David Claims God’s Promises

KEY VERSE: “O LORD God: the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said.” —II Samuel 7:25

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: II Samuel 7:18-29

REFERENCE IS MADE in Psalm 89 to God’s covenant with David. Verses 2-4 read: “I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever; thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations.” “My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.”—vss. 8,9

The full understanding of this covenant with David is possible only through recognition of the fact that David’s throne was typical of the Messianic kingdom throne, on which Jesus sits as king. However, God’s providences in protecting the typical throne in the hands of David’s natural descendants are remarkable, as will be seen by a study of the experiences of the Davidic kings down to the overthrow of the last one, Zedekiah, when the nation was taken captive to Babylon.

This was in the year B.C. 606. It was then that the Prophet Ezekiel wrote concerning Zedekiah: “Thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.”—Ezek. 21:25-27

Here the typical kingdom of David ceased, but God’s covenant was not broken. Ezekiel did not say merely that the kingdom should be ‘no more’, for this would have implied a broken covenant. Instead he explained that it would be no more “until he come whose right it is.” In other words, the active operation of the covenant was merely suspended until the rightful king appeared.

Note the prophecy of the birth of this one ‘whose right it is’ to occupy the throne of David: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder. … Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”—Isa. 9:6,7

In the annunciation to Mary, the angel said concerning the child who would be miraculously conceived: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”—Luke 1:32,33

We see that Jesus came as the rightful king to sit on the antitypical throne of David. However, Jesus’ enemies put him to death, and the antitypical ruling house of David seemed doomed, even as had the typical throne on many occasions. But just as in the past, so again, God intervened. He raised the king—his chosen king—from the dead.

Paul associates the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection with the “sure mercies of David.” (Acts 13:34) In a synagogue in Antioch he said: “We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he hath raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.”—Acts 13:32-34

We see that David was very honorably used by the Lord in being constituted a type of the King of Glory. Through this antitypical house of David it will be that God’s promised blessings will flow to “all the families of the earth.”

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