Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 23:5
Although my house [be] not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all [things], and sure: for [this is] all my salvation, and all [my] desire, although he make [it] not to grow.
5. For is not my house thus with God? for an eternal covenant hath he made for me,
ordered in all and secured:
for all my salvation and all good pleasure
shall he not cause it to spring forth?
This seems to be the most probable rendering of an obscure passage. The meaning then will be: Is not my house in such a relation to God, because He has made an eternal covenant with me, that I may look for the righteous ruler to arise out of it, bringing with him all these attendant blessings?
“The eternal covenant” is the promise in ch. 2Sa 7:12 ff., to which David refers as the ground of his confidence in the fulfilment of this prophecy in and through his house. The epithets “ordered in all and secured” compare the covenant to a carefully drawn and properly attested legal document.
Finally he expresses his confidence that God will in due time cause the salvation promised to him and his house, and all His own good pleasure, to grow and prosper, using a metaphor suggested by that in 2Sa 23:4. Cp. Psa 132:17; Jer 33:15; and for God’s “good pleasure,” cp. Isa 53:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Although my house … – The sense of this clause (according to the the King James Version) will be that David comparing the actual state of his family and kingdom during the later years of trouble and disaster with the prophetic description of the prosperity of the righteous king, and seeing how far it falls short, comforts himself by the terms of Gods covenant 2Sa 7:12-16 and looks forward to Messiahs kingdom. The latter clause, although he make it not to grow, must then mean that, although at the present time the glory of his house was not made to grow, yet all his salvation and all his desire was made sure in the covenant which would be fulfilled in due time. But most modern commentators understand both clauses as follows: Is not my house so with God that He has made with me an everlasting covenant, etc.? For all my salvation and all my desire, will He not cause it to spring up? namely, in the kingdom of Solomon, and still more fully in the kingdom of Christ.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Sa 23:5
Although my house be not so with God.
Davids sorrow and resource
The great and elevated among mankind have sorrows proportioned to their greatness, as the highest points of earth are most exposed to the fury of the fiercest storms. Kings have their griefs as kings.
I. Davids domestic sorrow: My house is not so with God. Many were the occasions when this distinguished man had to say: The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: bring thou me out of my distresses. All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me. I sink in deep waters (2Sa 22:5-6.) Probably as a king, as a public man, David more habitually and simply cast himself upon the Lord. As a domestic man, he was less upon his guard. He expected no lion, no bear, no Goliath difficulty in his home; he therefore did not meet home temptations and troubles as he had met them: I come to Thee in the name of the Lord of hosts. And some of you may now be drinking of a similar cup of domestic bitters.
II. Let us look at Davids personal resource: Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant.
1. In duration it is everlasting. From everlasting the counsel of peace was between them both–the Father and the Son; the Son, who as Messiah was to sit and rule upon His throne, and be a priest upon His throne (Zec 6:13.) It is that covenant, which, to use the forcible language of Paul to Titus, God, who cannot lie, promised in Christ before the world began.
2. Observe its completeness: Ordered in all things: This is all my salvation, and all my desire. Nothing is left to captious chance; nothing to inconstant and changeable man. There are no contingencies with God; nothing takes Him by surprise.
3. Look also at its certainty: Sure. The uncertainty of all earthly things is one sad ingredient in the cup of earths bitterness. Such was Davids personal resource at seventy, amidst domestic sorrow. And when we look at the sufficiency: of it, we may well ask, What has the man of the world to fall back upon, when all his earthly hopes are blighted; what to be compared with the believers resource? (J. East, M. A.)
Davids dying song
How many choice thoughts have we gained in the bedchamber of the righteous, beloved? I remember one sweet idea; which I once won from a death-bed. A dying man desired to have one of the Psalms read to him, and the 17th being chosen, he stopped at the 6th verse, Incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech, and faintly whispering, said, Ah, Lord, I cannot speak, my voice fails me; incline Thine ear, put it against my mouth, that Thou mayest hear me. None but a weak and dying man, whose life was ebbing fast, could have conceived such a thought. It is well to hear saints words when they are near heaven–when they stand upon the banks of Jordan. But here is a special case, for these be the last words of David.
I. The Psalmist says he had sorrow in his house. Although my house be not so with God. What man is there of all our race, who, if he had to write his history, would not need to use a great many althoughs? If you read the biography of any man, as recorded in the Sacred Word, you will always find a but, or an although, before you have finished. Naaman was a mighty man of valour, and s great man with his master, but he was a leper. There is always a but in every condition, a crook in every lot, some dark tint upon the marble pillar, some cloud in the summer sky, some discord in the music, some alloy in the gold. So David, though a man who had been raised from the sheepfold, a mighty warrior, a conqueror of giants, a king over a great nation, yet had his althoughs, and the although which he had was one in his own house.
1. But I imagine that the principal meaning of these words of David refers to his family–his children. David had many trials in his children. It has often been the lot of good men to have great troubles from their sons and daughters.
2. What must I say to any of those who are thus tried and distressed in estate and family? First, let me say to you, it is necessary that you should have an although in your lot, because if you had not, you know what you would do; you would build a very downy nest on earth, and there you would 1ie down in sleep; so God puts a thorn in your nest in order that you may sing. It is said by the old writers that the nightingale never sang so sweetly as when she sat among thorns, since say they, the thorns prick her breast, and remind her of her song. So it may be with you. Ye, like the larks, would sleep in your nest did not some trouble pass by and affright you; then you stretch your wings, and carolling the matin song, rise to greet the sun. Trials are sent to wean you from the world; bitters are put into your drink, that ye may learn to live upon the dew of heaven: the food of earth is mingled with gall, that ye may only seek: for true bread in the manna which droppeth from the sky. Your soul without trouble would be as the sea if it were without tide or motion; it would become foul and obnoxious. But, furthermore, recollect this, O thou who art tried in thy children–that prayer can remove thy troubles. There is not a pious father or mother here, who is suffering in the family, but may have that trial taken sway yet. Faith is as omnipotent as God Himself, for it moves the arm which leads the stars along.
II. David had confidence in the covenant. Oh! how sweet it is to look from the dulness of earth to the brilliancy of heaven! How glorious it is to leap from the ever tempest-tossed bark of this world, and stand upon the terra-firma of the covenant! So did David. Having done with his Although, he then puts in a blessed yet. Oh! it is a yet, with jewels set: He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.
1. David rejoiced in the covenant, because it is Divine in its origin. Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant.
2. But notice its particular application. Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant. Here lies the sweetness-of it to me, as an individual.
3. Furthermore, this covenant is not only Divine in its origin, but it is everlasting in its duration.
4. But notice the next word. It is ordered in all things. Order is heavens first law, and God has not a disorderly covenant. It is an orderly one. When He planned it, before the world began, it was in all things ordered well.
5. That word things is not in the original, and we may read it persons, as well as things. It is ordered in all persons–all the persons whose names are in the covenant; it is ordered for them, and they shall come according to the promise: All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.
6. To wind up our description of this covenant, it is sure. We cannot call anything sure on earth; the only place where we can write that word is on the covenant, which is ordered in all things and sure.
III. The Psalmist had a satisfaction in his heart. This is, he said, all my salvation, and all my desire.
1. He is satisfied with his salvation.
2. Then, the Psalmist says, he has all his desire. There is nought that can fill the heart of man except the Trinity. God has made mans heart a triangle. Men have been for centuries trying to make the globe fill the triangle, but they cannot do it; it is the Trinity alone that can fill a triangle, as old Quarles well says. There is no way of getting satisfaction but by gaining Christ, getting heaven, winning glory, getting the covenant, for the word covenant comprises all the other things. All my desire–says the Psalmist. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The everlasting covenant, the believers support under distress
Now there are three parts of this last prophecy of David:, The first of them concerns the subject of all prophecy and promises, that he had preached about and declared, and that is Christ himself, in the third and fourth verses. The second of them concerns himself, as he was a type of Christ (2Sa 23:5.) The third part concerns Satan and the enemies of the Church, in opposition unto the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
I. A great surprisal and disappointment; Although my house be not so with God. I have looked that it should be otherways, saith he, that my house should have a great deal of glory, especially that my house should be upright with God; but I begin to see it will be otherwise. The best of the saints of God do oftentimes meet with great surprisals and disappointments in the best of their earthly comforts: their houses are not so with God. The reasons hereof why it may be thus, are:
1. Because there is no promise of the covenant to the contrary. There is no promise of God secures absolutely unto us our outward comforts, be they of what nature they will, be they in our relations, in our enjoyments, in our persons, of what kind they will, why yet we may have a surprisal befal them in reference to them all; because there is no promise of God to secure the contrary, therefore it may be so.
2. Sometimes it is needful it should be so, though we are apt to think the contrary; and that for these three reasons:
(1) To keep continually upon our hearts a due awe of the judgments of God; of the actings of Gods providence in a way of judgment; which otherwise we should be apt to think ourselves freed from.
(2) It is needful to keep us off from security in ourselves.
(3) They are sometimes actually needful to awaken the soul out of such deep sleep of present satisfaction, or love of this world, which nothing else will do.
That which we should learn from hence, by way of use, is:
1. Not to put too great a value upon any contentment whatever we have in this world, lest God make us write an although upon it.
2. Let us be in an expectation of such changes of Providence, that they may not be great surprisals unto us.
II. That the great reserve and relief for believers, under their surprisals and distresses, lies, in betaking themselves to the covenant of God, or to God in His covenant. Although my house be not so with God. Why do they so?
1. They do it because of the author of the covenant.
2. The second reason is taken from the properties of the covenant; what kind of one it is: and they are three. It is an everlasting covenant. His a covenant that is ordered in all things. And it is a covenant that is sure.
(1) It is the great relief of our souls, because it is an everlasting covenant. How is this everlasting? It is everlasting in respect of the beginning of it; it is everlasting in respect of the end of it; and it is everlasting in respect of the matter of it.
(2) The second property of this covenant is, That it is ordered in all things. What is order? Order is the disposition of things into such a way, such a relation one to another, and such a dependence one upon another, as they may all be suited to attain their proper end. This is order. Now, saith he, this covenant is ordered. These are the heads of the glorious order of this covenant, that gives it its life, beauty, and glory. Its projection was in the wisdom and love of the Father. It had a solemn confirmation in the blood of the Son: hence the blood of Christ is called the blood of the covenant. But when all this is done, how shall this covenant be executed? That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
He hath undertaken two things.
(1) To assure our souls of all things on the part of God. And
(2) to undertake on our parts to give us hearts, that we shall love Him, and fear Him.
There is an addition of order, in reference to the matter of it, here expressed.
(1) It is ordered in all the things of grace on the part of God.
(2) It is ordered in reference unto sin. There was a great deal of glory and beauty in the first covenant; but there was no order taken about sin; that, if any sin came in, the first covenant was gone and broken, and of no use any more.
(3) The last property of this covenant is, that it is sure. It is ordered in all things, and sure. If it had not been sure, it would not have been a relief unto us.
The springs of the security of this covenant are two:
1. The oath of God;
2. The intercession of Christ. (J. Owen, D. D.)
Household religion
Last words of dying David. As the dying are sometimes visited with a wave of physical strength to which they were strangers in life, so often in death the believer is blessed with a mental and spiritual vision, he rises to a state of exultation in which he feels, sees, comprehends things altogether beyond his usual ken. At evening-time there is often marvellous light for the child of God. To King David it took the form of a vision of the ideal King that one day should arise (see marg. R.V.) No contemporary suggested it, no history fanned a recollection; it was an inspiration of God. (2Sa 23:2.) Nothing else was sufficient to explain how a warrior of those brutal days came to conceive of a kingdom that should be as morning light after darkness. Not even yet has a kingdom of earth appeared that might be so described. Where is the realm to-day whose working-classes, e.g., would say it was as a morning without clouds? David, like Abraham, saw afar off the day of Christ. Then, turning from the vision of the ideal future to the actual present, the bitter confession of the text is made.
I. We have here the confession of the disappointed idealist. Compared with others, David, easily first of the kings, gave peace from enemies round about, established religion, and by his hymns and personal character made it popular, and made internal order and justice sure. The secret of his success was the secret of his acknowledgment of failure, viz., that he had a very lofty standard which he felt he had failed to reach. The explanation of many a believers depression, and of many an earnest workers discouragement.
II. We have here the confession of the disappointed Godly parent. We know what had happened in the matter of Absalom, and what subsequently transpired between Adonijah and Solomon. Coming events which cast their shadows before upon the dying fathers heart. He saw there was no likelihood that the ideal he had failed to attain would be attained by any of his house. And this, although a fathers hope will linger longer than anyones respecting his children. We have then, here a dying fathers pillow stuffed with thorns because his family is not right with God. In the dying hour it is our own kith and kin we want around us–fortune, fame, etc., are of little moment–and if believers ourselves the all-consuming anxiety is how do they stand with God? What explanations or warnings may we get from Davids instance?
(1) The mothers of his children were, for most part, Godless mothers. His marriages were either marriages of convenience (neighbouring princesses) or the outcome of inflamed passion.
(2) David apparently gave all his time and strength to his kingdom, and neglected his family.
(3) Davids own life must have been a sore hindrance to his influence. (R. Bevan Shepherd, M. A.)
Davids distress, consolation, and experience
I. A depth of distress. My house, says David, is not so with God. He had many trials; but with regard to the affliction before us, we may observe two things; that it was domestic; and that it was principally, though not entirely, of a moral nature.
II. An all-sufficiency of consolation. Although my house is not so with God.
1. And first it tells us that this covenant is everlasting. Its counsels and its contrivances were from eternity.
2. Secondly, he tells us that this everlasting covenant is ordered in all things. Nothing in it is left to any contingency, nothing left to the intermeddlings of men.
3. Thirdly, he tells us that this covenant ordered in all things is sure. The covenant of works made with Adam was soon destroyed; the national covenant of the Jews was soon destroyed; and the people, dispersed over the face of the earth, remain to this day a proverb and a by-word. But this covenant is unchangeable; it is as sure, as the truth of God, as the faithfulness of God can make it.
4. Fourthly, the importance he attached to it. It is all my salvation, says he. All my salvation requires to be done is here, and all my salvation requires to be given is here. And how much is required? Is the pardon of our sins necessary? There it is. Is holiness necessary? There it is. Is strength necessary? He will put strength in us. Is grace necessary? This covenant gives it. Is glory necessary? It provides it. Is God necessary Himself, with all His relations and attributes? This is the grand provision in the covenant–I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They have all of them a God, each a God for himself; a God to guide them, a God to guard them, a God to supply all their need from His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
5. He tells us also of the love he bare to it. It is all my desire. What can I wish for besides?
III. An instructive experience.
1. This experience of David calls upon you, in the first place, and says, see what variations there are in the views and the feelings even of the Godly. If it is now dab, with them, the day is neither clear nor dark, as Zechariah says, it is a mixture of both. Every thing with regard to them now is a chequered scene. The image of the Church now may be a bush burning with fire, and not consumed; and the motto of the Church should be, Perplexed, but not ill despair; cast, down, but not destroyed.
2. This experience admonishes you, in the next place, and says, do not look for too much here. There are some persons, who idolize life; but after all, what is it found to be? In what condition, and at what period of it, does it effectually belie the language of Young, who says that, for solid happiness–
Too low they build who build beneath the stars?
They are walking in a vain show, they are disquieting themselves in vain; they are seeking the living among the dead.
3. This experience admonishes you how to improve your afflictions; and how to render them, not only harmless, but even beneficial. And this will be the ease, when, like David, we are turned towards Him, and ask, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night? Though no affliction for the present is joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. The ploughman is not angry with the ground; but he drives the ploughshare through it to prepare it for the reception of the seed. The husbandman is not angry with the vine; but he cuts it, and prunes it, in order that it may bring forth more fruit. As constantly as the ox is in the field of labour, he must have the yoke on; and Jeremiah compares affliction to a yoke, and says, It is good for a man to bear the yoke. Let but the Lord impose it upon us, and it will sit easy, and it will bear well.
4. This experience of David admonishes you not to cherish discontent, nor to dwell principally on the dark side of your condition, but to cherish cheerfulness, to look on the bright side.
5. What you are principally to derive from this experience is to see what resources genuine Godliness has. From what you have heard, you learn that it-does not exempt; its votaries from afflictions; but then, you see, it sustains them under those afflictions; it turns them, at least, into a blessing. (W. Jay.)
The covenant of grace, a support under sorrow
Standing on the borders of the eternal world, David looks back to his humble original, and blesses that goodness Which God had displayed to him, in elevating him to eminence both in the Church and the state.
I. Even the children of God, those who are within the bonds of His covenant, may have to contend with domestic afflictions, may have to lament their errors and their falls, and must be extended on the bed of death.
II. The nature of this covenant. It was primarily made with the glorious Redeemer, as the head and surety of believers; but it is also made with all those who, by faith, accept that Saviour who has ratified it with His blood, and who make of this covenant thus sealed, all their salvation and all their desire.
1. It is everlasting; it is, in the language of the apostle, The eternal purpose which the Father purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. All the manifestations of it in time, and all the blessings which constantly flow from it, are only the accomplishment of the gracious designs that were formed infinite ages before a creature lived.
2. It is ordered in all things; planned and arranged by Him whose knowledge is infinite, and whose wisdom is unerring; by Him rendered so comprehensive that all things, all possible exigencies, all conceivable events that can befall the Christian, are provided for; every difficulty, every trial, every, tear, and every struggle, were foreseen; together with the effects to be produced by them.
3. This covenant is sure. If there be any truth in the promise and in the oath of Jehovah; if there be any strength in that mighty Redeemer, who is its surety, or any virtue in that blood which sealed it, then those who have a personal interest, in it, may triumph in the stability of their hopes. (H: Kollock, D. D.)
A sure covenant
I. The description which he gives of this great covenant.
1. The time it is to last. It is an everlasting covenant–strictly everlasting–never, never to expire.
2. The completeness of its arrangements. It is ordered in all things, and sure. The covenants of men are often very incomplete. Something, perhaps, hath been forgotten or lost sight of in the drawing of them up, which makes them almost good for nothing to the parties they are made with. Some case, some circumstance, is unprovided for, which, as soon as it occurs, makes the covenant of none effect. Not so in respect of the covenant of grace made with sinners through a Saviour. No, that is all complete in its provisions. Complete in reference to Gods requirements. For it satisfies His justice; it fulfils His truth; it displays His holiness; it magnifies His love; it sets forth His wisdom; it commends His mercy; it shows forth at once all His glorious perfections, and puts a song of praise into the lips of men and angels. And it is complete, again: in reference to man; nothing, nothing is there wanting in the salvation of Christ Jesus to make it everything poor sinners want.
II. The interest which David states himself to have in this everlasting covenant. God hath made it, saith he, with me. He had an assurance, then, that he was personally interested in this covenant. He could lay his hand on it and call it his–a covenant made particularly with himself. And, brethren, there is little comfort otherwise. It is a poor thing to look upon salvation, and to say, This and that man have a part in it. The comfort is when we can bring it nearer home; when we can think, upon good grounds, I have a share in it.
III. Davids fillings.
1. All my salvation. Why that, in other words, is to tell us that he could most comfortably rest upon it, rest upon it altogether.
2. This, saith he, this everlasting covenant of grace, is all my desire. (A. Roberts, M. A.)
Consolations of the covenant of grace
Yet this little word yet wraps up a great and sovereign cordial in it. Though Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah be gone, and gone with many smarting aggravations too; yet hath He made with me a covenant; yet I have this sheet anchor left to secure me: Gods covenant with me, in relation to Christ, this under-props and shores up my heart. As all the rivers run into the sea, and there is the congregation of all the waters; so all the promises and comforts of the Gospel are gathered into the covenant of grace, and there is the congregation of all the sweet streams of refreshment, that are dispersed throughout the Scriptures. The covenant is the storehouse of promises, the shop of cordials and rare elixirs, to revive us in all our faintings; though, alas, most men know no more what are t, heir virtues or where to find them, than an illiterate rustic put into an apothecarys shop. (Flavel.)
Divine covenant compensates earthly disappointment
It is wise, when we are disappointed in one thing, to set over against it a hopeful expectancy of another, like the farmer who said, If the peas dont pay, let us hope the beans will. Yet it would be idle to patch up one rotten expectation with another of like character, for that would, only make the rent worse. It is better to turn from the fictions of the sanguine worldling to the facts of the believer in the Word of the Lord. Then, if we find no profit in our trading with earth, we shall fall back upon our hearts treasure in heaven. We may lose our gold, but we can never lose our God. The expectation of the righteous is from the Lord, and nothing that comes from Him shall ever fail.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Although my house be not so with God] Instead of ken, so, read kun, established; and let the whole verse be considered as an interrogation, including a positive assertion; and the sense will be at once clear and consistent: “for is not my house (family) established with God; because he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all, and preserved? For this (He) is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it (or him) not to spring up.” All is sure relative to my spiritual successor, though he do not as yet appear; the covenant is firm, and it will spring forth in due time. See the observations at the end of the chapter. 2Sa 23:39.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Although my house be not so with God; although God knows that neither I nor my children have lived and ruled as we should have done, so justly, and in the fear of the Lord; and therefore have not enjoyed that uninterrupted prosperity which we might have enjoyed; but our morning light, or the beginning of that kingdom promised to me and mine for ever, hath been overcast with many black and dismal clouds, and my children have not hitherto been like the tender grass springing out of the earth, and thriving by the influences of the sun and rain; but rather like the grass that withereth away, or is cut off before its due time.
Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant: not-withstanding all our transgressions whereby we have broken covenant with God, and the confusions and civil wars. which have threatened our dissipation and utter destruction; yet I comfort myself with this, that God, to whom all my sins were foreknown before I committed them, was graciously pleased to make a sure covenant, to give and continue the kingdom to me and to my seed for ever, 2Sa 7:16, until the coming of the Messias, who is to be my Son and successor, and whose kingdom shall have no end.
Ordered in all things; ordained in all points by Gods eternal and unchangeable counsel; and disposed by his wise and powerful providence, which doth and will overrule all things, even the sins and sufferings of my house, so far, that although he would punish them for their sins, yet he will not utterly root them out, nor break his covenant made with me and mine; as is said, Psa 89:31-34. Sure, or preserved or observed, or kept, to wit, on Gods part, or by Gods power and faithfulness, in the midst of all the oppositions and uncertainties to which it seems to be exposed on our part. Compare Rom 3:3; 2Ti 2:13. For, or therefore, as the Hebrew particle chi oft signifies; therefore, i.e. because God hath made such a covenant. This is, or, he is, he who hath made this covenant; or, in this is, i.e. it consists in and depends upon this covenant.
All my salvation; both my own eternal salvation, and the temporal salvation, or the preservation of the kingdom to me and mine.
All my desire, or, every desirable thing; the word desire being oft put for desired, or a desirable thing; as Psa 21:2; 78:29,30; Eze 24:16. David being deeply sensible, and having had large experience, of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things, here declares that the covenant made by God with him and his in the Messias, is the only happiness which he prizeth and desireth, in which he doth fully acquiesce.
Although he make it not to grow, i.e. my house, mentioned before. So the sense is, Although God as yet hath not made my house or family to grow, i.e. to increase, or to flourish with worldly glory and prosperity, as I expected; but hath for my sins cut off divers of my most eminent branches, and sorely afflicted my person and family; and although he may for the future deal in like manner with my sons and successors for the like miscarriages, which it is probable they may commit: yet this is my great support and comfort, that God will constantly and inviolably keep this covenant; and therefore, in the midst of all the shakings, and confusions, and interruptions which may happen in my house and kingdom, will preserve my line and family until the coming of the Messiah out of my loins, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; who, as he is the desire of all nations, Hag 2:7, so in a special manner is my desire, and the author of all my salvation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Although my house be not so withGod; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in allthings, and sure“the light of the morning,” that is,the beginning of David’s kingdom, was unlike the clear brilliant dawnof an Eastern day but was overcast by many black and threateningclouds; neither he nor his family had been like the tender grassspringing up from the ground and flourishing by the united influencesof the sun and rain; but rather like the grass that withereth and isprematurely cut down. The meaning is: although David’s house had notflourished in an uninterrupted course of worldly prosperity andgreatness, according to his hopes; although great crimes andcalamities had beclouded his family history; some of the mostpromising branches of the royal tree had been cut down in hislifetime and many of his successors should suffer in like manner fortheir personal sins; although many reverses and revolutions mayovertake his race and his kingdom, yet it was to him a subject of thehighest joy and thankfulness that God will inviolably maintain Hiscovenant with his family, until the advent of his greatest Son, theMessiah, who was the special object of his desire, and the author ofhis salvation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Although my house [be] not so with God,…. So bright, and flourishing, and prosperous as the government of the just ruler before described; or is not “right” m with God, meaning his family, in which great sins were committed, and great disorders and confusions brought into it, as the cases of Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah showed; or “not firm” or “stable” n, through the rebellion of one, the insurrection of another, and the usurpation of a third; yet he believed it would be firm and stable in the Messiah that should spring from him, promised in the everlasting covenant; though the Jewish writers understand this of the firmness and stability of his kingdom and government: “but my house is not so”, c. like the morning light, which increases by little and little, and like the morning, which sometimes is not cloudy, and sometimes is sometimes the sun shines clearly, and sometimes not; or like the tender grass, which is sometimes flourishing, and after withers; but so is not my kingdom, it is a perpetual one, given and secured by an everlasting covenant; and such certainly is or will be the kingdom of the Messiah:
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all [things], and sure; or, “for o he hath made”, c. the covenant by which the kingdom was settled on David and his seed was a covenant that would continue for ever, and would be kept, “observed”, and “preserved” p in all the articles of it, and so be sure to his seed, particularly to the Messiah that should spring from him, in whom it was fulfilled, Lu 1:32 and the covenant of grace made with David’s antitype, with Christ the head of the church, and the representative of it, and so with all his people in him, is an everlasting one: it was made with Christ from everlasting, as appears from the everlasting love of God, the source and spring of it; the earliness of the divine counsels on which it is formed, and blessings and promises of it, with which it is filled, which were before the world was; and from Christ being set up as the Mediator of it from everlasting: and it will continue to everlasting; it is a covenant that cannot be broken, will never be removed, nor give way to or be succeeded by another: it is “ordered in all things”: to promote and advance the glory of all the three Persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit; to secure the persons of the saints, and to provide everything needful for them for time and eternity: and it is “sure”; it stands upon a sure basis, the unchangeable will and favour of God, and is in the hands of Christ, the same today, yesterday, and for ever; its mercies are the sure mercies of David, and its promises are yea and amen in Christ, and are sure to all the seed. Though things may not be with them God-ward, as they desire, and could be wished for; though they may be attended with many sins and infirmities, the temptations of Satan, divine desertions, and various afflictions, and be guilty of many backslidings, yet covenant interest always continues; and so, though in the kingdom and interest of Christ in the world, there are, and may be, many things disagreeable; it may be attended with persecutions, heresies, scandals, c. yet it shall continue and increase, and spread, and be an everlasting kingdom:
for [this is] all my salvation: all depends upon this covenant the safety of David’s family, and the security of the kingdom in it, and to his seed, till the Messiah came, depended on the covenant made with him respecting that; and the spiritual and eternal salvation of the Lord’s people depends upon the covenant of grace; which was contrived, formed, and settled in it, in which the Saviour is provided, and the persons to share in his salvation are taken into it and secured, with all blessings both of grace and glory:
and all [my] desire; to see it fulfilled; as it is the desire of good men to be led more and more into it, to see their interest in it, to have the blessings and promises of it applied unto them, and to be saved by it, and not by the covenant of works; and there is all that in it that a believer can desire to make him comfortable here, or happy hereafter; and it is what gives him delight and pleasure in all his troubles: it may be supplied he is, as well as “this is”, and be applied to Christ, the ruler over men, described, 2Sa 23:3; with whom the covenant of grace is made, in whom is the salvation of men; he is the author and the only author of it; in whom it is complete and perfect; “all” salvation is in him, and which they can claim as theirs; to whom is “all [their] desire”; and in whom is “all [their] delight”, as it may be rendered; on account of the glory of his person, the fulness of his grace, and his suitableness as a Saviour; whom they desire to know more of, and have more communion with:
although he made [it] not to grow; though there may not be at present any growth of outward prosperity, or of inward grace, or even of the produce of the earth, Hab 3:17; though the horn of David is not yet made to bud, or his family in growing and flourishing circumstances, or the Messiah, the man, the branch, does not yet shoot forth, though he certainly would; or, “for shall he not bud forth” he shall, Jer 23:5.
m “non recta”, Cocceius. n “Non est re firma”, Vitringa in Jesaiam, c. xi. 1. o “quia”, Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator. p “scrvatum”, Tigurine version, Vatablus; “conservatum”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(5) Although my house.This verse is extremely difficult, and admits of two interpretations. That given in the English is found in the LXX., the Vulg., and the Syriac, and if adopted will mean that David recognises how far he and his house have failed to realise the ideal description set forth; yet since Gods promise is sure, this must be realised in his posterity. Most modern commentators, however, prefer to take the clauses interrogatively: Is not my house thus with God? for He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all, and sure. For all my salvation and all my desire, shall He not cause it to spring forth? The Hebrew admits either rendering, but that of the ancient versions gives a higher idea of Davids spiritual discernment.
Ordered in all.As a carefully drawn legal document, providing for all contingencies and leaving no room for misconstruction.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. For is not my house so with God By taking this sentence, and also the one with which the verse concludes, interrogatively, we are relieved of the difficulties which have here puzzled interpreters. The meaning then becomes plain. David’s inspired vision of the righteous ruler is based upon the everlasting covenant which God had made with his house. To that covenant he here appeals as the ground of his hopes and oracles.
Arranged in all things Provided with every thing that will augment its glory, or help to establish it.
Guarded Secured against dangers and failure. Even though David’s sons commit iniquity, yet will not Jehovah’s covenant be unfulfilled. See 2Sa 7:15.
Will it not become mighty Will not this covenant grow stronger with the passing years, develope, and in the grace and providence of God at last be verified amidst incalculable power and glory? Such was David’s most ardent hope and trust, and well might he call it all his salvation and delight.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Sa 23:5. Although my house be not so with God, &c. This passage is universally allowed to be extremely difficult and obscure. I have not met with any interpretation which appears preferable to that given by Dr. Grey. But to those, says he, who prefer the common way of pointing, (for I make no alteration in the words of the text,) perhaps the following explanation may not appear unnatural: “Although the present situation of myself and family, and of the people of God, falls so much short of these glorious characters; yet I am fully assured, that such a time will come, according to the covenant he hath renewed with me, and his promise since the world began.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 326
THE COVENANT OF GRACE
2Sa 23:5. Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.
IN all the trials and troubles of life, religion alone can afford us any effectual support. To this the saints in all ages have fled for refuge, and in this they have found all the consolation they could desire. The latter days of David were a continual scene of domestic sorrows. The defilement of Tamar by her brother Amnon, the murder of Amnon by his brother Absalom, the rebellion and untimely death of Absalom, and the conspiracy and consequent destruction of Adonijah, all embittered his life: and God had foretold, that such afflictions should await him, as a punishment for the horrible sins he had committed in the matter of Uriah. David however was not without his consolations. Though he could not have the happiness of seeing his house walking in the ways of God, yet he had good reason to believe that God had accepted him; and in the view of the covenant which God had made with him, he could not but rejoice. We do not apprehend that this covenant related exclusively to the succession of his posterity upon the throne of Israel, or even to the advent of the Messiah from his loins: it can be no other than that covenant which God made with his own Son, and with us in him; for no other covenant corresponds with the description here given of it, nor could David speak of any other as all his salvation and all his desire. That covenant relates to the salvation of a ruined world by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus.
The representation which David here gives us of it will lead us to shew,
I.
The excellence of this covenant
This is set forth in a striking view in the words before us. We notice,
1.
Its duration
[Long before man had fallen, God, who foresaw his fall, devised a plan for his recovery: and in this plan his co-equal, co-eternal Son concurred: The council of peace was between them both, says the Prophet [Note: Zec 6:13.]. To this St. Paul alludes, when he says, that he was in hope of eternal life, which God had promised before the world began [Note: Tit 1:2.]. To whom could that promise be made, but unto the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Representative of his Church and people? Some divines have called this the covenant of Redemption, as contra-distinguished from the covenant of Grace; the one being made with Christ only, and the other with man. But this appears not founded in Scripture. There is one covenant only; and that was made with Christ personally, and with him as the federal Head and Representative of his elect people: as made with him personally, it promised him a seed, if he would lay down his life for them [Note: Isa 53:10-11.]; and as made with him federally, it promised salvation to all who should believe in him, and become members of his mystical body [Note: Gal 3:16-17.].
Now this covenant is everlasting; it has existed from the beginning, and shall exist to all eternity. No human being ever has been saved but by virtue of it; nor shall any child of man ever be admitted into heaven, but agreeably to its provisions. We say not that no person ever has been, or shall be, saved without a distinct acquaintance with it: for we believe that many heathens who never heard of it, and millions of children who have been incapable of understanding any thing about it, have been saved; but not a single soul has ever been accepted of God the Father, but as redeemed by the blood of his only-begotten Son. And perhaps we may say, that this circumstance gives to the glorified saints an advantage over angels themselves: for angels, though confirmed, we trust, in their happiness by the power of God, do not hold that happiness by so sure a tenure as the saints hold theirs: they cannot boast of holding it by the promise and oath of Jehovah; they cannot shew a covenant securing to them the everlasting possession of their inheritance, and that covenant confirmed and ratified with the blood of Gods only dear Son: but we can refer to such a covenant, as the sure ground of all our expectations, and as the pledge that nothing shall ever separate us from the enjoyment of our God [Note: 2Co 1:20.].]
2.
Its fulness
[It may truly be said to be ordered in all things. There is not any thing that can conduce to our happiness either in this world or the next, that is not comprehended in it. Every thing is prepared for us both in a way of providence and of grace. All our comforts, and all our trials, are therein adjusted for our good. All earthly things are secured to us, as far as they are necessary [Note: Mat 6:33.]; and even afflictions themselves are promised, as the appointed means of fitting us for the realms of bliss [Note: Jer 30:11.]. Whatever grace we stand in need of, it shall be given at such times, and in such a measure, as shall most display the glory of God. It is true that God requires of us many things, as repentance, faith, and holiness; but it is equally true that he promises all these things to us: he has exalted his own Son to give us repentance [Note: Act 5:31.]; he also gives us to believe in Christ [Note: Php 1:29.]; and he promises that he will, by the influence of his Spirit, cause us to walk in his statutes, and to keep his judgments and do them [Note: Eze 36:25-27.]. We cannot place ourselves in any situation wherein God has not given us promises, exceeding great and precious promises, suited to our necessities, and commensurate with our wants: nor is so small a thing as the falling of a hair of our head left to chance; it is all ordered by unerring wisdom: and though there may be some events which, separately and distinctly considered, may be regarded as evil, yet, collectively taken in all their bearings, they shall all work together for our eternal good [Note: Rom 8:28.].]
3.
Its certainty
[It is sure to every one who trusts in it. In this it differs widely from the covenant of works which was made with man in innocence: for that depending on the fidelity of the creature, was violated, and annulled: whereas this, depending altogether on the fidelity of God, who undertakes to work in us all that he requires of us, and who engages not only not to depart from us, but not to suffer us to depart from him [Note: Jer 32:40.], shall never fail in any one particular: The mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but the covenant of my peace shall not be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on us [Note: Isa 54:9-10.]. True it is that, as under the Jewish dispensation many were not steadfast in that covenant, which was a mixed, and national covenant, so many who profess religion do really make shipwreck of the faith [Note: 1Ti 1:19.]: but they have never truly embraced the covenant of which we are speaking: they have embraced it only in a partial way, looking for its blessings without duly considering its obligations: they have been more intent on salvation from punishment, than salvation from sin. Had they been really of us, says the Apostle, they would no doubt have continued with us [Note: 1Jn 2:19.]. The foundation of God standeth sure: the Lord knoweth them that are his. But let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity [Note: 2Ti 2:19. should here be translated but. Compare 1Co 12:5; 1Co 16:12 and 2Ti 3:11 in the Greek.]. This being our indispensable duty, God promises and engages, that sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but under grace [Note: Rom 6:14.]: and we know that He is faithful who hath called us, who also will do it [Note: 1Th 5:23-24. Mark the connexion of these two verses.]: and this very circumstance of its being an article in Gods covenant, a blessing to be gratuitously conferred by him, and freely received by us, this, I say, it is, which makes the promise sure to all the seed [Note: Rom 4:16.].]
When once we view this covenant aright we shall see immediately,
II.
The regard which it deserves
We should not regard it merely as an object of curious research, or even of grateful admiration; but should make it,
1.
The ground of all our hopes
[Every other method of acceptance should be renounced; and this should be deliberately and cordially embraced [Note: 2Ti 1:9. The two members of this sentence may be greatly enlarged.] We should contemplate every offer of mercy, every communication of grace, every mean of salvation as originating in the eternal counsels of Heaven: every thing should be traced up to the love of God the Father, and to the plans arranged by the sacred Three, for the magnifying of the divine perfections in the salvation of man Even the atonement itself must be considered as deriving all its efficacy from this covenant: for, if God the Father had not consented to accept his Son as a surety for us, and to regard his death as an atonement for our sin, however honourable to Christ his mediation for us might be, it would not have been available for our salvation. We should get such a distinct view of this covenant as David had; of its duration, (from everlasting to everlasting;) its fulness, its certainty; and then should say of it as he did, This is all my salvation; except in this, I have no more hope than the fallen angels: but through the provision which this has made for me, I scarcely envy the angels who never fell: for I know in whom I have believed, that He is able to keep that which I have committed to him [Note: 2Ti 4:8.]: and I am confident that he who hath begun a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ [Note: 2Ti 1:12.].]
2.
The source of all our joys
[Whatever comforts we may possess in this world, we should derive our chief happiness from this: this should be all our desire, or, as the word imports, all our delight To this also we should have recourse in every season of affliction. David betook himself to it under all his domestic troubles, and in the near prospect of eternity. His house, alas! was not so with God, as he could wish. And how many are there who have great trials in their families! some from their unkindness, and others from their removal by death [Note: This may be amplified so as to apply to many cases which may greatly interest the feelings of an audience.] Let every one that is so circumstanced learn from David where to flee for comfort: let him contemplate the riches of divine grace as exhibited in the covenant, and the blessedness of having an interest in it, and he will soon forget his sorrows, and have a heart overflowing with the most exalted joy If, in addition to other troubles, we are lying upon the bed of death, we may well, like David, seek comfort in this covenant, and make the last words of David [Note: ver. 1.] our last words also. What can so effectually remove the sting of death, as to behold a covenant-God in Christ Jesus, engaged to keep him unto the end, and to receive him to an everlasting enjoyment of his presence and glory? Study then the wonders of this covenant, that they may be familiar to your minds in a time of health; and so shall they fill you with unutterable peace and joy, when every other refuge shall fail, and your soul be summoned into the presence of its God.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(5) Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.
How natural and proper was it for David, when speaking of JESUS, and his salvation, to make an immediate transition to his own personal interest in both; and to take comfort from this delightful assurance, amidst all the outward circumstances which had arisen through life to distress him. Reader! as this verse of David’s hath afforded comfort to thousands, and will continue to do so until time shall be no more, I would wish you not to pass it over hastily, but look into its several properties, praying over it, that the LORD may grant you to adopt (if it be his blessed will) the same precious assurance on the same precious grounds. Do observe the confession David makes of his personal calamities. Although, (says he) my house be not so with GOD . Poor man! what a scene of sin and evil did the walls of his house furnish in his graceless children. To say nothing of the great miscarriages he had wrought himself; his day was a day of clouds, from morning even to the evening. How many of his children died in their sins! But what saith David under these trying circumstances? Although my house be not so with GOD; yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant. As if he had said, JESUS is mine, though he be not my childrens’. GOD hath given me JESUS, and that is enough; for in him I have all things. He is better to me than a thousand sons. Sweet consolation, and a glorious relief, under all afflictions. But this is not all included in it. The covenant in JESUS’s blood and righteousness is an everlasting covenant. It reaches into eternity. It is also ordered in all things, brings all blessings with it. And it is sure: nothing can break it down. It may well be called the sure mercies of David. And lastly; David sums up all in declaring, that it is not only all his salvation, but all his desire, although he make it not to grow. As if he had said, In JESUS my felicity is so complete, my redemption so perfect, and my desires so fully answered, that I find no room for anything more. It is all my salvation, for it leaves no room for anything to be added: It is all my desire, for I can want nothing beside. Here then I rest my soul with all its capacious cravings for happiness. In JESUS I have all. Reader! what say you to this blessed conclusion of David!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Sa 23:5 Although my house [be] not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all [things], and sure: for [this is] all my salvation, and all [my] desire, although he make [it] not to grow.
Ver. 5. Although my house be not so with God. ] Or, And is not my house so with God? so some render it interrogatively, q.d., Either it is or it ought to be. But in case it be not, as the truth is, “In many things we offend all,” and keep not touch with God, – which is a hindrance to our complete happiness, – yet the foundation of God remaineth sure; neither shall our unbelief make the faith of God of none effect. Rom 3:3 We change often, but he changeth not, Mal 3:6 and his covenant is firm and immutable, Jer 31:32-34 “ordered and established in everything,” by him who will “not suffer his faithfulness to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth.”
For this is all my salvation and all my desire.
Although he make it not to grow,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 Samuel
THE DYING KING’S LAST VISION AND PSALM
2Sa 23:1 – 2Sa 23:7
It was fitting that ‘the last words of David’ should be a prophecy of the true King, whom his own failures and sins, no less than his consecration and victories, had taught him to expect. His dying eyes see on the horizon of the far-off future the form of Him who is to be a just and perfect Ruler, before the brightness of whose presence and the refreshing of whose influence, verdure and beauty shall clothe the world. As the shades gather round the dying monarch, the radiant glory to come brightens. He departs in peace, having seen the salvation from afar, and stretched out longing hands of greeting toward it. Then his harp is silent, as if the rapture which thrilled the trembling strings had snapped them.
I. We have first a prelude extending to the middle of 2Sa 23:3 . In it there is first a fourfold designation of the personality of the Psalmist-prophet, and then a fourfold designation of the divine oracle spoken through him. The word rendered in 2Sa 23:1 ‘saith’ is really a noun, and usually employed with ‘the Lord’ following, as in the familiar phrase ‘saith the Lord.’ It is used, as here, with the genitive of the human recipient, in Balaam’s prophecy, on which this is evidently modelled. It distinctly claims a divine source for the oracle following, and declares, at the outset, that these last words of David were really the faithful sayings of Jehovah. The human and divine elements are smelted together. Note the description of the human personality. First, the natural ‘David the son of Jesse,’ like ‘Balaam the son of Beor’ in the earlier oracle. The aged king looks back with adoring thankfulness to his early days and humble birth, as if he were saying, ‘Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should proclaim the coming King.’ Then follow three clauses descriptive of what ‘the son of Jesse’ had been made by the grace of God, in that he had been raised on high from his low condition of a shepherd boy, and anointed as ruler, not only by Samuel and the people, but by the God of their great ancestor, whose career had presented so many points of resemblance to his own, the God who still wrought among the nation which bore the patriarch’s name, as He had wrought of old; and that, besides his royalty, he had been taught to sing the sweet songs which already were the heritage of the nation. This last designation shows what David counted God’s chief gift to him,-not his crown, but his harp. It further shows that he regarded his psalms as divinely inspired, and it proves that already they had become the property of the nation. This first verse heightens the importance of the subsequent oracle by dwelling on the claims of the recipient of the revelation to be heard and heeded.
Similarly, the fourfold designation of the divine source has the same purpose, and corresponds with the four clauses of 2Sa 23:1 , ‘The Spirit of the Lord spake in [or “into”] me.’ That gives the Psalmist’s consciousness that in his prophecy he was but the recipient of a message. It wonderfully describes the penetrating power of that inward voice which clearly came to him from without, and as clearly spoke to him within. Words could not more plainly declare the prophetic consciousness of the distinction between himself and the Voice which he heard in the depths of his spirit. It spoke in him before he spoke his lyric prophecy. ‘His word was upon my tongue.’ There we have the utterance succeeding the inward voice, and the guarantee that the Psalmist’s word was a true transcript of the inward voice. ‘The God of Israel said,’ and therefore Israel is concerned in the divine word, which is not of private reference, but meant for all. ‘The Rock of Israel spake,’ and therefore Israel may trust the Word, which rests on His immutable faithfulness and eternal being.
II. The divine oracle thus solemnly introduced and guaranteed must be worthy of such a prelude. Abruptly, and in clauses without verbs, the picture of the righteous Ruler is divinely flashed before the seer’s inward eye. The broken construction may perhaps indicate that he is describing what he beholds in vision. There is no need for any supplement such as ‘There shall be,’ which, however true in meaning, mars the vividness of the presentation of the Ruler to the prophet’s sight. David sees him painted on the else blank wall of the future. When and where the realisation may be he knows not. What are the majestic outlines? A universal sovereign over collective humanity, righteous and God-fearing. In the same manner as he described the vision of the King, David goes on, as a man on some height telling what he saw to the people below, and paints the blessed issues of the King’s coming.
It had been night before He came,-the night of ignorance, sorrow, and sin,-but His coming is like one of these glorious Eastern sunrises without a cloud, when everything laughs in the early beams, and, with tropical swiftness, the tender herbage bursts from the ground, as born from the dazzling brightness and the fertilising rain. So all things shall rejoice in the reign of the King, and humanity be productive, under His glad and quickening influences, of growths of beauty and fruitfulness impossible to it without these.
The abrupt form of the prophecy has led some interpreters to construe it as, ‘When a king over men is righteous. . . then it is as a morning,’ etc. But surely such a platitude is not worthy of being David’s last word, nor did it need divine inspiration to disclose to him that a just king is a great blessing. The only worthy meaning is that which sees here, in words so solemnly marked as a special revelation closing the life of David, ‘the vision of the future and all the wonder that should be,’ when a real Person should thus reign over men. The explanation that we have here simply the ideal of the collective Davidic monarchy is a lame attempt to escape from the recognition of prophecy properly so called. It is the work of poetry to paint ideals, of prophecy to foretell, with God’s authority, their realisation. The picture here is too radiant to be realised in any mere human king, and, as a matter of fact, never was so in any of David’s successors, or in the whole of them put together. It either swings in vacuo, a dream unrealised, or it is a distinct prophecy from God of the reign of the coming Messiah, of whom David and all his sons, as anointed kings, were living prophecies. ‘The Messianic idea entered on a new stage of development with the monarchy, and that not as if the history stimulated men’s imaginations, but that God used the history as a means of further revelation by His prophetic Spirit.
III. The difficult 2Sa 23:5 , whether its first and last clauses be taken interrogatively or negatively, in its central part bases the assurance of the coming of the king on God’s covenant 2Sa 7:1 – 2Sa 7:29, which is glorified as being everlasting, provided with all requisites for its realisation, and therefore ‘sure,’ or perhaps ‘preserved,’ as if guarded by God’s inviolable sanctity and faithfulness. The fulfilment of the dying saint’s hopes depends on God’s truth. Whatever sense might say, or doubt whisper, he silences them by gazing on that great Word. So we all have to do. If we found our hopes and forecasts on it, we can go down to the grave calmly, though they be not fulfilled, sure that ‘no good thing can fail us of all that He hath spoken.’ Living or dying, faith and hope must stay themselves on God’s word. Happy they whose closing eyes see the form of the King, and whose last thoughts are of God’s faithful promise! Happy they whose forecasts of the future, nearer or more remote, are shaped by His word! Happy they who, in the triumphant energy of such a faith, can with dying lips proclaim that His promises overlap, and contain, all their salvation and all their desire!
If we read the first and last clauses negatively, with Revised Version and others, they, as it were, surround the kernel of clear-eyed faith, in the middle of the verse, with a husk, not of doubt, but of consciousness how far the present is from fulfilling the great promise. The poor dying king looks back on the scandals of his later reign, on his own sin, on his children’s lust, rebellion, and tragic deaths, and feels how far from the ideal he and they have been. He sees little token of growth toward realisation of that promise; but yet in spite of a stained past and a wintry present, he holds fast his confidence. That is the true temper of faith, which calls things that are not as though they were, and is hindered by no sense of unworthiness nor by any discouragements born of sense, from grasping with full assurance the promise of God. But the consensus of the most careful expositors inclines to take both clauses as questions, and then the meaning would be, ‘Does not my house stand in such a relation to God that the righteous king will spring from it? It is, in this view, a triumphant question, expressing the strongest assurance, and the next clause would then lay bare the foundation of that relation of David’s house as not its goodness, but God’s covenant ‘ for He hath made’. Similarly the last clause would be a triumphant question of certainty, asserting in the strongest manner that God would cause that future salvation for the world, which was wrapped up in the coming of the king, and in which the dying man was sure that he should somehow have a share, dead though he were, to blossom and grow, though he had to die as in the winter, before the buds began to swell. The assurance of immortality, and of a share in all the blessings to come, bursts from the lips that are so soon to be silent.
IV. But the oracle cannot end with painting only blessings as flowing from the king’s reign. If he is to rule in righteousness and the fear of the Lord, then he must fight against evil. If his coming causes the tender grass to spring, it will quicken ugly growths too. The former representation is only half the truth; and the threatening of destruction for the evil is as much a part of the divine oracle as the other. Strictly, it is ‘wickedness’-the abstract quality rather than the concrete persons who embody it-which is spoken of. May we recall the old distinction that God loves the sinner while He hates the sin? The picture is vivid. The wicked-and all the enemies of this King are wicked, in the prophet’s view-are like some of these thorn-brakes, that cannot be laid hold of, even to root them out, but need to be attacked with sharp pruning-hooks on long shafts, or burned where they grow. There is a destructive side to the coming of the King, shadowed in every prophecy of him, and brought emphatically to prominence in his own descriptions of his reign and its final issues. It is a poor kindness to suppress that side of the truth. Thorns as well as tender grass spring up in the quickening beams; and the best commentary on the solemn words which close David’s closing song is the saying of the King himself: ‘In the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Although = For (Hebrew. ki)
GOD. Hebrew. ‘El. App-4.
Yet = for (Hebrew. ki)
For = (Hebrew. ki). Punctuate and translate.
it = i.e. my house
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Although: 2Sa 7:18, 2Sa 12:10, 2Sa 13:14, 2Sa 13:28, 2Sa 18:14, 1Ki 1:5, 1Ki 2:24, 1Ki 2:25, 1Ki 11:6-8, 1Ki 12:14
he hath made: 2Sa 7:14-16, 1Ch 17:11-14, Psa 89:3, Psa 89:28, Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7, Isa 55:3, Isa 61:8, Jer 32:40, Jer 33:25, Jer 33:26, Eze 37:26, Heb 13:20
and sure: 1Sa 2:35, 1Sa 25:28, 1Ki 11:38, Act 13:34, Heb 6:19
all my salvation: Psa 62:2, Psa 119:81
desire: Psa 27:4, Psa 63:1-3, Psa 73:25, Psa 73:26
to grow: Isa 4:2, Isa 7:14, Isa 9:6, Isa 9:7, Isa 11:1, Isa 27:6, Amo 9:11, 1Co 3:6, 1Co 3:7
Reciprocal: Gen 9:16 – everlasting Gen 15:18 – made Gen 17:8 – everlasting Exo 6:4 – established 1Ch 7:23 – because 1Ch 16:17 – an everlasting 2Ch 21:7 – because Psa 19:7 – sure Psa 74:20 – Have Psa 105:10 – an everlasting Psa 111:9 – he hath Psa 119:174 – longed Son 3:9 – a chariot Isa 24:5 – broken Isa 26:8 – desire Isa 54:10 – the covenant Isa 56:4 – take hold Jer 33:21 – may Jer 50:5 – in a Eze 16:60 – I will establish 1Pe 2:2 – grow Rev 14:6 – everlasting
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Sa 23:5. Although my house be not so with God Although God knows that neither I nor my children have lived and ruled as we should have done, so justly, and in the fear of the Lord; and therefore have not enjoyed that uninterrupted prosperity which we might have enjoyed. Covenant Notwithstanding all our transgressions whereby we have broken covenant with God, yet God, to whom all my sins were known, was graciously pleased to make a sure covenant, to continue the kingdom to me, and to my seed for ever, 2Sa 7:16, until the coming of the Messiah, who is to be my son and successor, and whose kingdom shall have no end. Ordered in all things Ordained in all points by Gods eternal counsel, and disposed by his wise and powerful providence, which will overrule all things, even the sins of my house so far, that although he punish them for their sins, yet he will not utterly root them out, nor break his covenant made with me and mine. Sure Or, preserved, by Gods power and faithfulness in the midst of all oppositions. For this is all my salvation That is, my salvation consists in, and depends on, this covenant; even both my own eternal salvation, and the preservation of the kingdom to me and mine. Although he make it not, &c. Although God, as yet, hath not made my house or family to grow; that is, to increase, or to flourish with worldly glory as I expected; yet this is my comfort, that God will inviolably keep this covenant. But this refers also to the covenant of grace made with all believers. This is indeed an everlasting covenant, from everlasting, in the contrivance of it, and to everlasting, in the continuance and consequence of it. It is ordered, well ordered in all things; admirably well, to advance the glory of God, and the honour of the Mediator, together with the holiness and happiness of believers. It is sure, and therefore sure, because well ordered: the promised mercies are sure, on the performance of the conditions. It is all our salvation: nothing but this will save us, and this is sufficient. Therefore it should be all our desire. Let me have an interest in this covenant, and I have enough, I desire no more.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
23:5 Although my house [be] not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all [things], and sure: for [this is] all my salvation, and all [my] desire, although he make [it] not to {d} grow.
(d) But that my kingdom may continue for ever according to his promise.