Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1166
“Then went King David in, and sat before the lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that You have brought me up to now? And this was yet a small thingin Your sight, O Lord God, but You have spoken also of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto You? for You, Lord God, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, have You done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore You are great, O Lord God: for there is none like You, neither is there any God beside You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” 2 Samuel 7:18-22.
DAVID was overwhelmed with the mercy of God! Nathan’s message was too much for him. He felt emotions in his bosom which he could not express. Like a wise man, he went at once, while under the impulse of gratitude, into the place of nearness to God. It was not everyone who might go in and sit before the Lord as he did, but he felt he had a special call to draw near unto the Most High—and there he sat down in the posture of waiting to receive the fulfillment of what was promised, in the posture of rest—as one who had, now, all that he could desire and was pressed down under the weight of blessing. Yet the Psalmist’s sitting was also a posture of worship and surely of all passages of Scripture none can be said to contain more true adoration than that which is now before us.
The king sat, however, before the Lord. The mercy had all come from God and therefore to God all his praise was offered. His soul waited only upon the Lord, because his expectation was alone from Him. He was conscious of being in the sacred Presence and he sat there, feeling that by the Covenant Blessing he had been brought very near, and his spirit exulted in that nearness! Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the mercies which God has shown to us are as great as those which He manifested to His servant David! And if the Spirit of God has opened our eyes to see and understand them, we may, this morning, ardently wish to do precisely what David did.
Let us have boldness to enter into the nearest possible fellowship with God—yes, let us go where David could not go—within the veil, and there, where Christ has opened up the way through His torn body, let us sit down in a restful, waiting, happy spirit, and give full play to all those Divine emotions which ought to be awakened by reflecting upon the lovingkindness of the Lord!
I have selected this subject because there are many among us who have lately found the Savior and it is well to let them see the happiness which belongs to them—the pleasures and the treasures which are theirs in Christ Jesus—that they may render unto the God of Grace the glory which is due unto His name. David did not understand the words of Nathan to relate merely to his dynasty and to his dominion over the house of Israel. He looked far beyond temporal things—and therefore, in the words before us, there is a spiritual depth which will not strike the eye of the casual reader. The New Testament must be the expositor of the Old, and Peter, in his famous sermon gives us the key to this passage!
Turn to Acts 2:29 and you will find that Peter accounts for a memorable utterance of David in the Psalms by declaring that he was a Prophet, and knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. The joy which filled David’s bosom was a spiritual one because he knew that Jesus would come of his race—and that an everlasting kingdom would be set up in His Person—and in Him should the Gentiles trust.
Now, then, we also, being blest with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, are bound to feel as David felt, and therefore we shall pass in review, David’s expressions, with the desire that we may drop into the same mood. May God the Holy Spirit, who alone can enable us to do so, bless our meditation at this time.
I. First I shall need you to notice THE HUMILITY apparent in David’s words. “Then went King David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that You have brought me up to now?”” First, he acknowledged the lowliness of his origin—“What is my house?” He came not of royal blood. Nathan spoke the Truth of God when he said in the Lord’s name, “I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep.” David was but a humble shepherd lad when he was first anointed—and after that anointing he continued in that humble office. From this he rose to become the leader of a motley band of free-lances exiled from their country. Yet the Lord was pleased to call him from his low estate to make him king over the chosen people!
Beloved, what is our origin? What is there about our descent that could claim for us the high privilege of being sons of God? Trace our origin to its most ancient source and behold, SIN is there, staining the escutcheon of our house! All down the line there is a taint of high treason against the Divine Majesty. We come of a race of rebels and our own personal birth was marred with sin. Heraldry lends no pomp to us—and the genealogy for the most of us reveals no hereditary glories—and even if it did, it would be mere fancies and fictions not worthy to be mentioned before the Presence of the Lord. “Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house?”