2 Samuel chapter 7, and we'll read
the first 17 verses tonight. And it came to pass when the
king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round
about from all his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan the
prophet, see now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark
of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said to the king,
go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee. And
it came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto
Nathan, saying, go and tell my servant David, thus saith the
Lord, shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? Whereas
I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought
up the children of Israel out of Egypt. even to this day, but
have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. In all the places
wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake
I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to
feed my people Israel, saying, Why build you not me and house
of Cedar? Now, therefore, so shalt thou
say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took
thee from the sheep coat, from following the sheep, to be ruler
over my people, over Israel. And I was with thee whithersoever
thou winnest, 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. 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 any more as before time. And since that time, or 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. And
when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
I will set up thy seat after thee, which shall proceed out
of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an
house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
forever. 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. But my mercy shall not depart
away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before
thee. And thine house and thy kingdom
shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall
be established forever. According to all these words
and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. The title of my message is simply
King David at Rest. And I'm going to divide the message
into two parts. First, let's notice David at
rest in these first three verses. Verse one tells us, and it came
to pass when the king sat in his house and the Lord had given
him rest round about. Now we've been studying 1 Samuel,
now into 2 Samuel, and of course we've seen David in many different
positions. We saw him go out to fight Goliath. We saw him tending his father's
sheep. We saw him fighting and battling
with the Philistines on many occasions. We saw him running
and fleeing from Saul, the king. And now, for the first time,
we read of David at rest. The Lord had given him rest. The Lord had prospered him. The
Lord had prospered him and gave him the throne of the nation
of Israel. And now for just a short period
of time, evidently, God is giving him rest. And I say that because
in the next chapter, God willing, if we get to go into chapter
eight, we will see David back on the battlefield. And we know
that his life was for the most part a life not of rest, but
of much activity. And in one of his Psalms, he
said this, Oh, that I had the wings of a dove. So I know rest
was very precious to this man. He didn't often experience this
rest. Oh, that I had the wings of a
dove. For then I would fly away and
be at rest. You know, the crown upon a man's
Most people envy that, but with that comes a lot of turmoil and
a lot of disappointment and a lot of decisions that don't please
everyone, we know that. And at one time he said, oh,
that I had the wings of a dove. Have you ever felt like that?
In some difficulty or some problem and you think to yourself, I
just wish I could get away from it. Just go out into the wilderness
and camp out for a while and stay up there. But at this particular
time, David was at rest. And then the second thing we
see, David and his house in verse two, that the king said unto
Nathan the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar. Now, sometimes
when the scriptures speak about a man's house, it's talking about
his family, isn't it? His last words, the last words
of David recorded in 2 Samuel 23, you remember, he said, though
my house be not so with God. He's talking about his family
there. But here, he's speaking about his residence, his house,
a house, he says a house of cedar. If you look back, into chapter
5, I believe it's chapter 5, yes, in verse 11. David's house
was built by a king, probably a palace, probably more
like a palace, because here in chapter 5 in verse 11 we read,
And Hiram king of Tyre sent messages to David, And now Tyre was a
very wealthy province. It was on the coast and there
was much trade conducted from Tyre. And so it was a very wealthy
province. And this king, Hiram, king of
Tyre, he had control over the range of what is called Lebanon
in the scriptures. And that, of course, is where
those giant cedars that we read about here, and also when the
temple was built, the cedars from Lebanon. But what I'm pointing
out to us tonight is that a king built this house for David. He's
the one who sent the trees and the carpenters and the masons,
and they built a house for David. David calls it a house of cedar,
but some refer to it as a spacious house, a sealed house. C-E-I-L-E-D,
I believe is the way. A sealed house. There was no
cracks in it. That's the way I look at it.
You know, when the wind was blowing, it didn't blow through his house. No, it was a house of cedar,
a sealed house. And the third thing we notice
here, while David is at rest, David is in his house, his company. Who does he keep company with
during this time? Well, here's a prophet. Prophet,
first time this prophet is mentioned. We've seen other prophet, at
least one other prophet with David, the prophet Gad. But now
for the first time we read of this man by the name of Nathan. This is the first time he's mentioned,
but later, you know this, later in the life of David, he will
always be remembered as being that prophet who told David,
thou art the man. That took a lot of bravery to
tell a king who could end a person's life just by giving a command. for that prophet. You know, we
read, as you read through the Kings, the book of Kings, various
kings of Judah and various kings of Israel after the nation was
divided, you find that sometimes they didn't care for these prophets. Ahab, he sure didn't care for
that one prophet, did he? He said, he always speaks something
bad about me. And then I was reading, I think
it was Asa, who was a good king of Judah. And one of the prophets
prophesied and he put him in stocks. He was a good king overall,
but he could not allow one of his subjects to speak to him
like a prophet would speak, like Elijah spoke to Ahab and Micaiah,
that was a prophet's name, who spoke to Ahab. Now, some of the
commentators fault Nathan for what he said here to David when
David said, I dwell in a house of cedar. Just think about this,
a spacious house a palace, so to speak. He was dwelling in.
And then he said, but the ark of God, this manifestation of
the presence of God is dwelling in a tent that I had pitched
under curtains. You know, you see his humility
here, don't you? I do. I started when I started
preparing this message, I thought to myself, In this chapter we
see David at his very best, as far as I'm concerned. But then
I remembered what the scripture says, man at his best state is
altogether vanity. But surely we see the humility
of David, here's a king, and it just didn't seem right to
him that he should be dwelling in a palace and the Ark of the
Covenant should be out in a tent. dwelling in a tent. Some people
find fault with Nathan when he told him, Go, do all that is
in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee. But if you notice,
David didn't say anything about building God a house. You don't
see that. He just shows, he speaks to this
man of God and shows how he feels. how humble he was, that he was
in a sealed house and the ark was in a tent. But some people
think, well, Nathan was wrong in telling him, do what is in
thine heart. But Nathan recognized David was
a man after God's own heart. Nathan knew that David was sincere
in what he wanted to do in his service of the Lord. Now he may
have assumed, we don't know that, he may have assumed that what
David was speaking about was building a temple, building a
permanent residence for the Ark of the Covenant. But David didn't
say that. All he said was, I live in a
cedar house and the Ark of God dwells in a tent, in a curtain. What are some lessons for us,
for you and I, from what we've seen so far? Well, first of all,
I point out that only the Lord can give a person spiritual rest. When God troubles a man or a
woman's conscience, we see here David at rest, that's physical
rest we recognize, but I'm talking about spiritual rest, when God
the Holy Spirit Troubles a person's heart about their sin only only
the Lord just like here We're told the Lord gave him rest That's
what it says in verse 1 and the Lord had given him rest round
about the only one who can give a sinner who feels a weight of
his sin rest is the Lord Jesus Christ Remember those words in
Matthew 11 when he said, come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden. What's he talking about? He's
talking about a person who is laboring under a load of sin,
who's trying to satisfy himself, his heart, his God. The Lord
said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. He's the only one who can give
a person rest when a person is truly convicted of his sin. He gives a person rest by showing
us, as we sang a little while ago, and Bill mentioned that
scripture in Revelation chapter one in verse five, who loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and made us
a kingdom of priests under our God. He gives us rest by showing
us what He has done and where He is, who He is and what He's
done and where He is. And we find rest to our souls,
don't we, when we look to Him, look to the Lamb of God. In Psalm
127 and verse 2, we read, So he giveth his beloved sleep. Sleep is a type of rest. So he
giveth, God does, he giveth his beloved rest. Every child of
God, from the moment a person is truly converted, every child
of God is in a battle, is in a fight. And only the Lord is
able to give a person the strength to continue that battle. And
not only to continue, but the victory. He gives us the victory. But you know, this is speaking
about physical rest. Even believers, even God's children,
even God's servants, sometimes need rest. Mental rest, physical
rest. Our Lord, you find this in Mark
chapter six in verse 31. During his earthly ministry,
he told his disciples on one occasion, come, come you apart
into a desert place and rest a while, rest a while. A preacher or a missionary or
all of God's servants, we never grow tired of the work. We grow tired sometimes in the
work, but never of the work. And sometimes we need to rest.
The Lord gave his servant David rest. The second lesson I would
point out, we should be concerned about the house of the Lord.
That is a place where we gather to worship the Lord. We see that
in David's, in his demeanor here, he was concerned about the fact
that he was living in a nice place, and the ark was in a tent. Years ago, Pastor Mahan was visiting us,
preaching here, and he had preached at a church in Tennessee, I believe
it was. And he told me, he said, David,
he said, the people there are living in, $300,000, $350,000
homes, and their building, you know, it needed repair. And people
weren't concerned about that. You know, this building here,
We try to keep it nice. I told my wife just a little
while ago, it needs a facelift right now. It really does. But hopefully, we'll leave that
to the new owners, the Lord willing. But things have to be kept up,
you know. How many times have I picked
things up out of the ditch out there? Beer cans, beer bottles,
trash. You say, why do you do that?
You can go on down the street and the ditches are full of trash
because this is God's house. This is where we come to worship.
We want it to look as nice as possible, don't we? We should
always be concerned about things like this. David was. He was concerned that he was
living in such a fine house and the Ark of the Covenant was in
a tent. A third lesson. We should choose
our friends and companions very carefully. David was at rest,
but look who he is communicating with, who he's fellowshipping
with. Not with men of the world, but
with a prophet of God. And I'm sure that they could
speak and have a conversation of the things of God. Verse in
Malachi talks about those who speak often one to the other
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'll just point that out.
We should be concerned about our friends. Choose our friends
and our companions carefully. That verse in 1 Corinthians which
says evil communications, and that word is companions really,
evil companions corrupt good manners. And I know you parents,
you have to be careful and very selective about the children
that your children associate with because you want them to
have a good life and you're concerned about that. A fourth lesson,
we should never, never discourage another believer in serving the
Lord. Nathan told this man, told the
king, said, you just do whatever's in your heart. We should never
discourage. When a person is zealous in the
things of God, don't throw a wet blanket on a person like that. No. Encourage. In fact, in Hebrews
12, we're told to lift up the hands that hang down when people
get discouraged. It should be our desire to always
encourage one another, not to discourage anyone, especially
when they want to do something for the Lord. Lift up the hands
which hang down and the feeble knees. Now, I would also mention this
about David's son, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior. We read this verse about him
resting. This is found in one of the minor
prophets, Zephaniah. We read, the Lord thy God in
the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. Now, the rest of the message,
the second part, David hears from the Lord. in the last verses,
four through 17. Now, the message that David now
hears is the word of the Lord. I don't want us to miss that. The word of the Lord was first
given to Nathan. Notice in verse four, and it
came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto
Nathan, saying, go and tell my servant, thus saith the Lord. The word of the Lord was given
first to the prophet, he gives it to the king. And notice down
in verse 17, at the last verse we're looking at, it says, according
to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan
speak unto David. Turn with me in the New Testament,
if you will, to First Thessalonians. First Thessalonians chapter four. I'm sorry, chapter two. First
Thessalonians chapter two and verse 13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing because Now watch this. When you received
the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as
the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe. They heard the
words of the Apostle Paul preaching, but they were hearing the word
of God. And we know that's only true
through the power of God, the Holy Spirit. A person can sit
under the preaching of the gospel and not hear anything, really,
not hear anything. And then, while they're hearing
the preacher's voice, hear the word of God, God speaking to
his people. That's the way it was here in
this case. God spoke first to Nathan, gave
him the word of God, then he gives that to the king. Now let's
look back in our text. Let's look hurriedly at the word
of the Lord that was told to David. First, God tells David that he
was content. If you notice in verse 7, he
was content. And all the places wherein I
have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with
any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people
Israel, saying, Why build you not me an house of cedar? The Lord was content to walk. And notice it says he walked.
He walked. Now we know, we think he dwelt. Yes, the Ark of the Covenant
dwelt. in that tabernacle and now in this tent. But he speaks
of himself as walking with the people of God. Walking in a tent,
as they carried the tent, as they carried the tabernacle over
the history of Israel. And what does that make you think
of? That God's speaking here of dwelling in a tent. Doesn't
that make you think of John chapter one? And verse one, in the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And then down in verse 14 of
that chapter, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt tabernacled,
tabernacled among us. God, so thankful that he was
content to walk among the people upon this earth. The second thing, God, in verse seven, it's obvious
that God had not yet given a commandment to build him a house. There'd
been judges from the various tribes, we know that, we see
that in the book of Judges. Then there was a King Saul and
King, now King David, but God never commanded any of these
various judges or leaders of the nation to build him a house.
He commanded them to feed his people. That's what he commanded
the leaders to do, to feed the people. One of the writers said, a tent
of God's appointing was better than a temple of man's devising. Amen. The third thing. God reminded David of the mercies
he had received in verses 8 and 9. out of thy sight, and have made
thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that
are in the earth. He reminds David of all the mercies
that he had received. He shouldn't be upset now that
God would not allow him to build this temple. It wasn't God's
purpose, but think of all the blessings that God says to David,
all the many blessings that I've given unto you." Sometimes we
forget that. And there's one thing maybe that
we desire, that we look forward to or look for, and we overlook
all the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us. And we're
thinking about that one thing that we want that may not be
God's will for us to have. At hymn we sing sometimes, count
your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise
you what the Lord have done. And the fourth thing here, God
assured David of his nation's future. Verse 10, when David
would die, he would leave Solomon a vast kingdom. David was a man
of war, and he conquered nation after nation, and brought them
in subjection to him, so that when he died, Solomon would be
in a position ruler over a mighty, mighty empire and a great place,
a great amount of territory. And then God promised David that
he would build him a house. Now, when you look at this promise,
you have to realize it relates to Solomon and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Both were David's sons. after
the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ is. And Solomon was his seed,
and he built the temple. He built the house in Jerusalem,
and it was a magnificent building, no doubt about that. But the
Lord Jesus Christ is his seed, and he built the temple that
is the spiritual temple that is still being built. He said,
upon this rock I will build my church, and he's still building
The Lord added unto the church, such as should be saved." And
notice, when I look at these verses, the way I see that some
of this has reference especially to Solomon. Because in verse
14 it says, if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod
of men and with the stripes of the children of men. That cannot
be speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, David's greater son. Why? Because he never committed
iniquity. He was impeccable. He could not
sin. But then when we read in verse, Verse 16, two times over. And that house and that kingdom
shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall
be established forever. That has to be speaking of Christ. Let's close tonight if you will.
Let's look in the New Testament in Acts first and then a verse
in Luke. Acts chapter 13. where the apostle
Paul is preaching. Acts chapter 13 verse 22. Paul is speaking, and when he
had removed him, that is Saul, he raised up unto them David
to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I
have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which
shall fulfill all my will. Now notice, of this man's seed
hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior. Jesus. That's what the name Jesus
means, isn't it? Savior. But look in Luke chapter
1, when the angel announced to Mary that
she would have a son, Luke chapter 1, the angel Gabriel, verse 31
through 33. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. 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 forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to all of us here tonight. Let's close with a hymn. We'll be dismissed by singing
the hymn. Let's stand as we sing.