WWUTT 404 The Last Words of David?

The Last Words of David and His Prophetic Role

David was not just the greatest king Israel ever had before the coming of Christ, he was also one of their greatest prophets. And he teaches us how God has ordained for us to praise Him when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky, and greetings everyone. We conclude our Old Testament study today in the book of 2 Samuel, chapters 23 and 24. If you want to open up your Bible there. And we're going to begin with a section titled, The Last Words of David.

Now, as I mentioned last week, this is not set in a chronological order. This is kind of an epilogue at the conclusion of the narrative that really ended with chapter 21. That was the conclusion of everything that we read in 1 and 2 Samuel.

This epilogue serves to lead up to the final event recorded in 2 Samuel, which is the purchase of the land that Solomon will eventually build the temple of God upon. That's the last thing we read about at the end of chapter 24.

And that's how we'll conclude today. Actually, I'm going to finish today with a choral rendition of the last words of David. And I'll tell you about that when we get to the end of our reading. Let's begin in 2 Samuel, chapter 23, starting in verse 1.

David's Last Words and the Everlasting Covenant

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.

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. For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire? But worthless men are 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. Thus concludes what are recorded as the last words of David. And you notice that David says here, 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. David repeating words that have been given to him by God. So even though the prophets came and spoke to him the word of the Lord, there were things that David said that was the voice of God.

And this is what a prophet does. A prophet speaks on behalf of God. The priest goes to God and speaks on behalf of the people. The prophet is the one who speaks to the people what God has said to him.

So in this way, David did himself serve as a prophet. And this is confirmed by the apostle Peter at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, when he quotes the words of David and then he says in verse 29, Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

So Peter here refers to David as a prophet. David speaking the words of the Lord shows us how God expects for his people to praise him. God has ordained his praise. We read that in Psalm chapter 8 and Jesus repeated it also that God has ordained his praise.

So when it comes to knowing how we are to praise God in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, read the Psalms, read the words of David, who did not speak out of his own mind, but was led by the Holy Spirit to pen the Psalms that we have of David.

And here we have kind of another Psalm set on its own in 2 Samuel chapter 3, the last words of David. Let's continue on here, verse 8. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had. And next to him among the mighty men was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, son of Ahoya.

He was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel withdrew. He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clung to the sword.

And the Lord brought about a great victory that day, and the men returned after him only to strip the slain. And next to him was Shema, the son of Agi, the Herorite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines.

But he took his hand in the midst of the plot and defended it, and struck down the Philistines, and the Lord worked a great victory. And the three of the thirty chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the cave of Adulam, when a band of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. And David said longingly, O that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!

Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink it. He poured it out to the Lord and said, Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this.

Shall I drink the blood of men who went at risk of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did. Now Abishai the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty, and he wielded his spear against three hundred men and killed them, and won a name beside the three.

He was the most renowned of the thirty and became their commander, but he did not attain to the three. And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man of Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two aerials of Moab.

He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. And he struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear.

These things did Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard. Then in verses 24 through 39, we have a list of the other thirty mighty men of David, and I'm not going to go ahead and try to stumble through those names.

So you can read those on your own and try to sound them out for yourself. All right. Finally, David's census, chapter 24. And this is the closing story to the book of 2 Samuel. Again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, Go number Israel and Judah.

David's Census, Sin, and the Plague

So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people that I may know the number of the people. But Joab said to the king, May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it.

But why does my lord the king delight in this thing? But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel.

They crossed the Jordan and began from Aror and went from the city that is in the middle of the valley toward Gad and on to Jazer. Then they came to Gilead and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites. And they came to Dan, and from Dan they went around to Sidon, and came to the fortress of Tyree and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they went out to the Negev of Judah at Beersheba.

So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people of the king. In Israel there were eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand.

But David's heart struck him after he numbered the people, and David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now let me stop there for a second. Let's go back to the start of chapter 24 where it says,.

Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them. This story is worded in a different way when you go to 1 Chronicles 21. It says,. Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.

God is not the one who causes us to do evil. He will use Satan and his demons to carry out his will. So here in 1 Chronicles 21 it very specifically says that it was Satan who incited David to do evil.

And in 2 Samuel 24 it's a little bit more sovereign in its wording, in its sounding. Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them. But ultimately God is going to use this evil that is done to bring about the purchase of the land where the temple of God will be constructed.

Now why was it when David did this census that God was angry at him for it? Well I'll get to that here in just a moment. Let's go back to verse 10, 2 Samuel 24 verse 10. But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people.

And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer.

Now this is the third prophet that David has had speaking to him the word of the Lord. Samuel, and then Nathan, and now Gad. And the Lord said to Gad, Go and say to David, Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer.

Choose one of them, that I may do it to you. So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you?

Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me. Then David said to Gad, I am in distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great.

But let me not fall into the hand of man. Then verse 15, So the Lord sent pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, It is enough. Now stay your hand.

And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, Behold, I have sinned and I have done wickedly.

But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house. And Gad came that day to David and said to him, Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arana the Jebusite.

So David went up at Gad's word as the Lord had commanded. So once again, God's anger kindled against David. He gave David three options. Rather than fleeing from his enemies, knowing that his enemies would not be merciful, he said, I would rather be into the hand of the Lord who does deal mercifully with us.

So then pestilence came upon the land for three days. And this is in accordance with what is said in Exodus chapter 30 verses 11 through 16. The Lord said to Moses, when you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them.

That there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this half a shekel. According to the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel is 20 geras. Half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.

Everyone who is numbered in the census from 20 years old and upward shall give the Lord's offering. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives.

You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord so as to make atonement for your lives.

Notice here that an offering is to be given by every person who is counted in the census so that a plague would not come upon them. And it is atonement for their lives. When David took this census so unwisely, it was not commanded to him by God.

It was probably done in selfish pride. He wanted to see. He was just kind of counting. I want to see how many men I've got. I want to see how awesome I am. Let me count how many abled-bodied men I have in Israel who can fight for me.

And when David did that, the men who were counted did not give the offering. And that is why pestilence came upon them. Now God gave David options, but David did not want to decide. He said, let the Lord decide.

And that's why pestilence came upon them according to that law that was given in Exodus chapter 30. So that's why God's anger was kindled against David and the people of Israel. And again, when we started this, it said, again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

So Israel had been sinning. And this was what God caused to happen to Israel because they were not obeying the Lord. And David himself was very prideful in the way that he went about taking this census of the people.

Ultimately, this was because of the people's sin. So in verse 19, David responding to what Gad said to him, David went up at Gad's word as the Lord commanded. And when Aaronah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him.

And Aaronah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. And Aaronah said, why is my lord the king come to his servant? David said to buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord that the plague may be averted from the people.

Then Aaronah said to David, let my lord the king take an offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Aaronah gives to the king.

And Aaronah said to the king, may the Lord your God accept you. But the king said to Aaronah, no, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord. My God, that cost me nothing.

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord responded to the plea for the land and the plague was averted from Israel.

And then we read later on in First Chronicles 22 that this threshing floor was the very land that David purchased and Solomon would build the temple there. I want to finish here with a classic piece composed by Randall Thompson entitled The Last Words of David.

He took that section in Second Samuel 23 and put it to choral music. I actually sang this with one of my choirs in college, and I wanted to present this as a conclusion to our study of Second Samuel. Now, the best version of this that I have ever heard was performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, a full orchestration of it.

And I've not heard a full orchestration anywhere else except done by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. However, I cannot in good conscience play that rendition on this broadcast. You can go look it up on YouTube yourself if you want to hear it.

And so instead, I've chosen the rendition as performed by the South Carolina Baptist Singing Churchmen. I was born in South Carolina. Go Gamecocks. So that's why this rendition caught my attention. Here is The Last Words of David as composed by Randall Thompson.