(8) Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: (9) And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. (10) Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as beforetime, (11) And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house. (12) And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. (13) He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever. (14) I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: (15) But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. (16) And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.
This is a most gracious message from God to his servant, both in leading him back to the general review of the mercies the Lord had already shown him, and in leading him forward to the view of the blessings yet to come. Reader! I stop you in the account of them just to observe, that one of the sweetest and most precious offices of the Holy Ghost in glorifying the Lord Jesus, by taking of the things of Jesus, and showing to his people, is when he kindly acts as the Remembrancer of Jesus, in bringing again to the recollection what our ungrateful and forgetful hearts so easily suffer to slip out of our minds. And do be frequently looking out for testimonies a his gracious work in this precious office, in your own experience. David is here properly reminded of the great things the Lord had done for him. His history is traced back to the sheepcotes, from whence the Lord took him: his victories over all his enemies; the high dignity to which the Lord had brought him; the blessings he now enjoyed; the blessings opening before him; the blessings in his family, in his people, in his kingdom; the recompense the Lord would make him for the intentions he had of erecting an house to the Lord; that the Lord would build him a sure house, and establish his kingdom to his children forever, and bring him down in quietness and serenity to his grave, when the number of his days was filled. These were such gracious acts of love and mercy as could only flow from the free, sovereign grace, and loving-kindness of the Lord; and therefore he could find no cause for them in the merit of man. But, when we have paid all due attention to what is here said, as it refers to David, in his own person and household, I hope the Reader will find yet an infinitely richer subject in looking at the whole spiritually, as it referred to the person, and kingdom, and seed, of the Lord Jesus Christ, the spiritual David, of whom here most eminently this king of Israel could be no other than a type. For never could it be said in reference to David the son of Jesse, that his throne should be established forever. Here then, Reader, let us in this point of view regard the subject, and behold, in the person of the Lord Jesus, (who according to the flesh was of the seed of David) the Lord of that kingdom, which, as Daniel prophesied in after ages, the God of heaven would set up, which should never be destroyed, but endure forever. Daniel 2:44. Of Jesus, and no other, could this be said, and of him it is literally and strictly true; for so the angel in his salutation to Mary declared, that he should be great, and be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God hath given unto him the throne of his Father David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Luke 1:32-33. It is true indeed, that what the Lord ordered Nathan to tell David, in the latter part of this message concerning his committing iniquity, cannot be applied personally to Jesus; for he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners: he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. But yet, he was made sin for his people, though he knew no sin himself: and as such, suffered in our stead and law room, the stripes of men. And as to his mystical body, his spiritual seed, they do feel the awful effects of sin by the fall. So that in this sense the passage may be accommodated to him also. Blessed Jesus! how sweet and refreshing to my soul, amidst all the dying circumstances of kingdoms, and men around, is the thought, that of the increase of thy government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it forever. Isaiah 9:7.