2 Samuel 7:18 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the solemn prayer David offered to God in response to the gracious message God had sent him. We are not told what he said to Nathan, but there is no doubt he received him kindly and respectfully as God’s messenger. Yet David gave his answer to God himself and did not send it back through Nathan. When ministers bring us God’s message, our hearts must answer God, not them. God understands the language of the heart, and we may come to him with boldness.

As soon as David heard the message, while the impression was still fresh, he withdrew to give his answer. He went in before the Lord, that is, into the tabernacle where the ark stood as the sign of God’s presence. There he presented himself before God. Now God wants people to pray everywhere, but wherever we pray, we must still see ourselves as standing before the Lord and keep him before us.

David also sat before the Lord. This may describe the posture of his body. Kneeling or standing is certainly the more proper way to pray, but from this example the Jews say that kings from David’s family were allowed to sit in the temple, and no one else. That does not make sitting the normal posture for prayer, though it may be allowed when there is need. It may also mean that he took his place before the Lord and stayed there for a time, perhaps in silent meditation before beginning to pray. Or it may describe his spirit. He came in, settled himself before the Lord, and composed his heart. We should do the same whenever we come to God. “My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed.”

David’s prayer is full of warm and devout feeling toward God. He begins very humbly, speaking lowly of himself and of all his own worth. “Who am I, Lord God, and what is my house?” God had reminded him of the smallness of his beginnings (2 Samuel 7:8), and David agreed. He had low thoughts of his own merits. In himself he was a great and useful man, with rare gifts of body and mind, honored, successful, and loved by his country. Yet before God he says, “Who am I? A man not worth noticing.” He also had low thoughts of his family’s merits. His family came from the royal tribe, and he was related to the best families in the land, yet he still thought of his house as small, like Gideon, who said his family was poor in Judah and he was the least in his father’s house (Judges 6:15).

David had once humbled himself in a similar way when Saul’s daughter was offered to him as a wife (1 Samuel 18:18), but now he had even more reason to do so. It well becomes the greatest and best people, even in the height of honor, to think little of themselves. The greatest are only weak people, the best are still sinners, and the highest are only receiving what they have been given. “What am I, that you have brought me this far, brought me to the kingdom, settled me in it, and given me rest from all my enemies?” He means that he could never have reached this place by his own plans and strength if God had not led him there. We must view all our gains as gifts from God.

David then speaks very highly of God’s kindness to him. First, he praises what God had already done. “You have brought me this far, to this great honor and rule. Up to now you have helped me.” Even if we do not know what mercy will come later, we have great reason to thank God for all he has done for us so far (Acts 26:22). Second, he praises what God had promised to do. God had already done great things for him, and yet, as if those were not enough, he had promised even more (2 Samuel 7:19). What God has given his people is much, but what he has stored up for them is far greater (Psalm 31:19). The present graces and comforts of believers are priceless gifts, and still God has spoken of them for a long time to come, even into eternity.

David admits that all this is beyond what he could have expected. “Is this the manner of men?” That is, can a person expect to be treated this way by his Maker? Is this what Adam’s race deserves? Thinking about what human beings are like, it is astonishing that God deals with us as he does. We are small creatures, so we are naturally far beneath him. We are useless to him, so we deserve little notice. We are guilty and liable to judgment, so we deserve death and condemnation. Yet God’s way with people is very different from the normal way of man. He lifts the lowly. He calls sinners back to himself. He waits to be gracious, and he multiplies pardons. Some read the phrase another way: “And this is the law for man, the Lord Jehovah.” On that reading, the promise points to one who would be a man and yet also the Lord Jehovah, so the Messiah from David’s line must be human and yet, because he reigns forever, must be God.

David then says there is nothing more he can want. “What more can David say to you?” What can I ask or wish for beyond this? “Lord, you know your servant.” You know what will truly make me blessed, and what you have promised is enough. The promise of Christ includes everything. If that man, the Lord God, is ours, what more can we ask or think of (Ephesians 3:20)? The promises of the covenant of grace are made by the One who knows us, and therefore knows how to fit them to every need we have. He knows us better than we know ourselves, so we should be satisfied with what he has provided. What more can we say for ourselves in prayer than he has already said for us in his promises?

Finally, David gives all the credit to God’s free grace, both for the great things God had done and for the great things he had made known to him (2 Samuel 7:21). It was all, first, for God’s word’s sake, that is, for the sake of Christ, the eternal Word. So all of it rests on his merit. Or it may mean that God meant to make his promise stand above all his other works, as the firm support and treasure store of his people. It was also according to God’s own heart, his gracious purpose and design, from his own good pleasure. “Even so, Father, for this was pleasing in your sight.”

Everything God does for his people in his providence, and all he secures to them in his promises, is for his own pleasure and praise, the pleasure of his will and the praise of his word.

David then adores the greatness and glory of God (2 Samuel 7:22): “You are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you.” God’s gracious kindness to David, and the honor he had given him, did not lessen David’s deep reverence for God’s majesty. The closer people come to God, the more they see of his glory, and the more favor they receive, the greater he should appear in their eyes. We confess that no being is like him, and no god is beside him. What we have seen with our own eyes of his power and goodness matches all we have heard, and even that is only a small part of it.

David also shows a high regard for the people of God, Israel, in 2 Samuel 7:23-24. As no false god can be compared with the Lord, so no nation can be compared with Israel, when we look at the great things God did for them. He went to redeem them, as if he took up that work with solemn purpose. The wording suggests the unity of the blessed Trinity in the work of redemption, just as in creation when God said, “Let us make man.” Those whom God sent went to redeem, which some understand of Moses and Aaron. Israel’s redemption, as described here, pointed ahead to our redemption by Christ. They were redeemed from the nations and their gods, and we are redeemed from all sin and from conforming to this present world. Christ came to save his people from their sins. They were also redeemed to belong uniquely to God, purified and set apart for him, so that he might make his name great and do great things for them. The honor of God and the lasting good of believers are the two great aims in redemption.

David also remembers the covenant God made with Israel (2 Samuel 7:24). It was mutual, “They shall be a people to you, and you shall be a God to them.” All their interests were given to God, and all his power and goodness were pledged for them. It was also unchanging. God confirmed the covenant, and the one who makes a covenant will also make it sure and bring it to pass.

David ends with humble requests to God. He grounds his prayer on the message God had given him (2 Samuel 7:27). “You have revealed this to your servant,” meaning, “You have freely given me this promise to build me a house, or I could never have dared to pray for such a thing.” He says he would not have asked for something so great if God had not first encouraged him to ask. It is too great for him to request, but not too great for God to give. He says his servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer. Many people come to prayer with a wandering heart, but David’s heart was found, meaning settled, gathered in, and fully engaged in the duty. Prayer found only on the lips will not please God. It must be found in the heart. The heart must be lifted up and poured out before God. My son, give God your heart.

David also builds his faith on God’s truthfulness and faithfulness (2 Samuel 7:25). “You are that God,” that is, the Lord of hosts and God of Israel, the God whose words are true, the God one can trust. Since God has promised this kindness to his servant, David feels bold to ask for it. From that promise, he takes the content of his prayer and uses it as the guide for what he asks.

First, he prays for God’s promise to be fulfilled (2 Samuel 7:25): “Let the word that you have spoken to me be established, for you have caused me to hope in it” (Psalm 119:49), “and do as you have said.” He wants nothing more and expects nothing less, because the promise is so full and so firm. We should turn God’s promises into prayers, and then they will be turned into fulfillments. With God, saying and doing are not separate, as they often are with people. God will do what he has said.

Second, he prays for God’s name to be honored (2 Samuel 7:26): “Let your name be magnified forever.” This should be the center of all our prayers, their beginning and their end. Start with “Hallowed be your name,” and end with “Yours is the glory forever.” Whether I am honored or not, let your name be honored. David sees that nothing magnifies God’s name more than saying, with a sincere heart, “The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel.” This shows how great the God of Israel is, because he is the Lord of hosts, the commander of all powers. It also shows how good the Lord of hosts is, because he is God over Israel. In both ways, his name should be magnified forever. Let all creation and all the churches give him the glory for both. David wanted God’s promise fulfilled for God’s honor, not for his own name. In the same way, the Son of David prayed, “Father, glorify your name” (John 12:28), and “Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you” (John 17:1).

Third, he prays for his house, because the promise especially concerns it. He asks, first, that it may be happy (2 Samuel 7:29): “Please bless the house of your servant.” And again, “with your blessing.” He means, “Let the house of your servant be truly and forever blessed.” Those whom God blesses are truly blessed. Good people care deeply about their families, and the best inheritance they can leave them is God’s blessing. David repeats the request, not pointlessly, but because he values God’s blessing so highly and wants it with all his heart. He knows it is everything for a family’s happiness.

Second, he asks that this happiness would continue (2 Samuel 7:26, 29): “Let it be established before you,” and “let it continue forever before you.” He prays that the royal line would not be broken, and that none of his descendants would lose the crown by unfaithfulness, but that they would walk before God, which would keep them firm. He also prays that his kingdom would reach its fullness and lasting strength in the kingdom of the Messiah. When Christ sat down forever at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12), and received full assurance that his seed and throne would last as long as heaven, this prayer of David, son of Jesse, for his descendants was richly answered, that it might continue before God forever. See Psalm 72:17. The lasting kingdom of the Messiah is the hope and faith of all God’s people.