A Just King
Download MP3Good morning, everyone. It's lovely to see you all on this Palm Sunday and to celebrate these baptisms and worship together. We are continuing our study of the life of David. This is actually the second to last one. We will wrap it up, next Sunday, on Easter Sunday.
Jeffrey Heine:And just a quick word about that, so today, Palm Sunday, beginning Holy Week, in your worship guide, there's information about some of the services that we're going to be having. Thursday night, our Maundy Thursday service, can have one at 5 and at 6:30 in the evening. Then on Good Friday, a noon service, here. And, and then on Sunday, Easter Sunday, we will be, lord willing, no rain. We will be out at Avondale Park for 2 services at 8 AM and 10 AM.
Jeffrey Heine:The RAIN plan is listed in your worship guide. I'm pretty sure we had to use the RAIN plan last year, so, we will be agile and celebratory. Okay? We continue in the life of David, 2nd Samuel chapter 23 this morning. It's printed in your worship guide.
Jeffrey Heine:It's broken down in kind of how we're going to be making our way through this passage. 2nd Samuel chapter 23, we'll be looking at verses 1 through 7. Let us listen carefully for this is God's word. Now these are the last words of David, the oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The spirit of the Lord speaks by me.
Jeffrey Heine:His word is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said to me, when one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. For does not my house stand so with God? For He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure.
Jeffrey Heine:For will He not cause to prosper all my help and my desire? But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away for they cannot be taken with the hand. But the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear and they are utterly consumed with fire. This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to God.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray together. Oh, God of grace and mercy, we come to your word because you alone have the words of life. Lord, our hearts are so desperate for you this morning. We come having a wide range of trials, successes, delights, frustrations, hearts full, and hearts so very heavy. And in it all, you tell us to draw near to you.
Jeffrey Heine:And even when we don't think we have the strength in your kindness, you draw near to us. So we long to hear from you today. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:It was lore in ancient Greece that when a swan was about to die, it would begin to sing. Around the time of Christ's birth, the poet Ovid referred to this legend of the swan song in his poem, The Story of Pichos and Canans. He wrote these words, In tears, she poured out words with a faint voice, lamenting her sad woe as when the swan about to die sings a funeral dirge. As with most ancient folklore, a simple explanation of this legend is hard to find. But there are some swans indigenous to Greece that, when approaching the end of their life, exhale their last breaths, and through their long necks, a long trumpet sound comes forth, a series of extended notes as their long as their lungs are emptied of air.
Jeffrey Heine:These are not swans that sing at any other point in their life just as they're about to pass. Our passage today in 2nd Samuel chapter 23 is the swan song of King David. The inscription in the verse describes that these are David's last words. But it's more accurate to regard these verses as David's final song, his last psalm. And historians and linguists attest that the Hebrew that's used in this psalm and the references within make for a solid case that this truly was a poem composed by King David.
Jeffrey Heine:And compared to his other Psalms, this is considerably brief. The Psalm's brevity just might indicate David's wisdom in his old age, to not be hasty in his heart before the Lord, but to let his words be few. And these few words that he has chosen, he's chosen them carefully and purposefully. They display the deliberate use of the economy of words. And this final song of David is a wisdom psalm.
Jeffrey Heine:It describes the wisdom that he has received and learned from God about what it means to be a good and wise king. It unfolds in 3 sections. It's broken down there in your worship guide. Part 1, verse 1 is the introduction. After that, there's the proclamation of what has been revealed, the lesson, and that's in verses 2 through 4.
Jeffrey Heine:And then the final part, part 3, are the consequences or the outcomes of this truth in verses 5 through 7. The unfolding structure is how many ancient wisdom psalms were written. After an introduction, there's a description of what walking in God's wisdom looks like. And then the alternative consequences are described, paralleling a life of walking in wisdom and righteousness with a life of foolishness and unrighteousness. The wisdom structure is precisely what David utilizes in this brief and final song.
Jeffrey Heine:So let's look together at the first of these sections in verse 1, the introduction. Now these are the last words of David, the oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The introduction is a lengthy run on sentence. First, David is identified as the son of Jesse. And if you've been with us as we've been studying the life of David through 1st and second Samuel, you might consider that we haven't we haven't heard this term, this phrase, son of Jesse, in quite some time.
Jeffrey Heine:We heard it a lot in first Samuel when David was young and was coming up to become king. But almost throughout the entirety of second Samuel, we haven't heard this name, son of Jesse. The only other time that it is used in second Samuel is in chapter 20 when the the name is sung, quote, by a worthless man whose name was Sheba. So don't name your child Sheba. Go ahead and cross that one off.
Jeffrey Heine:If that was at the top of your list, go ahead and take it off. Because a worthless man named Sheba is the only person in all of 2nd Samuel his lowly beginnings as the youngest son of Jesse, back when David worked his father's fields as a shepherd. And that was back when David was but an afterthought in his father Jesse's mind when Samuel came to anoint one of the sons of Jesse as the king of Israel, Jesse didn't even think to bring David in from the field. He just left him out there tending the sheep. Why in the world would we bring David to meet this prophet?
Jeffrey Heine:And so it's it's become this term that really speaks to the lowliness of David. In the next line, David refers to himself as the man who was raised on high. Here, David emphasizes that it was not through his great achievements that he deserved this greater stature, but he was raised to this place of honor and influence. It's indicative of a person looking back on their life with sober honesty, with genuine humility. David remembers the lowliness of being a shepherd as the son of Jesse and being brought up to the heights of being king over all of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:David recognizes that he did not earn the throne. He was raised to this position by the lord. Next, David refers to himself as the anointed of the God of Jacob. Again, David emphasizes the work of Yahweh, the God of Jacob, the God of Israel in calling him from Jesse's humble family, raising him on high to the throne and anointing him as king over Israel. This phrase of the Lord's anointed is also Messiah.
Jeffrey Heine:That is who David is. And lastly, David refers to himself as the sweet psalmist of Israel. David viewed his role as a psalmist, as a service to the people. In writing his psalms, David was not only expressing his personal, private worship of the Lord, he was also giving the people words, the language to use their own voices to worship the Lord. This introduction in which David sets up his final Psalm is a 4 line summary of the life of David.
Jeffrey Heine:Born a lowly shepherd in the unremarkable house of Jesse, raised and anointed by God for the good and blessing of Israel. The psalm presents an oracle, which means that the psalm's focus is that of a revelation from God. And in his final psalm, David is sharing this revelation with the people of Israel. David restates this task of delivering an oracle from the Lord in the second section of the psalm in verses 2 through 4. So let's look at that together.
Jeffrey Heine:Beginning in verse 23, the Spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken, and the rock of Israel has said to me. David says that the spirit of Yahweh is speaking by him. The word of Yahweh is on his mouth.
Jeffrey Heine:It's it's on his tongue. Rather than a psalm of strictly personal reflection, something that we saw in David's lengthy 50 verse retrospective of his life in the previous chapter, 2 Samuel 22. Different than that, this is an oracle that God has given to David to share. He says that the rock of Israel has directed his words to benefit all of Israel. There are a lot of swan songs in popular culture.
Jeffrey Heine:Final concerts, final films, final paintings and records. And to be honest, most of them aren't great. I'm a very big Elvis fan. His last concert, not great. Big Johnny Cash fan, last concert, not great.
Jeffrey Heine:Most of these final performances are works when the artist's talent is sadly beginning to wane from the passage of time. Vocal cords worn, the dexterity of hands hindered by arthritis. And even if the physical strength remains, for other swan songs, it's the public's interest that has waned. The venues or crowds aren't nearly what they used to be. But David is not relying on his talent in this psalm writing.
Jeffrey Heine:He isn't looking for one last hit to please the masses. Here, he is depending upon an oracle, a revelation from the Lord that one more time, God has something to reveal and to declare through David for the people of Israel. And in this middle section of the latter half of verse 3 and verse 4, David speaks this oracle that the spirit of God has given him. Let's look together in the latter half of verse 34. When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light.
Jeffrey Heine:Like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. The oracle from the Lord offers a critical principle regarding kingship. It's a lesson that David has had to learn over many decades. And as we have seen in our study of the life of David, this is a lesson that David has learned through great success and wretched failure. David says that the oracle principle works like this.
Jeffrey Heine:When one rules over the people of God justly, meaning with righteousness, with godly wisdom, when they rule over the people in the fear of the Lord, recognizing that it is God who raises up the lowly and it's God who anoints the ruler for the service of the people, when those things happen, then the rule of the king is of the greatest benefit and blessing to the people. It is like the dawn's morning light bringing the sun to shine on the grass of the earth. This just rule is like nourishing rains that cause the grass to grow and to flourish. This is what it means to be a good king. That is the oracle from the Lord to David.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a long learned lesson of the blessings that are supposed to come from a truly good, truly just king. And that leads us to the last section of the psalm, verses 5 through 7, where David will explain further the consequences, the the outcomes of blessings that flow from a just king. David holds up the testimony of the kingdom of Israel as evidence of this principle. Let's look at verse 5. For does not my house stand so with God?
Jeffrey Heine:For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire? David holds up the kingdom of Israel as proof that this oracle is true. Just as a king is a blessing to his people, it's it's not simply the the conduct and character of the king that causes the blessings. It's God who has made a covenant with the house of David, and it's an everlasting covenant.
Jeffrey Heine:God has ordered all things and secured all things for the eternal good of the people of God. The obedience of the king to rule justly in the fear of the Lord. The obedience of the king is how God will bring about His covenant promises. The king's obedience is a necessary means through which the power and promises of God will be displayed. The prospering of David's throne and the tandem prospering of the kingdom of Israel is wholly dependent upon the Lord because only the Lord causes these blessings and prosperity through his covenant promises.
Jeffrey Heine:But David is highlighting that the obedience of the king is an essential means by which the covenant promises will make their way to the people. After offering the kingdom of Israel as proof that this oracle is trustworthy and true, David offers a corollary truth, a severe caution regarding disobedience. Perhaps in writing his last song, his swan song, he has in mind the generations that will come after him. In later years, David has had to come to terms with the truth that while his throne is eternal, he is not an eternal king. It seems like he's had a hard time with this truth.
Jeffrey Heine:The stories recorded at the end of 2nd Samuel and in 1st Kings appear to show that David is having a hard time admitting and living into the fact that he won't be king forever. And one of the ways that we can recognize that is that even in his old age, bedridden near death, David had not effectively and publicly outlined the succession plan. Which son would assume the throne? It's been stated at different times, but the plan was not clear. It was not public that it would be Solomon alone.
Jeffrey Heine:But David knows one day, even soon, he will die. And when he dies, someone else will sit on his throne. Someone else will rule the people of Israel. And it's imperative for the kings who come after him to learn this vital lesson that David has received, this critical, essential oracle from God about what makes a prosperous kingdom. Just and humble rule is the only way for the kingdom of the covenants to flourish.
Jeffrey Heine:So in keeping with the tradition of the structure for wisdom psalms, to contrast the example of the just and humble king, David describes the way of the foolish in verses 6 through 7. So let's look at it together. But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away, for they cannot be taken with the hand. The man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they are utterly consumed with fire. The way of the wise is righteous and humble, which leads to prosperity.
Jeffrey Heine:But for the foolish, the unrighteous who reject the Lord, destruction, the opposite of prosperity, awaits them. This is a stern warning to all who would sit on the throne after David. If you desire the kingdom to flourish in prosperity, you must follow the way of the wise, the way of just rule of the people and of humility before the Lord. And that is the swan song, the last song of David. I find it striking that David's swansong is not mournful.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not a funeral dirge in a minor key. It's not a lament of all of the missteps, mistakes, his outright sins. It's not a list of I told you so's. It's not a list of grudges, though to be fair, he will name some names to Solomon on his deathbed, but that's a different passage for another day. The last psalm wasn't about his regrets even though I'm sure he had a few.
Jeffrey Heine:But he doesn't go out like Frank Sinatra boasting that he did it his way. This is the opposite of that. It's the opposite of self congratulatory grandiosity. Instead, David says, I remember where I began. Just a poor shepherd boy, a simple son of Jesse.
Jeffrey Heine:And yet I was raised up and anointed by the Lord. And through many, many failures, I have learned the necessary wisdom to lead justly and in true humility before the Lord. And so this swan song offers the picture of a man who has received the discipline of the father through trials and hardships, many of which were of his own creation. But when David was unfaithful to the Lord, the Lord has been faithful to David. Not long after David dies and takes leave of his throne, his descendants will war.
Jeffrey Heine:The nation, the kingdom of Israel will be divided into 2 nations. And because of this division, it will be much easier for foreign powers to come in and overtake the people of Israel and Judah. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persian Empire, the Greeks, the Romans, they will all take their turns oppressing the people of God and plundering their land. The royal descendants of David, the rulers of Israel and Judah, will fail to heed David's instructions on how to rule justly. And many will even boast of how they refuse to lead in the fear of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:They will ignore David's lesson and reject this oracle of the Lord. What David so joyfully declared that his house stood firm with God, that all things were ordered and secure, the house of David will fall into chaos and insecurity. His proclamation that the kingdom prospers under faithful rule will crumble into pieces. The great temple of the Lord, we looked at a couple of weeks ago in 2 Samuel, chapter 24, where David gives his 1,000,000,000 from the treasury to build the temple of the Lord, it will be desecrated and destroyed. The priceless stones and jewels described in chapter 24 will be plundered and the house of the Lord crushed to rubble.
Jeffrey Heine:How can this be? If you're like me, you might have asked that question this week. How can this be? Kind of make it a matter of practice here at Redeemer that in our sermons, we don't always go into the headlines and talk about every tragedy that makes its way through in our world because if we did, we would never have time to talk about anything else. But if you're like me, you wondered, how can this be?
Jeffrey Heine:The brokenness in our world, the suffering in our world, particularly when it encroaches upon the lives of children, How can this be? How can things fall so far? And I think about, wasn't there a covenant? David is saying all this stuff about the safety and security of the house of God. Wasn't there a covenant?
Jeffrey Heine:How did things fall into such chaos? How did things fall to such tragedy? How is just as soon as we hear about the building of the temple of the Lord, chapters later, it is desecrated and destroyed. Build it up again, they say, and then that one is destroyed again. How can this be if there is an eternal covenant?
Jeffrey Heine:How is it that the kingdom will fall so far, people in exile, the temple itself destroyed, the promised holy land utterly defiled. How can this be? I think in part, it's to show us that a just king isn't enough. It's not enough that the king is just. David was at times just, and we saw that he could rule at times in righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:And David could on his best days be a just and humble king. But even with all of that, he could never make his people righteous. A just king is a great benefit, a blessing to a kingdom and far better than an unjust king. But what if the people are guilty? If the people are guilty, then a just king can only bring judgment on the people.
Jeffrey Heine:To be just, the king must judge sin accordingly. Otherwise, he is unjust. We read in Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 3, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So what then? What good is a just king if we're all guilty?
Jeffrey Heine:Can a just king make us right with God? Can a just ruler make us right with God? What about a just law? What if we have enough laws? Will that make us right with God?
Jeffrey Heine:If we have enough verdicts that are decided justly, Could we have a just government, a governor, senator, president? Can someone make us right with God? Then who? Who can make us right with God? The Roman poet, Horus, was giving some instruction on how to write good plays.
Jeffrey Heine:And in it, in his instruction, he advised against the easy use of the trope of just bringing in a god to fix a situation. He said, Do not bring a god onto the stage unless the problem is one that deserves a god to solve it. Martin Luther took that instruction and in reflecting on these words in Romans chapter 3 said, Here is where you've got to bring God on the stage because you've got a problem that it takes a god to solve it. A just king. We need more than a just king.
Jeffrey Heine:We need a justifying king. We need more than just rule. We need justifying power. We require a king who not only rules in righteousness but can make us righteous. And he's come, seated on the back of a humble donkey as the crowds laid palm branches before him and shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David.
Jeffrey Heine:Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The people celebrated this triumphal entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem, the city of David's throne. He did that on what is now called Palm Sunday. They celebrated because they were hoping that this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, this son of David, was coming to take the throne, to restore the kingdom of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:They wanted Jesus to be their just king. And it only took 5 days for the joyful shouts of Hosanna to become the vicious cries of Crucify him. The people wanted a just king, a powerful king. But Jesus came to be the just and the justifying king. Again, we read in Romans chapter 3, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.
Jeffrey Heine:This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time that he might be the just and the justifier of those whose faith is in Jesus. This is covenant faithfulness. The chaos did not thwart the covenant. The chaos might make it seem like the covenant must not be true, that he must not be fulfilling these things.
Jeffrey Heine:But in Christ, we see that he is both the just and the justifier of the one whose faith is in him. Our hope is not simply in a just king, but in the just and justifying king. Yes. Christ rules in justice, but thanks be to God that he also justifies. If Christ was only just, then we would all be done for.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus only being just is not good news, not for those of us who know how sinful we are. That would be news of our certain guilt and ultimate judgment. But by God's grace, his great mercy and love, he put forward Jesus as the propitiation by his blood. He made him the one who justifies us. And this means that while being fully just in his judgments, Jesus also makes us right with God through his blood shed on the cross for you.
Jeffrey Heine:So that as he rules in his justice, he is like the sun breaking through in the morning through all the darkness and all the fear, his light dawns on us and nourishes us like the rain upon the fields. That is his rule and reign. What you most desperately need in all of life is to be made right with God. You might think it's something else, and there are lots of loud things that that scream for our attention, that say that they are the most important things in life. But what you need more desperately than anything else in your life is to be made right with God.
Jeffrey Heine:And it is possible through the justifying blood of Jesus, received by faith. It is met in full. Jesus does not make the down payment and you have the mortgage payments of your justification to make monthly. And if you fail to make the payment, he takes the justification back. He has paid for your justification in full.
Jeffrey Heine:The swan song of David is an oracle that emphasizes the limits of the earthly king and points us to not simply a more just David, just a just king Jesus, but a justifying Jesus. The one who can do what no other king before him could possibly achieve, and that is your justification before the Lord. And through our just and justifying King, the house of God will stand Secure, fixed, and firm. Through trials and sorrows, through tragedies and chaos, through your most private pains and struggles, the house of God will stand prosperous and secure. For he has made an everlasting covenant and is ordering all things for the good of the children of God.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus, the son of David, the one who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet savior of the children of God, the just and justifying King. To him be all praise, all majesty, and dominion now and forever. Let's go to him in prayer. Jesus, by your spirit, would you work the truth of your gospel to parts of our hearts deeper than ever before, would today be a day of salvation for those who know you not or love you not. May they turn to you, Jesus, and find rest for their souls.
Jeffrey Heine:May each one of us in this room right now grow in our trust, our love, and our obedience to Jesus above all else. We cannot do this on our own. So, spirit, quicken our hearts, strengthen us that we might follow Jesus all the days of our life. We pray these things in his precious name. Amen.
