After God’s Heart (Part 9)(2 Samuel 7:1-16)                                                                            2009.03.08    Pastor Edward Cheng

We continue our sermon series on the life of David this morning, having taken a short break from it for the last couple of weeks.  We began looking at Saul, the counterpart and antithesis of David, as an example of someone who is NOT after God’s heart.  And then, we continued onto David himself, starting with his anointing, and then his ascension to the throne.  Our goal, though, was not to learn the facts of his life, but rather, to understand what he did that garnered him the title of the only person in Scripture who was “after God’s heart.”

This morning, we arrive at 2 Samuel 7, which is probably regarded by scholars as not only the pinnacle of the Book of Samuel but also the pinnacle of David’s royal reign.  It is in this chapter that the Lord speaks to David the “Davidic Covenant” – the promise that from that point unto eternity someone from the line of David would sit on the throne of Israel.  We know from a New Testament perspective that Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is the true fulfillment of that promise.  However, for our purposes today, we’re actually going to side-step the Davidic Covenant, as central as it is to this chapter.

In the opening of the chapter, the narrator tells us of the situation in Israel.  We learn that David was settled in his palace and has peace from all his enemies.  In other words, he’s rich (living in a palace) and comfortable (peace from his enemies).  However, it’s during these kinds of conditions this he realizes his should instead be focusing on the things of God: “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent” (v. 2).  At that time, the ark of God was still housed in a temporary shelter, the Tabernacle, whose usefulness was exhausted after Israel settled in Canaan.  When they were in the desert wandering for 40 years, it was convenient to put the ark in that tent because when the Lord told Israel to move all they had to do was pack up the tent and go.  However, now that they were settled in the Promised Land, it was no longer necessary to keep the ark in such sub-standard conditions.  And David, while in his own personal comfort, began to be concerned with things of God and wanted to change that.

How much do we focus and think about the things of God as opposed to things of ourselves?  David shows us what it means to be after God’s heart in that he’s constantly thinking about the Lord and what he can do for Him.  However, often when we find ourselves in such comfortable circumstances we tend instead to focus on things that have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God.  It’s not that those things are necessarily evil or wicked, but when they dominate our thoughts such that we have no capacity to be thinking about the things of God, then we are in fact distracted by such things.

As we continue in the chapter, we see how the Lord recounts all of the blessings He has bestowed upon David leading up to that point.  He raised him to be king (vv. 8-9) and promised to him an everlasting kingdom (vv. 12-16).  What becomes noteworthy, then, is David’s response to all of this.  He exclaims in v. 18, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?”  In other words, David recognizes not only the magnitude of the Lord’s blessing to him, but also his own insignificance and how undeserving he is of such blessing. 

How often do we have the same type of mentality that ANYTHING we receive from the Lord is undeserved?  It’s so much easier and more natural for us to find things to complain about in our lives than it is to count our blessings.  For myself, could I use more money?  Another vacation?  More down time, or time with Cindy?  Sure, I could use all of these things.  But, if all I do is sit around and complain about my lack, I end up ignoring all of the good things the Lord constantly provides for me and also exude an attitude like I “deserve” these things.  Like David, we need to have the heart that we do NOT deserve these things.  “Who am I(!)” to think that I deserve such things from the Lord?

In the receiving of such tremendous blessings from the Lord, David shows us yet again what it means to be after God’s heart.  We learn from him that Christians after God’s heart think the things of God as well as recognize that His blessings to us are undeserved.  In the midst of our comfort (or lack thereof), let us continue to strive to be like David himself, having these kinds of attitudes in us.