Acts 2:29-31 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Men and brethren Thus he addresses himself to them, with a title of respect; let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David Let it be no offence to you, if I tell you that David cannot be understood here as speaking of himself, but of the Messiah to come. David is here called a patriarch, a more honourable title than king, because he was the father of the royal family, and a man of great note and eminence in his generation; that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us And as no one ever pretended that he had risen, therefore he could not say of himself, that he should not see, or suffer corruption; it being evident he did suffer it. St. Paul urges this same argument, chap. Acts 13:35-37. Therefore, being a prophet, &c. He therefore spoke it as a prophet, with an eye to the Messiah, to whose sufferings the prophets bore testimony beforehand, as also to the glory that should follow; knowing that God had sworn with an oath In a special revelation from heaven; that of the fruit of his loins Or, out of his descendants; he would raise up Christ That is, the promised Messiah; to sit on his throne That is, promised him a son; the throne of whose kingdom should be established for ever, 2 Samuel 7:12. He seeing this before With a firm reliance on the faithfulness of God, spake of the resurrection of Christ in the words just now repeated; not meaning them of himself, or intending they should be taken in any lower sense. But how does that promise of a kingdom imply Christ's resurrection? Because he did not receive it before he died, and because his kingdom was to endure for ever, 2 Samuel 7:13.