Then David went 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 this far? And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord GOD; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD? Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord GOD, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore You are great, O Lord GOD. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 2 Samuel 7: 18-22, NKJV.
Gracious God, I marvel at Your love and mercy! Please stay very close to us today as we study Your word. Amen.
We are a bit late today as we continue in the study of David’s prayer, but we are here! Praise God! We will look at a few other aspects of this wonderful prayer, that is so dear to my heart. As David sits in God’s presence, he continues to ponder about the greatness of God. “And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord GOD; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD?” David is saying, God this was nothing hard for You to pronounce a blessing on Your servant’s household for years to come! This is what You do; You bless! You save! After all God, You dwell in eternity!
I am not sure that I know what David is saying in the last half of the verse. Is he saying, is this the way You deal with human beings? Or is he saying, this is not the way human beings deal with each other? Either of the two ways would be correct; for indeed, God does not deal with us according to what we deserve, but according to His great kindness! Hallelujah! And this is certainly not the norm for human beings to deal with each other! The NRSV says it this way: “May this be instruction for the people, O LORD God (22b)! I say amen to that! We can certainly receive instruction” from the LORD, on how to deal with one another!
“For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them.” Everything that the Lord does for us, He does it because of His great love toward us! We can never deserve His gifts of mercy; it is just because He loves us so! Praise His holy name! David is saying God, I know that these gifts of love, are Your way of saying: I want you to know that I love you! You talk about opening our hearts to God as to a friend? This is it!
“For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” David; the faithful servants of God down through the ages; the prophets; as well as Christians, in the Twenty-first Century; all know that there is no God like our God! And it is not only because of what “we have heard with our ears,” but because of what we have experienced in our lives! I can shout to the four corners of the earth, that I have tasted and seen that “the LORD is good;” and there truly is no God, like our God!
I have added verse 23 from the NRSV, to our study for today: “Who is like [Y]our people, like Israel? Is there another nation on earth whose God went to redeem it as a people, and to make a name for [H]imself, doing great and awesome things for them, by driving out before [H]is people nations and their gods? I believe, if we as Christians, knew what a honor it is for us to have been “engrafted,” (Romans 11: 17) and become heirs, by grace, through faith; we would walk with our heads held very high! We are now members of the household of faith; no longer servants; but sons and daughters of the all-mighty God. But it gets even better; just as God, “went down” to save His people from the oppression of the other nations who were occupying the land that He gave to them, even so, He will come to our rescue when we face obstacles that are bigger than us! Hallelujah!
He did this to make a name for Himself; but not the way we human beings do it. The name with which He would like us to present Him before the nations is Savior, because saving is what He does! Can we do that for Him today? Can we introduce the Savior to someone today?
May God help us, as we seek to “make a name for Him” among the people!