Last Words of David — Charles Alexander

David’s Last Words and the Harvest of Souls

You'll find our text this morning in the second book of Samuel, chapter 23. Now these be the last words of David. Now these be the last words of David. You may say, well, what has that got to do with the harvest festival?

It has everything to do with it. Because amongst these last words of David, in verse or two just lower down, it speaks about one who should be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.

That hasn't got to do with the harvest, I don't know what has. We are seeing here a picture of springtime, of renewal of the face of the earth, of the processes of growth, of the favourable conditions which God sends in order to produce the harvest in the souls of men, which he has in view.

The divine plan to which he works, the pattern for the rotation of his crops, that no season should pass, but what he should get precisely what he has put into the ground. Back again with interest. This divine arrangement is expressed in terms of covenant.

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. So you see our passage and our text have a great deal to do with this joyous occasion here in this house of prayer this morning.

The Significance of Last Words

And so back to these original words. These be the last words of David. Now a man's last words in this world are always fraught with some significance. Did he say anything before he went? Is a very, very common question at the time of death.

What did she say? What were her last words? And people will give good heed because they attach some significance even to otherwise very ordinary and prosaic statements. A deathbed vests with great significance and importance to some people at any rate what is said on that solemn occasion.

And we have the annals of the Christian church. Many of the last words of God's great and good saints preserved for us. The very last things they said. We think of the words of John Wesley just before he passed from this scene of time into a glorious eternity.

He said to those round about his bedside waiting for a last word from him and best of all, God is with us. That's what he said. And best of all, God is with us. Somewhat distant relative of mine by marriage.

Not as somebody else's marriage, not mine. Only that we've been in the generations. He was a great and godly man. And it is reputed that he said on his deathbed and I had this from his widow He is my God and he'll be mine forever.

Now that was a great saying, wasn't it? To leave behind you the last thing that you said. I wonder sometimes what may be the last thing that I will say. For some of us here present this morning will we have anything to say that's worthwhile?

I don't know. But we have the last words of David here. And what is his theme in his last words? Well, his theme is a prophetic one. He sees coming through the mists and the shadows one very like himself but separated from him by forty generations perhaps which is a long, long time.

By a period of years running into four figures. A king who should arrive of his own dynastic line. And he sees him coming in the distance. And he says, the God of Israel said the rock of Israel spake to me he that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God and he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth even a morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain all full of majestic and prophetic figures with which David was very familiar indeed all his life long from the day when as a shepherd boy he played his lute on the hillside as he watched his father's sheep God took him from caring for the ewes of the lambs to be the shepherd over his people Israel and he saw mirrored in his own heart in what God had done for him in the prophetic vision which he gave he saw mirrored there someone who should come of his line but who should not come from earth but come from heaven and fit himself legally and actually into the land that the earth might be conditioned and ruled and all its history determined by what took place at that moment around the aged patriarch's dying bed.

The Davidic Promise and the Coming King

I remember one of the great things he said and he spoke a whole chapter his last words and died immediately afterwards. No wonder he died immediately after that effort both physical and spiritual and he reached the topmost the rung of that ladder which is set upon earth and reaches unto heaven when his blessing fell upon the ears of Judah his fourth son who was to be the son upon whom the birthright should rest.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. And to him shall the gathering of the people be. What a book is the Bible. What fullness of vision and light and truth speaking always of the salvation of men the promise of God the undertaking, the divine arrangements of the most high his coming unto of obligations freely entered into before the foundation of the world for the overcoming of sin and of evil and death and suffering and the rising of a new creation headed up in the only begotten Son so that it should be permanent incorruptible, indestructible felicitous, delectable beautiful and desirous and everything that God himself could plan in all his eternal wisdom.

This is the theme of the Bible. This was the theme of Jacob on his deathbed. These were the last words of David. We have recorded for us too the last words of another great man in the Bible whose name is Moses.

And they are recorded in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verses 26 to 29. Now listen to these words. These are the last words of Moses, the man of God. There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun.

Now Jeshurun is a Hebrew word, a very beautiful Hebrew word as far as I know it only occurs once or twice in the whole of the Old Testament. And its meaning is the righteous one. And it is a name that is given to Christ though it was not understood by those who followed Moses but Moses knew what he was speaking about.

There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun who rideth upon the heaven in thy help and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Now some of you are often quoting those words.

Aren't you underneath us are the everlasting arms. Now you know where they came from. If you didn't know before, you know now they come from the 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy and verse 27. And they are the words of Moses, the man of God his last words he is within a couple of sentences of speaking the last word he ever spoke in this world.

The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine.

Also his heaven shall drop down, Jew. Happy art thou, O Israel who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the sword of thy excellency. And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places the full destiny of the redeemed in our Lord Jesus Christ in their faith in the God of Jeshurun who makes with them or for them through his eternal Son, the heavenly Jeshurun an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure by which they should overcome all their enemies at the last by which they shall dwell in safety alone amongst the nations.

No, no, not the Jewish Israel but the Israel of God composed of Jew and Gentile to the utmost limits of time and boundaries of the earth so that Christ should have a people in eternity who should reflect in all things his perfection, his glory and his beauty.

Happy art thou, O Israel who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord. Away there in St. James's Cemetery at the back of Liverpool Cathedral. If you go in by the small gate on this side of the cathedral that is in the place where the nave is now being completed and I don't think that that door is open but if you are still surviving when it is opened again you will find one of the first graves you come to down that little narrow path going down the hill into the depths of where the principal part of the graveyard are found you will see a grave on the left hand side.

I think it is a double grave. A man and his wife are buried there. He was a surgeon. These were the last words of Moses, the man of God. And now we are seeing or reading the last words of David. And we have something else which is the last thing concerning David the king we have in Psalm 72.

David’s Final Prayer and the Glory of Christ

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. Now some of you are very familiar with that portion in Psalm 72 and verse 20 the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. We have his last prayer. He may have written it in advance.

It may have been some years before his death. I don't know it may have been very shortly before his death but whether or not it represented the sum total of all his praying. So whether he wrote it at the time or not these are the last prayers of David.

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. When you read the 72nd Psalm you will know why his name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in him.

All nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the God of Israel who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen.

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. I wonder what your last prayer will be. What my last prayer will be. Well David's now one great continuing theme of the prophets is Christ in his glory and brought forth chords of music and waves of sound through God.

He always was exalted. What the praise of heaven shall be like. I do not know when our tongues shall be finally unloosed. And seeing that in reality which David the Lord spoke by thee and his word was in thy tongue.

Never man spake like this man. Never man could speak of God as Christ spoke of God who knew him from the beginning. Who was the revealer of the most high. Who was the very image and likeness of his eternal glory the bearer of his name and of his honor and power.

Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. The spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. If we would know about God we must go to Christ. If we would see God we must see Christ.

If we would understand the mystery of God the only one fit and able to bear rule over the universe as well as over the earth. Is it not something in our last words dear friends in this world to recognize and to recall in that last verse.

Read again some verses that we were considering at our morning worship in the second book of Samuel chapter 23 and the first five verses. The right hand of the majesty in the heavens angels and principalities and powers being made subject of and what he is doing his qualities for being there.

The merits and perfection by reason of which we know that nothing can go wrong that everything is sure to work out. The greatest confidence and treasure will be as the light of the morning. That morning which dawned upon our souls when the darkness fled the light was given.

We knew that henceforth we were children of the day and not of the night. Remember how Isaiah the prophet speaks of the same circumstances when he said that the Lord came or was to come in his day to give light to those who sit in darkness.

Christ as the Light in the Darkness

Or rather this is what the father of John the baptist said. We will come to Isaiah in a moment to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death words which that godly man the father of John the baptist borrowed from the prophecy of Isaiah.

When Isaiah said the darkness should cover the earth and gross darkness the people. But the Lord should arise upon his people and his glory should be seen. And that gross darkness of sin of curse and of condemnation lying heavily upon the whole of the human race would be illuminated by him who is aptly described elsewhere as the bright and morning star the herald of the dawn the rising in the east of the great saviour and redeemer as he comes with the deliverance of his people on the wings of the morning.

It is all light when Christ comes in when he begins to bless the soul new life with salvation with redemption, with the forgiveness of sin he shall be as the light of the morning again. The psalmist says in a certain place my soul waiteth for God more than they that watch for the morning.

I say, more than they that watch for the morning. And so he repeats himself so as to underline the wonder of it and the glory of it. My soul waiteth upon God more than they that watch for the morning.

The beleaguered city the fear of the night assaults the sentry upon the wall or the helmsman and the lookout upon the ship in the time of the hurricane the wrack, the distress the vessel tossed up and down and hither and thither in the darkness of the darkest night.

And oh how they watch for the morning. For somehow or other when the light comes the ship handles better hope returns. But in the darkness what can one do. My soul waiteth for God more than they that watch for the morning.

I say, more than they that watch for the morning. For that is always the coming of the Lord God to our soul. And some of us, I have no doubt, have passed through very, very dark nights. And some of us even now may be passing through the darkest of dark nights.

And you watch for the morning happy indeed, dear soul if you can say with the psalmist my soul waiteth upon God more than they that watch for the morning with that quiet assurance and confidence that all is well.

That when the hours of darkness and distress have passed the sun will shine again the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings. And that your frail vessel is in the hand of him who rules over the wind and the wave over the storm and the black master, the tempest is raging the billows are tossing high the sky is all clouded with blackness.

And so it goes on, as you know, that wonderful head no water can swallow thee ship. Where lies the master of ocean and earth and sky. They all shall sweetly obey thy will peace be still. This lesson the psalmist knew and the disciples storm-tossed on the lake of Galilee knew when they saw him in the fourth watch of the night that's the morning watch.

The night was divided into four watches. And in the fourth watch the sun rose. And in the fourth watch of the night they saw him coming through the mists and through the gloom. And they said one to another as they saw him walking upon the waves it's the Lord, it is the Lord.

And they were afraid but he called out to them across the stormy sea it is I, be not afraid. And they willingly received him into the ship and immediately they were at the land whither they were sailing.

Wonderful that, isn't it. You're always immediately there even in the middle of the ocean. Once he is in the ship once he has manifested himself in all his grace and graciousness and goodness to the soul.

You know you've arrived in port. You're where you want to be. And there will be no separation between your soul and Christ. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. Remember also that the prophet cries out in the midst of his prophetic vision.

Watchman, what of the night. What of the night. And he hears the watchman cry from the midst of the darkness. The morning cometh and also the night. Words which might fit in very much with that which we have been considering in recent times in the ninth chapter of the gospel of John the healing of the blind man the coming of light to that soul.

Working While It Is Day

And the Lord speaking I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. Words which fitly belong to the prophetic words which we have quoted from the Old Testament scriptures.

Watchman, what of the night. And the watchman replies the day cometh and also the night. And we must work while it is day. For the night cometh when no man can work when this earth's day shall be ended and the gospel day will close so far as this world is concerned.

The night cometh. The night cometh when no man can work. Will you be left out in the dark and in the cold. When the night cometh we read that the disciples again went fishing after the resurrection in the last chapter of John's gospel.

And they toiled all night and they caught nothing. And then we read when the morning was come they saw the Saviour standing upon the shore and he cried to them across the way children have ye any meat.

Cast your nets on the right side of the ship and ye shall find. And so they brought in that mighty and great draft of fishes to shore as a token of what would take place through the New Testament grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Old Testament side of the ship.

They toiled all night and caught nothing. Now the morning was come. Joy cometh in the morning though weeping may endure for a night. Joy cometh in the morning. When the morning was come the Saviour was there on the shore.

And the great time of weeping had arrived when the disciples and all those who succeeded to them preaching the gospel letting down the gospel net enclosing a vast number a specific number 153 great and small.

We are mostly small here this evening so far as the history of the kingdom of God is concerned. But look back over the ages and see the 153 great and small in the gospel net brought eventually to land.

And why 153? We can mention another reason but we won't this evening it will take too much detail but one reason at least is that that God knows the number. Why didn't He say well round about 150 when the sun appeared and they entered in did the disciples and found not the body of the Lord Jesus but in that dark and empty chamber of death.

The sun's rays poured upon that glorious morning and proclaimed victory over death and the grave that the reign of sin and death was ending and Christ's reign of life and grace of peace and joy was begun.

Resurrection Morning and the New Creation

Just think of that that greatest morning in the history of mankind. That was a great morning. The morning of the earth's creation when the earth the globe and all creation was without light. God said let there be light and there was light.

And the evening and the morning were the first day that must have been a wonderful day. That first day of creation when the light shone and things began to happen. The greatest morning that ever dawned in the history of our race or was ever known or ever will be known in eternity.

A greater morning than our own resurrection day which is yet to come is that morning when the Lord arose and shook off the grave clothes and came out in all the glory of the new creation trampling under his feet sin and death and hell destroying him who had the power of death that is the devil with a mighty triumph o 'er his foes that never to be forgotten on first Easter morning.

A day without clouds. A morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. For this morning indicates as a morning without clouds that the tokens of God's anger have passed away.

And we look out now through Christ upon clear skies. No dark threatening appears any longer on the horizon of the true believer in Christ. It is a day which never declines unto evening but always in the brightness of high noon.

That day is our day of salvation. The day of the Lord now is the expected time. Now is the day of salvation. If there were time which there isn't we should have to go on to speak about Christ being likened unto the rain as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.

Christ the Rain and the Harvest of the Gospel

For remember that Christ is exhibited in the scripture as the rain. The doctrine of Christ is as the rain. Moses says in Deuteronomy 32 that his doctrine drops as the dune and this receive a blessing from God.

But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. The same doctrine of Christ falls upon all kinds of ears receiving ears rejecting ears. Hearts which are softened by the dew of repentance.

Hearts which are hardened in their unbelief and their love of sin. It's the same doctrine, the same rain falls. But there are two different kinds of ground. That which drinketh in the rain that oft falleth upon it bringeth forth herbs meet for him by whom it is dressed and receives the blessing of God.

But that which after many days and years perhaps of gospel proclamation still brings forth the thorns and the briars of sin and of death is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. Psalm 72 which we read for our lesson speaks about the heavenly king coming down upon his people as rain upon the mown grass.

So the people is grass as the Bible says we are the grass of the earth. The green grass is Christ's harvest. That which is brought forth and refreshed and brought to maturity by the heavenly doctrine of Christ which is the gospel.

This is the grass of the earth. The tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Again it speaks about the people of God as being in that psalm a handful of corn in the earth upon the top.

The Everlasting Covenant and Christ’s Triumph

In this passage David says. Although my house be not so with God that means that his reign unlike that of Christ was in many respects a failure. The failure of all things human must be recognized by us.

But in Christ our nature, our human nature is united to God by Christ and in Him who is both God and man my nature is united to God by an everlasting covenant. Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordained in all things unsure Christ by reason of this covenant this solemn contract with the eternal Father as touching the redemption of His people by reason of this everlasting covenant Christ will triumph over sin and death and bring in the new creation.

A covenant ordained in all things unsure nothing left out of accounts as to its object. It is the glorifying of Christ and the salvation of all those for whom He specifically acts a covenant ordered in all things unsure it is sure as to its object it will be attained as to its duration.

It is ever ordered in all things unsure as to the opposition of sin and Satan in this world despite all the human things.