Have you ever thought about what your last words might be? There are a lot of interesting last words. Some of them are ironic, even comical. Some of them inspiring. You think of someone like Stonewall Jackson with his, let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees. There's a certain poetry and hope about it. I was reading recently, again, of an inspiring example from Presbyterian history, that of Samuel Rutherford. I've mentioned Rutherford before. He was a pastor from long ago. He's the author, probably most famously, of the book Lex Rex, where he spoke clearly of the biblical arguments and the biblical teaching that the king is under authority. He's a man under authority, and thus the name of his books, The Law and the Prince, Lex Rex. And he taught that though rulers have authority, there are boundaries to their authority, and they are themselves under law. The book was influential in the founding of our own country, and we are influenced by it today. Now, in Rutherford's day, he lived under Oliver Cromwell, and he was a Scot. And then when King Charles II was brought back, there was a lot of hope that Charles II, because he had made an agreement, he had signed a covenant himself with the Scots and a covenant to rule under Christ as king. And so there's a lot of hope that he would be a godly ruler. And then when he came to power, he got the support of the people. And when he came to power, he was just an evil man, debauched and brought in all sorts of just drunkenness and immorality and everything that had been put away under the Puritans. And of course, And Rutherford had written the book on the king being under authority and having to rule under the authority of God. And so King Charles, the king did what kings do and he burned the book and tried to do everything he could to erase Rutherford's influence. And then Rutherford himself was summoned to give answer for his book, which was considered seditious. Rutherford was on his deathbed when he received that summons. And he remarked at that time that he had already gotten a summons to a higher judicatory and to a higher judge. The King of England might be calling him. but the king of heaven had priority. And so he sent this reply to the king of England, that godless man, that man who had turned on his word. To the godless king of England, he said, I behove to answer my first summons. And ere your day arrive, I will be where few kings and great folks come. inspiring and rather striking word to the King, a rebuke to the King in his last words. While those last words have been inspiring to many of Christ's subjects, especially coming from a man like Rutherford, who was so passionate for Christ, they are the words of a man. Here you have last words recorded for you that aren't just the words of a man, but it is laid out very clearly that these are the words of God himself spoken through David. These are inspired last words. They might have been spoken by David, but they're breathed out by the Holy Spirit, given through David by God for your benefits. for your instruction, for your comfort. All right, so this psalm, it comes at the end of David's life, and we're given to understand, and this doesn't necessarily mean that this is the very, very last thing he did, but this is a parting word. from David, a parting Psalm. And as we've spoken about in the last few Sunday evenings, there's a system here in these last four chapters of 2 Samuel. You have the stories of the Kings, one of Saul in chapter 21, and then of David in chapter 24. And you have these stories of the Kings and their sins that led to oppression for the people. The people were harmed by the sins of the kings, and then the atonement that God accepted for those things, for those sins, and the stay of judgment on the land. In 21, a famine, and then in 24, as we get to the last chapter of 2 Samuel, there's a great plague. The angel of death comes and kills many in Israel. And then we have the mighty men, how God worked great victories for Israel. One of the ways in which God used in a mighty way, these men, these soldiers to save his people. And so then you have sort of the outer bookends and then the inner bookends. And then it brings, as we've talked about before, the focus onto these two Psalms. So we looked at the Psalm in chapter 22 last week, And, but I would turn your attention to the last verse of that Psalm. Where is the focus of that Psalm? For this I will praise you, O Lord among the nations and sing praises to your name. Great salvation he brings to his king and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever. And so that brings us to the covenant. There at the very end, he leaves you with the covenant in that psalm. And so then when God gave him victory over all his enemies, he's focused on the covenant. God made this covenant, he's protected this covenant, and he's keeping and maintaining it. And now this psalm as well, in chapter 23, is focused once again on covenant. God's covenant. A couple of notes to see there. David here, he says, this is the oracle of David, the son of Jesse. He's speaking here as a prophet. This is an oracle. This is not just any psalm, but he's speaking as a prophet. The oracle of the man who is raised on high. It's interesting here because you see, David is king. David is the king, he mentioned that in the previous chapter. God had set him up as a king, we know that. Here he's speaking as a prophet. And actually in chapter 24, he's going to be acting as something of a priest as well. He's shown... He doesn't actually offer the sacrifices himself. He would have done that through the Levitical priesthood, but the sacrifices that are offered at the end that God accepts and stays the judgment upon Israel are offered It gives it as though it's offered directly by David. David goes to God on behalf of the people. The prophet goes to the people on God's behalf. He speaks God's word. He foretells and he foretells. And then the priest goes to God on behalf of the people. And so you see here, as it brings 2 Samuel to a close, it shows David here as a foreshadowing of the king, the great king to come, who would be prophet, priest, and king. And you see David in these offices. David, he also emphasizes that he is the anointed one of the God of Jacob. The anointed one there is the word Messiah. He is small M, Messiah. He is the anointed one of God. Of course, then again, that brings us, makes us look to and long for the great Messiah, the lasting Messiah. Because as we see here, David's life is coming to an end. So though he is an anointed one, he is a great King. He is even prophesying here. His reign comes to an end. Because his reign comes to an end, there's question of stability for the future. What's going to happen in the future. So this is a Messiah, a Messiah, an anointed one of God, but he's not lasting. We don't get to benefit directly from David's reign as a ruler. That's, he's gone. His tomb is, as Peter said at Pentecost, his tomb is here with us. His tomb is on earth. He's died and that reign as king has ended. Another note here is the way that he speaks, very specifically, that this is the inspired word of God. As he speaks as a prophet, he says, the spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said to me. So there's no mistaking, this is the word of God. It's very clear, God speaking by David. And what he emphasizes in these short verses is the righteous rule, the covenant rule of the godly king. So that brings us to God's covenant faithfulness. That's been a theme that we've gone over and over. We talk about God's covenant faithfulness. He deals with his people through that. He takes care of his people within this covenant context, and God is faithful to his people in this. As I said earlier, the last, the previous Psalm also mentions that covenant. So this is really what one of the great themes of the books of Samuel is it brings us to that covenant, the kingly covenant, the Davidic covenant. So God had made other covenants in the past. He'd covenanted with Noah. I'm not going to destroy the earth again with a flood. He set the stage on which Messiah would come. And then to Moses, he covenants. To Abraham, he covenants. You will be the father of many nations. Your seed will be as numerous as the stars of heaven. I will be their God. They will be my people. So he makes a people for himself. There was just one man. And out of that one man, he makes the nation. He created the nation that would become his covenant people. And he continues on. So he keeps shaping the covenant people. And now he gives them the covenant of the king. Making this covenant with David, a mortal man, even a sinful man, forgiving him, saving him, delivering him from his sins, lifting him up out of poverty, out of a humble state, and setting him up. God has done all of this. And as we've looked at 2 Samuel, there is no mistaking who did this. It's not David's doing. It's not David's own righteousness. It's not his own strength. He was just a lowly shepherd, a nobody, youngest of the brothers. Even Samuel didn't think of him. His own father didn't even consider him kingly material. And so he was just left out in the field when his brothers came in. So there's no mistaking. God did this. God brought him up. God saved him, God forgave him, it's all God-centered, all of grace. And we've seen that over and over through this. But there is just an emphasis on covenant. The Westminster Confession of Faith, and I would encourage you, as I encouraged the membership class this morning, and gave them a little bit of homework, to read Westminster Confession, Chapter 7. It's not a long chapter. Let me read the first paragraph. The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he has been pleased to express by way of covenant. So yeah, we have a relationship to God just in creation itself because we're created beings. So we owe him our obedience, our allegiance, but we could never know him, enjoy him forever as our God and to be even called by his name and called his children. We're creatures. How could we be called children? And so that would never be able to, we could never make that happen unless God did something unless it was a voluntary action on his part. And he did this by way of covenant. And what we've been given in Samuel is one of those beautiful covenants, the covenant by which God says, I'll rule over you. You'll be my people. I'm setting up a kingdom. I'm setting up a king, and that will be the king under whom you prosper, under whom you live. You'll be protected by this king. And that came, remember, the promise of a permanent place for the people of God. David speaks here. What does God say? He says that, and this is how the ESV has translated it. The Hebrew is actually somewhat difficult here in these verses. He says, when one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, He dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. David, speaking by the Spirit, speaks of the righteous reign of the godly king, the God-fearing king. When one rules justly, rules in the fear of God, How often does that happen in the history of the world? A king ruling in the fear of God and ruling justly. Did David fulfill that? Sometimes, imperfectly, there are hints at it. Even though David was a godly man, we know that there were problems. And we're about to read about one of the great problems that they had during his reign, where David's sin inflicted great pain on the people. David as the representative. So he doesn't fulfill that perfectly, but he does fulfill it in a certain measure. The kings are given authority from God. The powers that be are ordained of God, Paul said. But the king, though he is given authority, can only find blessing if he humbly, before God, is subject to God's laws, to God's wisdom, to God's knowledge. That's the only way that he can have God's blessing. Proverbs 8, the wisdom chapter that has wisdom personified as a woman, Proverbs 8, I wisdom dwell with prudence and find knowledge and discretion. The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance are the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. I have counsel and sound wisdom. I have insight, I have strength. By me kings reign and rulers decree what is just. By me princes rule and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently find me. This is where the rulers of the world who have gained their authority from God find the way to judge, to rule justly, to rule in righteousness, is in the wisdom and the fear of God. This is where righteousness is. putting off evil. How do you know what is evil, what is good, what is right, what is wrong? It is here in the wisdom of God, in the fear of the Lord. This is a warning to the rulers of the earth. Those who rule according to their own designs, their own definitions of morality, redefining what is evil, what is good, what is right and wrong. May God grant us godly rulers who govern in the fear of the Lord with His wisdom, with His righteousness. There is such a lack. It seems the higher you go in government, the more corrupt, the more evil, the more debauched it is. The king is supposed to be the example, the one who fears God, who leads in the fear of the Lord. And he says here, to that king, he dawns on them, God dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. There is fullness, there is blessedness, there is joy, there is peace under the reign of the righteous king. I tend to agree here with with the ARP pastor and commentator Dale Ralph Davis, that this is really a psalm where David is pointing forward to Christ, the eternal King. It's a warning. It functions as a commentary on the past that David has experienced. He knows what it's like to live under a wicked king. He's been under that yoke. under the fear, under the harm, under the pain of unrighteous rule. And it serves to teach his son Solomon, who is about to take the crown from him and go out and rule as king. And it warns David's sons who will come after him that they too must reign in the fear and the righteousness, the judgments of God. And there were a fair number of them that did that. But ultimately, where is the great blessing? It's on the king who is ruling according to the righteousness of God, who rules according to the fear of the Lord. And that, of course, is not realized until Christ himself. You see that emphasis on the eternal nature of the covenant to David, Excuse me, to David and his offspring forever, in 22 verse 51. And then here in our chapter, in 23 verse 5, for does not my house stand so with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. This is secure, it's sure, because God has made the covenant. God has bound himself to this agreement. And that is only realized in Christ. There's only an eternal king. It's not just a king, a succession of kings for a really long time. Instead, it actually means into eternity. that there is a king who will continue reigning in the line of David. God has made the covenant that this will continue on, that it will not end. As we've looked at in the past weeks, Psalm 110, other Psalms, we sang this morning Psalm 2. The king will reign, he will rule with a rod of iron. He must reign. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. 1 Corinthians 15. He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. They're referencing Psalm 110. Christ has been crowned king. He is reigning. He has been given that. You see that in Daniel chapter seven, as Daniel looked ahead into the future of Christ being made king. Daniel seven says, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. To the son of man was given this, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. In his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. It is on Christ, especially that you see the blessing of God dawning on the kingdom of Christ, like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. And there is just such a picture of peace and joy. People are provided for, the people are protected under this King. You even see that, we looked at that in Malachi, that language of the king and the sunrise in Malachi chapter four this morning. Malachi chapter four. But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. You shall tread down the wicked, for there will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts." You can see that in Zechariah's song to the, once he's able to speak again, John the Baptist's father, the one who was foretold by Malachi to come and prepare the way of the Lord. Speaking to John, Zechariah says, and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in the darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. As we suffer under unrighteous rule, as we observe unrighteous rulers, as we see others suffering under even more unrighteous rulers, it gives a longing for the righteous ruler, the one that will do what is just. It instills in us a longing for our King to take over where he will reign. And then he ends this, interestingly, with a contrast with the wicked. We know that David knew what it was like to be under the rule of a wicked man. He'd been chased through the wilderness, many attempts in his life. But worthless men, men of Belial. are like thorns that are thrown away, for they cannot be taken with the hand, but the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a sphere, and they are utterly consumed with fire." In South Carolina, we bought this small run-down farm, and it was completely covered. The land was covered in thorns. It had green briars and blackberry, wild blackberry bushes, and didn't get any berries, just thorns. And it was so bad that we couldn't even tell that there were fences. We couldn't see that there were fenced pastures on the land because there were so many thorns. And so we set about taking the land back, and we bought a little tractor with a four-foot bush hog, and I would come back from seminary classes in the bush hog. The thorns there, they were just so thick that you could just barely get through them. There were times when you couldn't even see the tractor because it was so buried in the thorn thickets. But there's just something so useless about them. Not only were they useless, they're not useful for the animals to eat. They're not useful for people to use. They don't give shade. They just take up the land. Not only are they useless, they're painful. And many, many times I went through and working on those and get snagged on thorns and those green briars, they're unforgiving. The branches don't break. The vines don't break and they'll, they'll go right through leather gloves. That's what David says the wicked rulers are like. They're, they're not just useless. They're painful. They're harmful. to them comes a warning, they will utterly be consumed with fire. Doesn't this bring you back to Psalm 2? We just sang it this morning, but let me read just a couple of verses from Psalm 2. Verse 10, now therefore kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. There's a warning against the king. As David is departing this life and going out, he points ahead to the reign of the eternal king, the righteous king, the godly king. and warns the rulers of the earth who would defy God, who would defy that righteousness. They're vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, and he will bring them to judgment. This is good news for an oppressed people, for those who have suffered, for those millions in the last century who have died under unrighteous rulers. Again, the wicked rulers cause in us, instill in us a desire, a longing for the righteous King. This covenant that God made with David is our hope. God's covenants that he made, that's where we find our joy, where we find our peace. Because these are promises, we have security in these. There wasn't security in David as a king because even at his best he was flawed and he was a mere human, he was mortal. David says this as he's dying. So there's not hope in David himself just as a man, but instead he points us to God's covenant that God will rule his people. He's made the nation. I will be their God. They will be my people. This promise is to you and to your children after you. And he says, I will give you a king who will reign forever. This king is given. dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him. That's speaking to us, right? We're part of those Gentile nations to which the gospel is sent. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away in his kingdom. One that shall not be destroyed. The security is in the promise of God, the covenant of God. God has made it secure. This is his king. So where do you fit in personally? Are you part of that kingdom of Christ? Those subjects, your children, have you considered? Are you one of the citizens of this kingdom of Jesus Christ? This kingdom that will not be dethroned. He will not be, his kingdom cannot be taken away or destroyed. Where are you in this? Have you kissed the son? Have you bowed before him and declared yourself his subject? He your Lord. The ungodly, you see where they go, utterly consumed with fire. There is a warning here to those who would oppose this king. But for those who are in the kingdom, those who are found in Christ, the king, there is a promise of peace, of stability, of hope, of righteousness, all bound up in him. who were given the options. Utter consumption with fire for those who are found to be thorns and thistles, the outer darkness where Jesus said there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Or that kingdom upon which the sunshine of God's favor rests. where there is no need for the sun because the light of that place is the lamb. There's only stability, only righteousness, only blessedness in the kingdom of Christ. Let's pray. Lord, our God, we thank you that you have bound yourself to this promise that your anointed one, Jesus Christ, would reign forever. that he would rule without end, that his kingdom would never be destroyed. One that shall not pass away. Oh Lord, we rejoice in that. We languish here on earth, even the best of human rulers let us down. And the worst are an absolute terror to their subjects. Lord, we long for Christ. We thank you for His kingdom. We ask that you would keep us and others in it. And may you hasten that kingdom. And so we ask, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.