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THE SURE MERCIES OF DAVID

From Israel and the New Covenant by Roderick Campbell

David is spoken of in Scripture as "a man after God's own heart" (1 Sam.13:14; Acts 13:22). This does not mean that David's life was a model of moral rectitude. The phrase, like many in the Psalms, must be considered as applicable to his position as the visible representative of Israel's invisible and heavenly King. In this capacity David strove to carry out faithfully all that God commanded him to do. And when, through human frailty, he fell into the general practice of the monarchs of his time, he manifested sincere penitence and humility. He recognized the fact that all earthly sovereignty and authority must be subservient to the revealed will and purpose of Almighty God. Compared with other monarchs of his own and most other times, David was a faithful king.¹

l "'Better a diamond with a flaw, than a pebble without one.' . . . All whom I address may not be aware of the many and malignant assaults which were made on the Christian faith, and on the morality of the Bible, through the character of' David, by the self-righteous Deists of the last century. . . . But all this while, the question concerning the man, what he was, and what was the moral sum-total of his life, to which alone the Scripture bore witness, and to which alone it was pledged, this was the question wherewith they concerned themselves not at all; ... Of the flaws there can be no doubt, in him, as in every other except the one 'entire and perfect chrysolite'; but were they flaws in a diamond? If so, then we are bold to affirm that the one diamond even with these flaws outvies and outvalues a mountain of pebbles without such" (R. C. Trench, Proverbs and Their Lessons, Ed. 7, 1879, pp. 151f. Cf. Professor Wm. Binnie, The Psalms, London, 1870, Ch. 7, on the morality and spirit of the Old Testament). "A highly valuable book," is Spurgeon's comment on Binnie's book on the Psalms.

"David" is the name in Old Testament prophecy which is most frequently associated with the promise of a coming Messiah and King. The promised Messiah is spoken of many times by the prophets as "David," the shepherd king, and as the "Branch from the root of Jesse," or "the BRANCH" (Isa. 11:11 Zech. 3:8; 6:12). In view of His kingly office He is the "Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6-7), the "Redeemer" (Isa. 59:20; cf. Rom. 11:26), the "desire of all nations" (Hag. 2:7), all of which appellations might be ascribed to an earthly king. But in other cases the titles and descriptions of the coming Messiah are obviously applicable to a higher than an earthly king—one whose kingdom and reign would extend to the ends of the earth, one who would subdue all his enemies, and who would bring prosperity and peace wherever this sovereignty and authority would be recognized (Ps. 2, 45, 72, 110; Isa. 9; etc.). Although no "orthodox" Jew will admit that these promises, titles and descriptions find or will find their fulfillment in Christ, yet every "orthodox" Jew will agree that these promises and titles were designed to find fulfillment in a king who is spoken of as the "Messiah" (The Anointed One).

The kingly aspect of the Messianic idea seems to emerge in enigmatic form in Genesis 49:8-10; Numbers 24:17 and 1 Samuel 2:10, but comes much more clearly into view in that remarkable transaction which God entered into with David the king and which is recorded in 2 Samuel 7. The prophetic phrase, "the sure mercies of David," seems also to have its origin in this same significant transaction, which is frequently spoken of as "the Davidic Covenant."

David had planned to build a costly and magnificent temple dedicated to the worship of Israel's God. He was forbidden to do so by God in a message sent to him through the prophet Nathan, who gave utterance, on behalf of God, to this remarkable promise:

Also the Lord telleth thee that he will build thee an house. And when thy days are fulfilled ... I will set up thy seed after thee. . . . And I will establish his kingdom . . . and thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever (2 Sam. 7:11-16).

Now we know from history that the earthly throne and kingdom of David deteriorated progressively until the last visible trace disappeared in the days of the prophet Jeremiah. We know also that Hosea, long before Jeremiah's time, predicted that 'the children of Israel shall remain many days without a king, and without a prince" (Hosea 3:4). Thus for hundreds of years prior to the advent of Christ there was no king of the house or lineage of David.

This lapse of the earthly throne finds its explanation, in part at least, in the conditional element which was omitted from our abbreviated quotation of Nathan's message. This condition reads:

If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

The qualifying (conditional) clause, it will be noted, does not wholly nullify the promise of a perpetual succession. The question then is, How, in view of the, at least temporary, complete disappearance of the earthly dynasty and kingdom, are we to explain the promise that speaks of a perpetual succession? The following solutions are suggested:

(1) The Davidic line, or dynasty, continued as long as the nation, as such, continued to exist. There was never a suggestion in the kingdom of Judah that the Davidic line be set aside in favour of another dynasty. As long as this part of the nation existed as a distinct, independent nation (about 450 years), there was one of David's line sitting upon the throne.

(2) The kingship survived in spite of all opposition as long as it was permitted by God, and until its designed purpose was fulfilled.

(3) A remnant of the covenanted nation survived until the advent of the King who, in the truest and fullest sense, would fulfil all that was promised in God's covenant with David. The theocratic kingship exemplified in Israel could not exist apart from the covenanted nation under the Sinai covenant. Nevertheless the things unconditionally promised have been, or will yet be, completely fulfilled, in spite of the failures of friends and the malice of enemies. The ultimate fulfillment takes place on a higher plane—the plane of the New Covenant and of Messiah's transcendent kingdom. The earthly throne was a temporary, divinely appointed symbol of the heavenly throne.

(4) Possibly, also, we may consider the unconditional elements in the covenant as being in abeyance until such time as the Messiah appeared. Thus the promises did not begin to find fulfillment until the advent of Christ. There can thus be no question regarding its perpetuity after it became established and operative as it now is.

The posterity of David continued, although for a long time in obscurity, until the Messiah—the true and ultimate Son of David—appeared (Luke 1:32-33). In spite of the lapse of the symbolic kingship, the Hebrew people continued to cling to the hope that a son of David would one day appear who would bring to fruition all that the prophets foretold. But a careful reading of the prophets should convince all unprejudiced minds that nothing other than a superhuman king and a transcendent kingdom could fulfill every detail of the prophetic foreview (Ps. 2, 72, 89, 110; Isa. 9, 11; Ezek. 37; etc.). It will not do to select from these chapters, or from others of a similar nature, just those parts which will fit into our preconceived views of the kingdom, and ignore the rest. Every detail of the prophetic foreview must harmonize with the true fulfillment.

The New Testament writers make no attempt to conceal their own early failure to learn from the prophets (and even from the teaching of Jesus before the resurrection) the true nature and function of Messiah's kingdom. They record the fact that the same nationalistic ideas which had blinded their own minds continued to survive in the early church probably until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. But the New Testament writers themselves, at the time of their writing, have risen above their early failures. Nowhere in the New Testament is there any doubt or hesitation regarding the certainty of the presence of the kingdom, or of its nature, potency, and its ultimate triumph, and that this is the kingdom which a few years earlier was announced as "at hand." It is everywhere implicit that the kingdom spoken of in the Psalms and the Prophets was designed by God to bring to fulfillment all that was unconditionally promised to the patriarch Abraham, to the nation of Israel, and to David the king. All subsequent promises, predictions and covenants were designed by God to implement—to bring to fruition—all that was embraced in that early promise to Abraham of world-wide blessing to the human race. The covenant which God made with David fits into this one, early, comprehensive, promise and purpose of God. The temporal kingdom with its earthly dynasty and literal throne Was one of God's instruments for the achievement of His one great redemptive purpose for the human race.

Peter at Pentecost is seeing with his physical eyes, and in process of being fulfilled, that which was predicted by the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:16 ). James at the Jerusalem council (Acts 15) is telling the assembled brethren that they were then witnessing the restoration of the ruined "taber­nacle" (house or dynasty) of David as promised by the prophet Amos (Amos 9:11; cf. Isa. 16:5 ). They are seeing it being re-J stored on a grander scale, and on a higher and more universal plane of history and life than that which appeared in the reigns of David and Solomon. A "greater than Solomon" is now King. Out of the stump of the ancient tree of the son of Jesse, there has sprung up "The branch" (Isa. 11:1; Zech. 3:8; 6:12 ) which, in process of time, will fill the whole earth with its fragrance and fruit.²

2 Some may be perplexed by the occurrence of the name "David" in such predictive Messianic passages as Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23; 37:24 . Elijah or "Elias" is used in a similar manner (Mai. 4:5). Jesus made the matter very plain. On Mat. 17:11-13, C. H. Spurgeon writes: "Our Lord admits that Elias must come before Messiah: 'Elias truly must first come'; but he asserts that the person intended by the prophecy 'is already come" and that the evil ones 'have done unto him whatsoever they listed.' This cleared up the doubt at once. Then Jesus went on to say that what had been done to the true Elias would also be done to himself, the Messiah. . . . How simple the explanation of the difficulty? How often has it happened that we have been looking for that which has already come, or have been perplexed by a doctrine which, when it has been opened to us by the Holy Spirit, has proved full of instruction and comfort. Without divine teaching we drown in the shallows; but with it we swim the fathomless deeps" (The Gospel of the Kingdom, London, 1893, p. 142). If "David" in the passages cited above means the Messiah, then we possess a principle of interpretation of far-reaching importance, not only for the study of the immediate contexts, but for the whole panorama o£ predictive prophecy. Referring to the same passages, Handley C. G. Moule writes: "Is it not probable that the range of Old Testament prediction has its fulfillment in the realities of the spiritual order, which is the highest?" (Outline of Christian Doctrine, New Ed., London, p. 109).

Paul is much more explicit. He speaks of the covenant which God made with David as already fulfilled. Referring to 1 Samuel 13:14 and Psalm 89:20, Paul tells us that God "found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my will." Then Paul proceeds:

Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus: . . . And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise that was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him from the dead, now no more to see corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David (Acts 13:22-23, 32-34).

This last phrase, "the sure mercies of David," is quoted from Isaiah 55:3 and occurs there in the midst of a passage which sounds as if it came from the lips of David's Greater Son.

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. . . . Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Israel had forfeited its claim to any consideration on the basis either of the Sinai or the Davidic covenant, and yet the faithful Remnant in Israel is addressed and encouraged with the most ample, free, and glorious promises that language can express. This "everlasting covenant" is none other than the covenant which was formally and explicitly announced by Jeremiah (31:31). It was made with the faithful Remnant of Israel and through them to all mankind who would recognize in Jesus the Messiah who was promised to Israel of old, and who would submit to Him as their true and rightful King. All that remains unfulfilled of God's promises to David—these sure and certain mercies of David—will find complete fulfillment under the New Covenant which is now being administered by Christ.

God's covenant with David is one of the great landmarks of history. "Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever" (2 Sam. 7:16; cf. Ps. 89:2-4 ). This is history as well as prophecy. There is a very real relationship, or correspondence, of the throne on which David sat with the throne on which Christ sits in His redemptive kingdom. David and Solomon sat on the "throne of the Lord" (1 Chron. 29:23). Thus Luke, in reporting the angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus, writes:

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:32-33).

The many plain intimations in the Prophets and the Psalms that Messiah's kingdom would embrace the whole earth may be summarized in the words of Solomon at the dedication of the temple when he prayed "That all people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as do thy people Israel" (1 Kings 8:43; 2 Chron. 6:33). Here again we are reminded of God's promise to Abraham. Here we are again reminded of that comprehensive passage in Paul in which we see all the Old Testament promises converge on Christ and then, radiating from Him, reach out into all the world:

Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him all ye people. And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to rule over the Gentiles; and in him shall the Gentiles trust (Rom. 15:8-12, quoting Psalm 18:49; 117:1; Isa. 11:1-10 ).

Paul is here telling us that Jesus, the Branch from the roots of Jesse, will bring to accomplishment all that was unconditionally promised to the fathers in the earlier covenants. What else is the purpose of Paul's own missionary journeys but the working out of the initial all-inclusive promise to Abraham of world-wide spiritual blessing? He tells us:

I am debtor both to the Greeks and barbarians . . . for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:14-16). For ye are all one in Christ Jesus, and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:28-29).

We have looked successively at the prophetic, the high-priestly and the kingly offices of Christ. In the exercise of these three offices Christ fulfils every detail of all that was spoken of Him by the prophets, all that was symbolically portrayed the sacrificial economy, all that was symbolized in the earthly kingship and throne, and all that was unconditionally promised in the covenants which God made with Abraham, Israel and David. But it is chiefly to the kingly office and to God's covenant with David that we must apply the significant phrase, "the sure mercies of David,"—these solemn, certain, and unconditional promises which are spoken of in the Psalm which reads in part:

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations. ... I have exalted one chosen out of the people . . . my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted. . . . Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. . . . His seed will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. . . . His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me (Ps. 89).

Interspersed among these unconditional promises of future blessings we find repeated references to the melancholy record of the occupants of the earthly throne in Old Covenant Israel, all of which dismal record forms the dark background against which we see the glory of the coming One who would bring to fruition these sure and precious promises which God made to His servant David.

The following illuminating facts seem to emerge from the sacred records and from history generally, and may serve to clear away any difficulties which may linger in the mind of the reader, and any seeming inconsistencies, or paradoxes, in the prophetic foreview of Messiah's kingship and reign:

(1) Israel was, ideally, a theocracy—a nation under the direct government of God. David and Solomon sat upon "the throne of the Lord" (1 Chron. 29:23). The earthly throne was not an essential element in the theocracy: it was added in response to the demands of a rebellious people (1 Sam. 8). And yet there is reason to believe that it was ordained by God (Deut. 17:14 ff.) as a symbolic foreshadowing (a type) of, as well as a preparation for, the Messianic Kingship of Christ.

(2) The most conspicuous idea, or conception, in Old Testament psalm and prophecy is that of a future Messiah—the Anointed One—who would in every respect be the ideal Deliverer and King, and who would accomplish for God and men all that Israel with its earthly kings failed to accomplish.

(3) Throughout the whole of the prophetic foreview there are elements of mystery and transcendency which can be explained in no other way than on the basis of the amazing events which did actually transpire in history and which are recorded in the Gospel narratives, and in the Acts of the Apostles. These unique and unprecedented events the prophets dimly visualized, yet they were not permitted to give expression to them in explicit language.

(4) It will defy the imagination of the ablest of men to think of anything that could conceivably happen which would surpass the perfection with which the New Testament revelation of Messiah's kingship and reign fulfils all the reasonable demands of prophetic fulfillment (cf. Acts 2:22-36; Eph. 1:20-22; Col. 2: 10; Heb. 2:8; Rev. 1:5; 17:14 ).

(5) The New Testament makes it clear that it will be by means of spiritual redemption that the world must be subdued and brought into subjection to Christ who now reigns as "a priest upon his throne" (Zech. 6:13; Ps. 110:5; Heb. 3:1; Rev. 3:21), and that this process involves judgment as well as mercy—the overthrow of evil as well as the establishment of righteousness, peace and joy over all the earth. All being subservient to the ultimate purpose and glory of God.

(6) In prophecy and psalm Messiah comes frequently into view as a victorious King. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him" (Ps. 22:27; 72:10-11).