2 Samuel 23:5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure… 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. (ver. 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 believer's depression, and of many an earnest worker's 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 father's 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 father's hope will linger longer than anyone's respecting his children. We have then, here a dying father's 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 David's 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) David's own life must have been a sore hindrance to his influence. (R. Bevan Shepherd, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
    |