Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on September 7, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Be reading from 2nd Samuel, chapter 7 and Psalm 89. Today we’re going to read the entire passage of Psalm 7. It’s a long passage. We won’t be covering every single aspect of it today as we’re looking at the Davidic covenant. But as always, the reading of Scripture is the most important set of words that you hear whenever we get together for worship.
Beginning in 2 Samuel, chapter 7. When the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, the king said to the prophet Nathan, look, I am living in a cedar house while the ark of God sits inside tent curtains. So Nathan told the king, go and do all that is on your mind, for the Lord is with you. But that night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go to my servant David and say, this is what the Lord are you to build me a house to dwell in.
From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, I have not dwelt in a house. Instead, I have been moving around with a tent as my dwelling. In all my journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever spoken a word to one of the tribal leaders of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, asking, why haven’t you built me a house of cedar? So now this is what you are to say to my servant David. This is what the Lord of armies, I took you from the pasture from tending the flock to be ruler over my people, Israel.
I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. I will make a great name for you like that of the greatest on the earth. I will designate a place for my people, Israel, and plant them so that they may live there and not be disturbed again. Evildoers will not continue to oppress them as they have done ever since the day I ordered judges to be over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.
The Lord declares to you. The Lord himself will make a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be my son.
When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals. But my faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and kingdom will Endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever. Nathan reported all these words and this entire vision to David. Then King David went in, sat in the Lord’s presence, and said, who am I, Lord God?
What is my house that you have brought me this far? What you have done so far was a little thing to you, Lord God, for you have also spoken about your servant’s house in the distant future, and this is a revelation for mankind, Lord God, what more can David say to you? You know your servant, Lord God, because of your word and according to your will, you have revealed all these great things to your servant. This is why you are great, Lord God. There is no one like you, and there is no God beside you.
And as all we have heard confirms, and who is like your people, Israel? God came to one nation on earth in order to redeem a people for himself, to make a name for himself, and to perform for them great and awesome acts, driving out nations and their gods before your people. You redeemed for yourself from Egypt. You established your people, Israel, to be your own people forever. And you, Lord, have become their God.
Now, Lord God, fulfill the promise forever that you have made to your servant and his house. Do as you have promised, so that your name will be exalted forever. When it is said the Lord of armies is God over Israel. The house of your servant David will be established before you. Since you, Lord of armies, God of Israel, have revealed this to your servant when you said, I will build a house for you.
Therefore your servant has found the courage to pray this prayer to Lord God. You are God, your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now please bless your servant’s house so that it will continue before you forever. For you, Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing, your servant’s house will be blessed forever. And then turning to Psalm 89, verses 3 through 4 and 1937, Psalm 89, the Lord said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one.
I have sworn an oath to David, my servant. I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations. You once spoke in a vision to your faithful ones and said, I have granted help to a warrior. I have exalted, one chosen from the people. I have found David, my servant, and I have anointed him with my sacred oil.
My hand will always be with him, and my arm will strengthen him. The enemy will not oppress him, the wicked will not afflict him. I will crush his foes before him and strike those who hate him. My faithfulness and love will be with him. And through my name his horn will be exalted.
I will extend his power to the sea and his right hand to the rivers. He will call to me. You are my father, my God, the rock of my salvation. I will also make him my firstborn, greatest of the kings of the earth. I will always preserve my faithful love for him and my covenant with him will endure.
I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as heaven lasts. If his sons abandon my instruction and do not live by my ordinances, if they dishonor my statutes and do not keep my commands, then I will call their rebellion to account with the rod, their iniquity with blows. But I will not withdraw my faithful love from him or betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or change what my lips have said once and for all. I have sworn an oath by my holiness.
I will not lie to David. His offspring will continue forever his throne, like the sun before me, like the moon, established forever. A faithful witness in the sky. May we pray? Heavenly Father, as we continue to look at covenants, we thank you that you have offer to us a real relationship.
One that is personal, Father. That is perfect. And we thank you for the responsibility that you have given us to represent you in this world. And we thank you that there was a plan from the beginning that one day you would send your son, your only son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. And through the covenants, you made it more and more clear who that one would be so that we might recognize him when he came and accept him as our personal Lord and Savior.
It’s in his name that we pray today and we give thanks and we ask that you would give us understanding how to apply these things to our life. Amen. The covenants are like bull’s eye. They’re all gradually pointing us in more and more till we get to center. Jesus Christ.
The covenants all pull us closer and closer to that climactic center. And each covenant narrows our focus. Focus until we come to Jesus. And each person with whom God covenanted is an example to us that God desires to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. And God desires that we, each and every one, represent him in this world.
Adam represented God in that he was created in the image of God. He served as the ruling regent of all earth. All people are created to represent God, to take care of his creation, to rule and to shepherd. But Adam was also in a personal relationship with God because Scripture tells us that he was made in God’s likeness. Just as Adam bore a son in his likeness and Abraham bore a son in his likeness.
It signifies this personal relationship that God had with Adam and he wants to have with all of us. The world became evil. And in that completely evil world, God covenanted with Noah. He asked Noah to represent him through testimonial living and through a proclamation of the coming judgment and showing how God would provide salvation through the ark. And even though no one other than his family believed him and accepted that Noah was called to to do this, then we come to Abraham.
God called Abraham to represent him through his obedience and faith. And we find that God had a very personal relationship with Abraham. That was demonstrated by the fact that God came and ate with him. God spoke with him, God shared with him his plans, and God was involved in his life. And thus Abraham represented God.
But Abraham also had a relationship with God. When Moses came along, he became God’s representative, but he provided the law for an entire nation that God particularly wanted to have a special relationship with the nation of Israel. And God wanted to have a relationship with them. He wanted them to follow his word and his law so that they might represent him in the world and show the way to salvation. We come to David now, today, and we see now that God chooses a king from the tribe of Judah to represent him.
One to rule, to shepherd, and to care for the people of God. And we know through David’s life and his words in the Psalms that he had a very deep personal relationship with God. So as all of these things are focusing in more and more on Jesus Christ, what are the terms of the covenant today that God made with David? And how does this covenant point to Jesus? We read a lot of scripture.
We can’t cover all of it today, but we want to make some major points. Just as we think about the text, let’s go back to Second Samuel, chapter seven. And it says, when the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, the king said to the prophet Nathan, look, I am living in a cedar house while the ark of God sits inside a tent of curtains. So Nathan told the king, go and do all that is on your mind, for the Lord is with you. God had given peace to David, God had given prosperity to David.
And David is sitting in his beautiful house and thinking, God is still camping in a tent. Now, God wasn’t actually living in that tent. It was the representation where his glory was displayed. But in all of this, David was probably thinking his mind, well, In Egypt and in all these other countries there, there are beautiful temples where the idols reside. But God didn’t want a beautiful temple through all of this time.
Instead, he chose to move with the people as they were camping in the wilderness. He wanted to have a personal close relationship with them. And it’s in the same way that Jesus Christ came. He didn’t live in a castle. Scripture tells us that he didn’t even have a handsome face or a strong or wonderful body that would make people be attracted to them.
He was just living in an ordinary human body, a tent like us, so that he could be with people and have a relationship with them. David had peace. David had prosperity. He wanted to create a beautiful temple for God. But God said, you know, it’s been fine all along.
What’s more important to me is that I was able to live with my people. That night. It says that the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go to my servant David and say, this is what the Lord says. Are you to build me a house to dwell in?
From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, I have not dwelt in a house. Instead I have been moving around with a tent as my dwelling. Again, God is just saying, I am content with what I’ve had, what has been provided. Because what’s more important is that I am with my people. Going to verse eight, we read.
So now this is what you are to say to my servant David. This is what the Lord of armies says. I took you from the pasture from tending the flock to be ruler over my people, Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. Things have changed now for Israel.
Now God is calling a king to represent Jesus, the people, to rule over them. And before David, we had Saul. Saul was taller than everybody else. He was a good looking man. He was from a rich family.
He was the person that the people chose. And the person that the people chose to be king ended up failing miserably. But now with David, we have the king that God himself has chosen. But this is different, because at the time of Adam, God’s design was for fathers to lovingly shepherd, to care for and lead their homes. But the world fell into disrespect, in disrepair, it fell into evil and to sin.
And fathers were not leading their homes. So God sent a flood to destroy all of the earth and to restart things again. And we have now what is instituted, what we call governments. Because Noah was told, from now on, if anyone kills another Life, it’s not your responsibility, but it’s everybody’s responsibility collectively to see that justice is meted out. God instituted governments that they should represent him faithfully in this world.
Then we come to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A tribal leadership style that each of them was to be the ruling representative of God and to display what a personal relationship with him looked like. And then after them there was leadership by the judges who were the representatives of God. But now we come to that God is narrowing it down, that there is going to be a king, one that I call to this world to lead you, to represent me and to have a personal relationship. So it is that God chooses David.
And all of this is pointing to the fact that one day the coming Messiah will will be Our King. Verse 9. God gives some promises for David, but God also gives some promises for God’s people, the Israelites. In verse nine, we read, I will make a great name for you speaking to David. And there at the end it says, I will give you rest from all your enemies.
Those were promises that were given to David. But as it is in prophecy, the prophecies can be narrow, but they can also include a more expansive viewpoint out there. Therefore, he also talks about Israel. In verse 10, he says, I will designate a place for my people, Israel. He’s going to give them a place.
He’s going to give them a land where he says he will plant them so that they may live there. And here’s the second thing. They’re promised they not be disturbed. They’re going to have peace. They’re going to have a place to live.
They’re going to have peace. And then thirdly, we see that God promises that one day Israel will have freedom. He says that evildoers will not continue to oppress them as they have done ever since the day I ordered judges to be over my people Israel. David hears promises to himself. He hears promises, promises for God’s people.
Then we go to verse 11. The Lord declares to you, the Lord himself will make a house for you when your time comes and your rest with your ancestors. I will raise up after you your descendant who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. Now, as with other prophecies, there can be both prophecies, present and future fulfillments. He’s giving a house at this time to David.
He is giving David a kingdom. But there’s more here that’s involved because the language of the house and the kingdom now adds this eternal aspect to it. In verse 16, we read your House and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever. So we have this promise of an eternal house, a promise of eternal kingdom, a promise of an eternal throne. And God is making this to a mortal man.
So there’s this impossibility. How can David have these things unless he lives forever? So God is not just talking to David. He’s not just talking about his son, but he’s beginning to show with David that there’s something coming in the distant future, that there will be an eternal home, an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne. And then he goes on to say it of that king, when he comes in verse 14, I will be his father and he will be my son.
I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals, but my faithful love will never leave him. What does this sound like here? Somebody with an eternal home, an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne, a son of God who’s going to be disciplined by men. This is your question for today. Who does that sound like?
That we know it does. Now we have this aspect in here. When he does wrong again, we have to go back to prophecies. Can be talking to individuals here, but mean greater things. And what God was saying to David of all of his descendants, if they do wrong, I will discipline them.
But because Jesus comes as the perfect king and the perfect man, our Savior and Lord, and he did no wrong, he is going to be disciplined by men. But it’s not because of his sin. God knows that there will never be a descendant of David who can fulfill the law completely. But he still talks of this eternal house, an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne. He’s pointing forward to the coming Savior and Messiah.
Verse 18.
After David heard all this, it says that King David went in and he sat in the Lord’s presence, just like you would go in and sit down with a friend or go in and sit down with someone in your family or a parent. David had this personal, relaxed relationship with the Lord where he could just sit with him and talk to the Lord. And in this conversation with God, he’s looking at the past, but he’s also looking at this distant future that God is talking about. When he sat in the Lord’s presence, David humbly said, who am I, Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me this far?
What you have done so far? It was just a little thing to you, Lord God, for you have also spoken about your servant’s house now, not just in the next generation, not in the near future. But he realizes God is talking about something that’s going to happen in the distant future. And this revelation isn’t going to be just for David and for his household. It’s way more significant than that.
God is sharing with him something about a revelation for mankind. And David at this time believes about the future because he says, God, you’ve been faithful in the past. I know youw’re going to be faithful in the future. And David understands that God is speaking about the future of not only Israel, but all of mankind. Let’s turn to Acts chapter two so we can see that David understand He was prophetically talking about the coming Messiah.
In Acts chapter 2 and verse 25 we read. For David says of him, Acts is speaking of Jesus Christ. David says of him, of Jesus, I saw the Lord ever before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken. What David saw gave him confidence.
And not only did it give him confidence, it says that my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope. Because you will not abandon me in Hades or allow your Holy One to see decay. You have revealed the paths of life to me, and you will fill me with gladness in your presence. Look at that verse 27 there.
You will not abandon me in Hades or allow your Holy One to see decay. Where is David’s body today? It’s decayed. It’s gone. He was buried in a tomb.
His spirit is with the Lord. So who was David talking about here? And Acts tells us that when he makes this statement, he was looking forward to the coming Messiah. We read in verse 29, brothers and sisters, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David. He’s dead and buried.
His tomb is still with us to this day. But since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath and to him to seat. And it’s not all of his descendants, but one particular of his descendants on his throne. And David, seeing what was to come, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah. So he wasn’t talking about his own body not decaying.
He was knowing that the Messiah would not decay. He was not abandoned to Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay. David was a king, but David was a prophet. And he understood that God was pointing to a distant future when all the world would see one of his descendants on the throne. Verse 20.
We find that David is confident about what God tells him. And what I want you to see here in the text is that he has confidence in God because of God’s word, and he has confidence because of God’s Word will what God promises he will do what God says He will do. But it’s not just about His Word. But if God wills something, if it’s his desire and his plan, we also know for certain that it will come about. What more can David say to you?
You know your servant, Lord God, and because of your Word and according to your will, you have revealed all these great things to your servant. This is why you are great Lord God. There’s no one like you, and there is no God beside you. As all we have heard confirms, David had great confidence that God would send the Messiah because God’s Word said so, because it was God’s desire for it to happen. But there’s a third reason here.
Because all of these things are for God’s glory. Everything that God has created, everything that God says, everything that God does, it’s all for his glory. Who is like your people, Israel? We read God came to one nation on earth in order to redeem a people, not for them, but for Himself, for His glory. To make a name, to give glory for Himself, not to elevate the Israelites, but but to bring glory to Himself, to perform for them great and awesome acts, driving out nations and their gods before your people.
Redeemed for yourself from Egypt, you established your people, Israel, to be your own people forever. And you, Lord, have become their God. God chose Israel to be his people, mainly for he his glory. And because of God’s word, because of God’s will, because of God’s desire for his glory, David knows for certain God is going to do what he says. And in response to this, we read David’s prayer in verse 25.
Now, Lord God, because of your word, because of your will, and because of your desire for your glory, David can confidently say, God, God, fulfill the promise forever that you have made to your servant and his house. Do as you have promised so that your name will be exalted forever. When we go to the Lord’s Prayer, we talk about praying according to the will of God the Father, according to his kingdom. If God has spoken something in His Word, if you know it’s his will and you know it’s going to glorify him. And those are the prayers that you can pray in confidence and ask him, knowing that he will fulfill them.
The Lord of armies is God over Israel. David said, the house of your servant David will be established before you. Since you, Lord of armies, God of Israel, have revealed this to your servant. When you said, I will build a house for you. Therefore your Servant has found the courage, the certainty to pray this prayer to you.
And this is David’s specific prayer. Lord God, you are God. Your words are true. You have promised this good thing to your servant. Now please bless your servant’s house so that it will continue before you forever.
For you, Lord God, have spoken. And with your blessing, your servant’s house will be blessed forever. The key to knowing how to pray is to read God’s word. Because when you know his word, when you know his will, when you know what glorifies him, that leads you how to pray effectively as David, and to pray with confidence that God will do what he says. Let’s go to Psalm 89 just for some reinforcement of what we’ve been seeing so far.
Psalm 89. We read much of it earlier, but let’s just cover a few verses now in verse 28 we find out that God, back in the previous text, has been talking about all these promises to David. But here we see it’s actually a covenant that he made with him. In verse 28 we read, I will offer always preserve my faithful love for him, and my covenant with him will endure. I will establish his line forever and his throne as long as heaven lasts.
The things that were promised earlier are really covenants that God made with David. His offspring will continue forever his throne, like the sun before me, like the moon, established forever, a faithful witness in the sky. All of this is pointing to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, who only can eternally fulfill the covenant that God had promised to David. So I got some statements written here. Now the first one is that Jesus fulfilled the law and therefore he became the perfect representative of who had a perfect relationship with the Father.
And because of his perfection as Son of God and Son of Man, he was able to be the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world and become the eternal ruling descendant of David. We cannot have hope for salvation in any man. It’s not the prayers of our grandparents are of our parents that make us have a right relationship with God. And there is no earthly king that can ever establish what God truly desires. That’s why he had to send his son, Jesus Christ to be the perfect king, the perfect man, a perfect relationship with the Father that He could become a sacrifice for us.
And it’s only in Jesus Christ that we have the eternal house that was promised by God. And Jesus Christ is seated on an eternal throne in heaven now next to the Father. And he has an eternal kingdom that was promised to David. And now that kingdom lives within all the believers. But one day it will be manifested physically when Christ returns to set up a physical kingdom upon this world to fulfill the covenant that God promised to David.
In closing today, the two things I keep saying remember about covenant. It’s about a relationship and it’s about representation. From the beginning, God created people. He created mankind because he desired to have a relationship with mankind. God doesn’t need us.
He doesn’t need us for food. He doesn’t need us to be happy. He doesn’t need us to experience, experience love or to have a relationship. He has all of that within the Godhead between the Father and the Son and the Spirit. He made people because he desires to have a relationship with us.
And that should make us all feel special, that he would desire that from us. But God also created mankind because he wanted mankind to be his representatives on earth. God wants us to have a relationship with him. And then he wants us to represent his love, to be his hands and feet and his voice in the world so that others might come to know Him. Therefore, we can say with certainty that God wants a covenant relationship with each and every person here today.
And that relationship with him is described as a marriage. It’s described as a father child relationship. It’s described as a friendship because it’s supposed to be personal, it’s supposed to fulfill you. It’s supposed to be perfect and intimate. The relationship that God offers with us is the one that we all desire and we look forward in other people.
But only God can fulfill that completely for us. Not only does God want a covenant relationship with each and every one here today, but God wants all of us to represent him in the world, to face faithfully, go out and present the gospel, and to share the love that he sent to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. So in closing, I just ask you today to examine your heart. Do you have a relationship with God that’s like this? Are you representing him in the world?
And it starts with recognizing your need that you are a sinner. And you don’t have a relationship with God unless you accept the that fact fact that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that he rose from the dead. And then you tell God in faith, I believe this. And with faith, Scripture tells us that there’s going to be repentance. They go hand in hand.
And repentance doesn’t say, I just want to go to heaven. I believe this repentance says, I want to change my ways. I want to no longer live for myself. I want to turn and be freed from sin and live for you. That type of lifestyle goes along with the desire of true faith in your life.
May we pray? Heavenly Father, we just come before you today and we say, father, we are sinners. And we place our lives in your hand. We want to turn from living for ourself to living for you. And we accept the gift of salvation that we cannot purchase, that we cannot work through.
For we understand that it comes from you. Father, thank you for making us your children. Equip us to be your representatives in this world and to grow in our relationship with you. In your son’s name we pray. Amen.