And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.
Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee ... The chain of Messianic promises which for ages had been broken, or transmitted obscurely under the forms of Mosaic ritual, was now renewed by the addition of a new and most important link, in the great promise made to David of perpetual succession in his family. This promise was understood by him (as it was also by Solomon) as including the exercise of universal dominion (cf. Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 62:1-12); and although the theocracy soon reached its culminating point of conquest under David, as well as of peace and splendour under Solomon-although it was destined, with all the accompaniment of Mosaic polity and ceremonial institutions, at a remote era to be overthrown-although, in short, 'the sceptre did depart from Judah'-yet the promise was, in a larger and sublimer sense, fulfilled in David's son, of another nature (Hebrews 1:8). This is the oath which God aware by his holiness to David-the covenant which He made with him respecting the perpetuity of his royal seed and kingdom (Psalms 89:3-4; Psalms 89:35-36) - the word upon which He caused him to hope (Psalms 119:49), and which is afterward so much dwelt upon through the Psalms, and by the succeeding prophets.
This promise, like that made to Abraham, has a twofold aspect-one points to David's natural posterity and temporal kingdom, the other to the Messiah and the kingdom of heaven. It respected the former only as types and pledges of the latter. Some, indeed, restrict this promise entirely to the Messiah, and deny that it was applicable to David's natural descendants at all. The passages which seem to apply any part of it to these, refer, in their opinion, to another premise made unto David, which was of a temporal nature, and altogether distinct from this. But we have no account of any such premise in all the history. The truth is, this promise, like many others in the Old Testament, has a twofold sense-it takes in the type as well as the antitype; so that these who saw it accomplished in what respected David's temporal house, had a proof that the Lord spoke by the prophet Nathan, and consequently a pledge that He would also in due time fulfill the spiritual part of it also.
That it included David's descendants, who by ordinary generation were to succeed him on the throne of Israel, is evident from David's application of it to his son Solomon, in whom the temporal part of it had a partial accomplishment (1 Chronicles 22:6-11; 1 Chronicles 28:5-8). The Lord himself also applies it to Solomon, when He appeared in vision (2 Chronicles 8:7-18). It contains a threatening against such of David's children as should commit iniquity, which was verified on his royal posterity who succeeded him on the throne, whom the Lord punished for their transgressions, as the sacred history abundantly shows. It was to fulfill the temporal part of this promise that the Lord continued the house of David so long on the throne of Judah, notwithstanding all their frequent and aggravated rebellions against Him (1 Kings 11:36; 2 Kings 8:19; 2 Chronicles 21:7); sea it was repeatedly appealed to by the Jewish Church when the judgments inflicted upon David's temporal house and kingdom seemed to make it void. This promise as it represented David's natural seed was conditional, so that the Lord at length deprived them of the kingdom; but He did not by that deprivation violate or nullify the covenant with His servant; for this was of it what he threatened at the commencement of it to do in the event of their committing iniquity. (1 Chronicles 27:9).
But how, then, was the promise made good, that David's seed should sit on his throne for ever? The spiritual and eternal part of the promise pointed to the Messiah, who was to come of the seed of David according to the flesh, and to be raised up from the dead to sit for ever on His heavenly throne. The promise as it respected the Messiah was absolute, and in Him had its full accomplishment (cf. the last words of David, 2 Samuel 23:5; Acts 2:25-47 with Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 11:1-10; Isaiah 55:1-5; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Jeremiah 33:14-26; Ezekiel 34:23-24; Ezekiel 37:24-25; Daniel 2:44; Hosea 3:5; Luke 1:31-33; Luke 1:60-70: see Hegstenberg's 'Christology,' 1:, pp. 123-145; 'Edinburgh Evangelical Magazine,' May, 1803; Hardwick's 'Christ and other Masters,' 1:, p. 145).