God’s Covenant and David

MEMORY SELECTION: “Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.” —II Samuel 7:16

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: II Samuel 7:8-16

THE Apostle Paul, in describing David and his relationship to the Lord said: “He raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” (Acts 13:22) Because of David’s complete honesty of heart and his sincere desire to serve and please the Lord, he was made an important link in the chain of faithful servants whose offspring were to produce the long-promised Seed that was to bless all the families of the earth.

David’s predecessor was Saul, and because of his unfaithfulness the kingdom was taken from him. David was then anointed king, and with the Lord’s help and overruling providence the kingdom grew and prospered. When most of the nation’s enemies were subdued, David turned his thoughts to the Lord. It was of concern to him that the Tabernacle—the Lord’s house—was simply a tent. He desired to build a great temple for the Lord. The Lord spoke to David through the prophet Nathan and instructed him not to build an earthly temple but said that in due time David’s seed would build a temple that would have the Lord’s blessing.

The prophet’s words from the Lord were: “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. … But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.”—II Sam. 7:12-16

This wonderful covenant with David established beyond any doubt that the promised Seed—the Messiah—would come through David’s line of descendants. The statement that God’s mercy would not depart from David, as he had taken it away from Saul, became known as “the sure mercies of David.” (See Psalm 89.)

In some of the Messianic prophecies, attention is focused on God’s kingdom covenant with David. One such prophecy is found in Isaiah 11:1-9: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear [reverence] of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear [reverence] of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. … They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

At the time of the birth of John the Baptist, the privilege of announcing the forthcoming birth of Jesus was given to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. The prophecy reads, in part: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; … to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant.”—Luke 1:68-72

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