you know, sit with David for a while. Imagine what this was like for him. It's not just a story about a king or a story about a dynasty. It's not just a story about a nation. This is taking in all of creation.
God is in the business of restoring the whole world to himself. And he's using David and the people of Israel to do it. Remember that word forever. Remember that language about father and son.
A Forever Promise Through a Forever Son
So we stand here today, 2026, we have not left David or this promise behind, you know, somewhere in the dusty distant past. No, this is for us. God's forever promise comes to us through God's forever son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Mary's boy child conceived by the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit and Mary, in some sense, I can't understand, come together and never to be separated again. This is the place where God dwells in the human heart. When Jesus comes to us, God comes to us. He is the promised one, Emmanuel, God with us.
When people see the face of Jesus, they see the face of God. They don't need to go to a building. They don't need to get on a plane and get in a queue to go to a temple. When people heard Jesus' voice, they heard the voice of God. When Jesus touched them, they were touched by God.
The father-son promise made to David and his descendants is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. I will be his father. He will be my son. Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus is God in the flesh. God comes to live as a human.
Jesus, the God-man, shows us this is true. Resurrected on the third day, death could not contain him. And Jesus, David's son, David's son will sit on David's throne, God's throne forever. This is the completion of the promise. The house or the dynasty God has promised David and through David.
This is what Solomon means when he says, heaven and earth cannot contain God, much less this temple I have built. He could see it.
And there's a wonderful moment on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit comes and Peter stands up and explains what is going on and he takes us back to this great promise of God, Acts 2 and verse 29.
Brothers and sisters, I tell you confidently, the patriarch David died and was buried and his tomb is here with us to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.
Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven and yet he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
Here is the Apostle Peter putting it together for the people. They knew the story of David, they knew it very well. They knew about the temple and that the temple had been destroyed not once but twice and that is still the case today.
And does that mean that the promise of God has failed? No, the promise of God has not failed. The promise of God is yet to be fulfilled and then there's the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When God's Spirit entered Mary's womb, God and humanity were joined in such a way that it could never be undone and in Jesus God's kingdom has come and we can enter into it and bring and enter into our Heavenly Father's blessing.
The picture I want you to have today is Jesus holding a door open. All we have to do is enter in and when the people heard this Acts continues, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other Apostles, brethren, what shall we do?
Here's the reply.
Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.
Not a Building, But Here in Us
So here's the moment. The promise made to David that God would come and dwell with his people and he did and the temple was glorious but it was destroyed and then it was rebuilt and then it was destroyed and could that be the end of the promise?
No, no, no, no, it's only the beginning because one of David's descendants will sit on the throne forever. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the promise of God fulfilled and the Spirit poured out on the church means that now rather than going to a building, we have God dwelling within us and he will shape and guide and speak and lead us.
Paul says we are the temple of the living God. That's the end. That's the fulfillment of the process. You and me, us.
You can continue to read about David's response to this amazing blessing in 2 Samuel 7. You want to read the second half of the chapter. It's David drawing aside and his prayer. It's well worth a read. It's very encouraging.
But now we are in a position, if you like, the inheritors of that blessing to come ourselves and say, yes, Lord, I want that promise. Yes, Lord, I want you to dwell in my heart. Yes, Lord, I want you to pour your Holy Spirit within. Yes, Lord, I want to know your voice. I want to feel your touch. I want to have your presence.
This is the dwelling place of God, not a building, not in a far land, but here in us, in our hearts, in the church. The promise of God fulfilled, spoken through a prophet to a king thousands of years ago, but now ours for the taking.
Let us pray. Father, thank you that knowing our need, you sent your son that he defeated death and poured out the Spirit. And we are the inheritors of this promise, a forever kingdom, a forever dynasty, a forever family, a forever home. Lord, help us to hang on to you and so be your people under your blessing, living as you call us to live. In Jesus' name. Amen.
