humbled by extreme blessing

and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, 'The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God,' and the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you.

1 Chronicles 17:24-25

 

God made a unique covenant with David and his descendants forever. It came about because of David’s clear determination to build a temple for the worship of the LORD in Jerusalem. His heart was that God be treated with all the respect and glory due to Him. David was not happy to live in a cedar lined palace while God was worshiped in a tent. He longed that in every way imaginable, God’s name would be made known as great.

 

God’s response to David was to honor him with a covenant that blessed David’s unyielding passion for God. God promised to unilaterally establish the house of David as the ruling dynasty in Jerusalem forever. He would make David’s name great even as David longed to make God’s name great. And by doing so God would make His own power known through the throne of David, eventually to the salvation of the world through Jesus, the Son of David. God blessed David so that his son could carry on his rule and build the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. God blessed David so that His Son could become the Messiah of Israel forever. And those things are exactly what happened through Solomon who built the temple in Jerusalem, and through Jesus, Who saves us from the peril of our sins forever.

 

When Nathan the prophet relays this message back to David, the king’s response is humble submission to God’s revealed will. David is overwhelmed. He went to God asking to build a house for God, and the Lord responded by telling David that He would build up David’s house as a ruling dynasty forever. David is humbled by God’s great grace. It seems almost more blessing than he can bear as David humbly comes to God to thank Him for the unprecedented favor that David has found in God’s eyes.

 

I am humbled by the precious heart of David that would respond so worshipfully to God’s blessing. David almost sees himself as unworthy of such favor. But joy flows our in praise from a thankful heart. And that is the type of response that should fill our days when we realize just how blessed we are by God’s unfailing love and grace. We are recipients of the blessings of the covenant God made with David on that day. And we should share in his joy!