In this second half of chapter 7 of 2 Samuel, we are considering this evening David's response to the word that God brought to him through Nathan the prophet. A covenant revealed to David with blessings for his house that will be eternal and glorious. I've entitled this sermon, The Lord's Servant, and that's because repeatedly throughout this prayer that David prays to God, he refers to himself either simply as David or as the Lord's Servant over and over and over again. He refers to himself as the Lord's Servant. and this is significant within the context of what God has revealed to David in the earlier part of this chapter because God has bestowed upon David great promises and rich blessings that David could have, in a sense, taken advantage of. And he could have responded with, well, I must be a wonderful kind of person for God to treat me like this and give me such wonderful promises and to exalt my house above all the houses of the world and to give me an eternal throne. Well, I must really be someone. But that's not the way that David responds at all, is it? He responds with this humility before God. He is, to be honest, stunned at God's revelation to him through Nathan. He's overwhelmed by the promises of God in this covenant that the Lord has made to him. in these verses and his response initially is one of almost speechless praise. It's not quite speechless but it's almost speechless praise. And I want you first of all then to consider this servant's praise. The King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Now exactly what scene we are to be picturing here is uncertain. He is the king of Israel and he is not a priest in Israel, so though the tabernacle is there in Jerusalem and presumably the Ark of the Covenant is there in the most holy place, it's not there. in the most holy place that David is sitting. He's not permitted to go there. It is only a man of the tribe of Levi who can go there. Only someone of the house of Aaron who can go there. David is of the tribe of Judah. He can't go there. But he may have been able to go into the outer court into the place of sacrifice. This was where the people were to bring their sacrifices to the priests. And there perhaps it is that we find him sitting before the Lord in humble prayer and adoration to his God. He first of all praises God for what God has done for him. He says, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far? Well how far has God brought David? God himself has in summary expressed how far he has brought David in verses 8 and 9. Therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, God says to Nathan, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone, wherever you went, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth. He had been a shepherd boy in his father's house looking after Jesse's sheep. He had been the youngest of his brothers and insignificant even in his father's house. And God has brought him from there, called him from there, made him a strong champion, a warrior for his people. He has given him victory over his foes. He has brought him to this place to take the crown of Israel and to lead his people. This is how far God has brought David and David is full of wonder that this has happened. It hasn't happened overnight. It hasn't happened all of a sudden in an instant. There has been, as we've observed previously, three anointings to get him to this place and years of wandering and hiding away in caves and in the wilderness, fleeing from his father-in-law Saul. But God has done this thing. He has brought him here. And David asks, who am I? But this should be the case. And he answers the question by this repeated phrase, I am your servant. I am your servant. I am your servant. That is how David sees himself before the Lord God who has done this for him. He is but a servant of the living God and God has shown him so much grace and so much favour and it is all undeserved. It is all pouring forth out of the bounty of God's hand and from his open palm. And not only then has God done great things for David, but God has promised great things to David. David says, this is a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God, what you've done, calling me from the sheepfold, bringing me to Jerusalem, setting the crown of Israel upon my head. This is a small thing in your sight. This isn't enough for you. You've spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come. This isn't a one-generation kingdom. This is a kingdom that will last through the generations. This is God's promise to him that his throne will be established. God has said to him through Nathan, verses 11 through 14, from the time that I appointed judges over my people. I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And he goes on in verse 16 and says, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So David praises God for this word that has been spoken of David's house for a great while to come. God's riches overflow towards David and they're not just for his lifetime but they are indeed for eternity. And as David contemplates that he is brought to an end of himself what else is there to say? He says in verse 20, what more can David say to you? What more can I say to you? For you know your servant. O Lord God. David is known by God and he has been dealt with by God through his life. David is not simply speaking about the knowledge that God has of all of the jumble of thoughts that are going through his head at that particular moment in time. David finds it difficult to find the words to express his praises to God. We are encouraged, aren't we, by Paul in Romans, that when we can't find the words to express in prayer to God, the Holy Spirit prays for us. But I don't think that that's David's problem here when he speaks about himself having nothing more to say. He is just overwhelmed with God and with God's goodness to him and his grace towards him. God has said in the earlier verses speaking particularly of his son but with implications for David as well in verses 14 and 15, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you." And as David contemplates upon that, he is thinking not only of his son, he's thinking of himself. And he says, what more can David say to you? when David considers his own life and he thinks about the times when when he's mistrusted God and doubted God's kindness and God's power and God's rule when he's taken matters into his own hands and he's gone his own way and God has come to him and has sent his messengers to him and has spoken to him and drawn him back restored him again and again and he's thinking to himself this work of God, this chastening work of God. has already begun, it's begun in my own life and here on top of everything that God has done for me in showing me mercy and in forgiving my sins, he is promising now to establish my throne. This is more than I can understand, David is saying, it's more than I am able to comprehend, that my own son shall be known as the son of God. that God will be to him a father. David can still only talk of himself as a servant of God and yet God has made this incredible promise to him. He shall be to me a son. And David is overwhelmed then with the love of God towards himself. And he goes on to acknowledge that this is all because of God's faithfulness. Verse 21, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it. It is because God is a faithful God. It is because God, once he says that he will do something, does it. and David here in talking about the promise in verse 21 is not talking about the promise that God has just made to David he's going further back than that he's saying it is because of the promises that you have made it is because of your covenant for example to Abraham It is because of your covenant that you made at Sinai. It is because of your word. And it is because of your relentlessness in pursuing the fulfillment of your word. It is because of your character. It is because of your heart. It is because of these things that you have brought about all this greatness in my house. He realizes that it flows out of God's own heart and God's own goodness. And so he glorifies God and he says, therefore you are great, oh Lord God, there is none like you, there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. There is no one to compare to this God, for his greatness, for his power, for his mercy and his love. And so David's heart overflows with praises to God at the revelation of God's covenant with him. His praises continue in the next couple of verses, but there's a different emphasis here. And David speaks about God's people. Or we could say that he speaks about the servant's people. Having heard the servants praise to God for who he is and what he has done for David, David draws our attention to the people that God has entrusted to him, that he should be king over them. that he should be a prince and a leader for them. What kind of people are these people that God has given to him to lead and who for future generations his dynasty will be monarch over? Well David says they're a unique people who is like your people Israel. And there are unique people among all the nations of the world because of redemption. They have been redeemed. They have been brought out of slavery. God himself, in something of a passing comment I suppose, said in verse 6, I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. And David himself hearkens back to the reality of their having been brought out of Egypt. They were redeemed from that slavery. They were redeemed to be a people for God. They were for Him. From all the nations of the world, God chose this people. It wasn't because they were great. It wasn't because they were numerous. It wasn't because they were powerful. It certainly wasn't because they were good that God chose this people and saved this people and made this people his own. He did it because he had made promises. He did it because he had a plan that included them. He did it because he had instruction to give to the world. And so God redeemed this people. David goes on to say, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things. God went to redeem his people. It's a fascinating picture, isn't it? We have, I think here, a picture of God, the God of glory, the God of creation, the God who is worshipped by the angelic beings, taking on a warrior's outfit to go to war on behalf of his people. We have a picture of a God who is leaving his throne to enter into conflict, that he might redeem his people from slavery. He didn't send the greatest and the strongest and the loudest and the most powerful of his angels, he could have done that, surely. He sent them on all kinds of other missions, but for this mission he came himself. the God who went to redeem his people, Israel. And so this is the people that God has brought and established in a land, and this is the people over whom God has set David as king, and over whom his family will be a dynasty of kings. God took them to be his own people and he became their God. That in itself is a stunning statement. It's a statement that we hear throughout the Old Testament and it's a statement that is an echo of the marriage covenant where a bride is taken and a man becomes her husband. And God is saying that he has done that. He has done that with this people. He has taken this people, Israel, and he has become their God. He's entered into covenant with them. He has entered into a commitment to them. And David praises God for his unique people who are established forever under his reign. What a blessing this is for David. He hasn't been established as a king over any other nation of the world. Some more powerful, some with greater armies, or what David could have done with some of those had he been their captain. But he's not interested in those armies and those nations. He has God's people entrusted to him and to his sons forever. This is a blessing. This is a gift. This is a responsibility. And David utters praise to God for this. So having praised God, and having contemplated the people of God, David prays. I want you to think about the servant's prayer here. Let me read it to you. It begins in verse 25. And David says, And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. And your name will be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is God over Israel. And the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, I will build you a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now, therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. David says to God, now you have spoken, Do as you have spoken. You have made promises. Make those promises a reality. This is David's prayer. It's a simple prayer, isn't it, really? All he does in verses 25 through 29 is repeat what God has said to him and say, do it. You said this, do it. You promised this, do it. And so Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary says, prayer pleads promises. Prayer takes the promises of God and echoes them back to him as the desire of the servant's heart. And so David prays and there's nothing in this prayer that's new and astounding, a special request from the King of Israel. I know you said this, Lord, how about doing this as well? I know you promised to do this, why don't you do it in this way? David just repeats the promises and the blessings. and pleads them before the God to whom he is but a servant. Now, some of you may have observed that I overlooked a phrase in this chapter, well, perhaps more than one phrase, but one in particular perhaps stood out, perhaps because you were scratching your own head about what on earth it meant. and that might be why I left it out, but I am going to tackle it. It's in verse 19 where David says, You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God. Now if you look in various translations, almost every translation has a different way of of translating the Hebrew of that phrase, this is instruction for mankind. Literally the Hebrew says this is the Torah of mankind and Torah can mean law or rule or instruction depending on the context in which we find it. and so there is uncertainty and debate as to exactly what this means, that this is instruction or law of mankind. Well it cannot be a law that comes from mankind because clearly what God has said has come from God. It is God's word that has come and that he has spoken to his servant David concerning David's house that is the Torah, that is this law or this rule or this instruction. And I think that the thrust of what David is saying here is that this revelation from God, these promises of God to bless David's house with an eternal king on an eternal throne is the promise of God, a sovereign pledge of God to accomplish his purpose. It is a rule, it is a law, if you like, that will govern all things in history until it is done. This will be the guiding principle of history. That's what I think David is saying when he says these words. You have spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is the governing principle for the history of mankind until it is done. that everything that God does will be working towards this end of establishing the son of David upon David's throne to establish his people as God's people forever and ever. And God has been working to fulfill his promise to David. He's been working to answer David's prayer built on that promise. And we see it in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it in this Son of God. He is the eternal King. And this King went from the glory of heaven in order to redeem his people from their slavery, their slavery to sin, their slavery in warfare against God their maker. And he left the praises of the angels in order to take on human form, to rescue humanity from judgment, the judgment of God. and to establish sinners as God's people, to cleanse them and provide justification for them, to forgive their sins and make them into a holy nation for God. Jesus Christ has done this and Jesus Christ has entered into covenant with this people, into a marriage covenant with this people. He will be their God. and they will be his people and he will love them and he will never forsake them, he will never leave them, he will work for their good, he will prepare them for his glory to sit beside him on his throne and to reign with him forever and this redeemed people whom he has purchased by his own blood, are being built together into a house for God, a dwelling place for divinity. And so as we pray our prayers day by day, surely the prayer that we can pray with absolute certainty that it will be answered in the affirmative is that our God will establish the house of his servant, that our God will bless the house of his servant, that our God will do as he has spoken. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would help us, teach us how to pray in accordance with your will. We need not be groping in the dark to know your will. You have revealed it to us in your word. And we have many great and precious promises in your word that we can cling to and we can echo back to you in prayer. And above all of these promises, Lord God, we pray that you will establish the house of your servant. Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Eternal King, that you will bless the house of your servant, that you will do as you have spoken, for the glory of your name and for our good forevermore. Amen.