2 Samuel 7:3-5
3 And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee. 4 And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, 5 Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?
2 Samuel 7 gives us the account of the “Davidic Covenant.” That is, that covenant God made with David that his seed would sit on the throne of Israel forever. This promise is why Jesus had to be born of the line of David.
I hope you’ll read the whole chapter, and when you do you’ll find the reason God made this Covenant with David. David wanted to build the Lord a house. David was living in a palace and the Glory of the Lord was in a tent and David wasn’t happy about this arrangement. So he consults Nathan the Prophet and our verses today are Nathan, then God’s response.
I have selected these verses for us to see what it was about David that God admired so much that he was willing to make his house a pillar of promise to the nation of Israel and the whole world. One aspect of it can be seen from what God calls him. In the conversation between Nathan and David, David is called king, but when God refers to David he is referred to as “my servant.” David has risen through the ranks to the highest seat in Israel. Not only the highest in Israel but his name was spread abroad and much held by throughout the known world at that time. He was king and held great power and authority before the eyes of princes, dignitaries, and men of renown, but his standing before God was not “Go tell my King David” but “Go tell my servant David.”
It would have been a tremendous honor to be God’s king, and in a sense, he was king because God had made him that, but a far greater honor is to be the servant of God. “The greatest among you shall be a servant.” What was it about David that God loved so much? He was the greatest among them because he was a servant. In this hour men are living for promotion, doing everything in their power for a bigger name, a bigger salary, bigger success, in a sense trying to set on the throne, but very few are trying to set Christ on the throne. David's heart was not to exalt his seat and house but to exalt the seat and house of the LORD.
God treats this desire as an act on behalf of David. David couldn’t build this house because his hands had shed so much blood, but God rewarded this desire as if he had carried it out. Dear Christian, do we desire to be the greatest servant to exalt Christ above all and especially ourself? You may not be the greatest servant, there are doubtless others more fit for the task but there may not be another so desirous to do the work. God sees and knows the intentions of your heart and can reward intentions as acts. Besides, even if you rose to the level of a king God would not love you anymore, neither would that set you above the title you already bear, “My servant.” Perhaps we should get busy serving instead of trying to be kings. This is not from our verses today but it is in this chapter, David’s response to God was “Who am I.” An interesting study is to find the 3 times David replies “Who am I.” Once in his youthful days, here in his middle age, and once near the end of his life. We might expect a young man to be sufficed to be a servant perhaps even a middle-aged man but even in the last days of David’s life, he had not outgrown his title and disposition of servant.
Dear Christian, may every season of life be marked by a servant's disposition toward our King. If he sets us on thrones it won’t add to what he made us when he saved us, servants, doorkeepers in the house of the Lord.
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