Readings on fourth Sunday of Advent:
2 Sam 7:1-17
Ps 132:1-19
Rom 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
“Remember, O Lord, on David’s behalf, all his affliction…”
Present-day Jerusalem, in a way, is an embodiment of this prayer. David son of Jesse is remembered everywhere. There is King David Street, on which sits the King David Hotel. There’s another David Street in the Old City, lined with desperate vendors urging tourists to buy something.
There’s the Tower of David on the Old City wall. By the way, that tower has nothing to do with David. It was named that by well-meaning, devout, but geographically and historically ignorant Christians. There’s also the Tomb of David, which is not where David is buried; that was made a holy place by well-meaning, devout, but geographically challenged Jews.
Then there’s the City of David archeological park, one of my favorite places in Jerusalem. It sits just south of the existing city walls and is the site of the original Jebusite city that David conquered. It is where David placed the Ark of the Covenant for a time, as mentioned in our Psalm today.
Jerusalem remembers David. Jerusalem, in honoring David, reminds God of his covenant with David.
There are many covenants in the Hebrew Scriptures: Some of the big ones are the ones God made with Noah, with Abraham, through Moses, and the one with David.
Our lesson in 2 Samuel 7 records the Davidic covenant, and the first part of Psalm 132 is a sort of poetic retelling of 2 Samuel 6 & 7.
A little background: The ark of the covenant – the symbol of the presence of God – had been lost to the Philistines. This is before Saul was king. The Philistines returned the ark to Israel, but the ark was never returned to the Tabernacle in Shiloh. After David becomes king, he attempts to move the ark to Jerusalem. The first attempt is disastrously done without liturgical knowledge, and as result, a man died when he touched the Ark. After David gets over his fright, he does his research and successfully moves the Ark to Jerusalem and puts it in a tent outside his house.
Later, David realizes he lives in a proper house, yet the presence of the LORD lives in a tent outside. Maybe this sounds silly, building a house for the omnipresent God, but the whole reason for the wilderness Tabernacle was so that God would have a dwelling place among his people. God doesn’t need a tent or a house, but he desires to live among his people.
So David decides he’ll build God a house, a temple. Nathan the prophet tells David it’s a good idea. Nathan forgot to ask God if it was a good idea. God says, ‘I never asked for a house or a temple.’
This is where the story goes in a God-way, not a people way. If this had been a conversation among just humans, the man who refused might have just said, “No thanks” and went on his way. Or he might have had a sensitive ego and gone on a rant saying, “How dare you think that YOU can build ME a house!”
God does remind David of the nature of their relationship: “I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you.”
David, you were nothing when I found you. You have been victorious because I beat back all your enemies.
Then God shows he is God and not a man. From 2 Sam 7:9-11: “I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more….. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make YOU a house.”
We do not have time to talk about the land promise today. But let’s look at the first and the last promise of this passage.
Is David’s name great? Is he among the great ones of the earth? Yes. Here we are 3,000 years later talking about him.
“Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the LORD will make you a house.” So we started with David wanting to build God a physical house. God says to him: Not you, but I will build YOU into a house, into a dynasty.
Picking up in 2 Sam 7:12: “I will raise up your descendant after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.”
God tells David that a descendant will build a house for God’s name. We know that Solomon, the next of the Davidic kings, builds the temple. But is this really talking about Solomon? God says he shall establish this descendant’s kingdom forever. “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” Solomon does not rule forever. Actually, he falters and the kingdom is divided because of Solomon’s sin.
Let’s go back to Psalm 132: “Remember, O LORD, on David’s behalf, …”
Verse 10: “For the sake of David Your Servant, Do not turn away the face of Your anointed,” that is your selected, consecrated king.
The Psalmist – perhaps in the time after the exile – is asking God to keep his promise to David, for David’s sake. Some Israelites returned to Babylon after 70 years of exile, and they returned to a Jerusalem in ruins, the temple not just desecrated but destroyed.
‘God, where are you? You promised a king, a Davidic king. God, please fulfill your promise!’
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This psalm calls God to keep his promise. When God delays, some doubt. Some even walk away. But the psalmist cries out to God. He calls God to keep his promise.
We can do that. We can read back to God his promises and “remind” him. This isn’t about manipulating. This isn’t about us ordering God around. This is about us restating our trust, our faith in God… not our faith in his promises but in his person. Our faith that he is merciful. That his promises are yes and amen.
Has God made you promise? Was there some promise you received from the LORD and you were really holding on to it about this time last year? 2020 was going to be the year of fulfillment: for a job, for a child, for the salvation of a dear one, for a mate, for a new house, for healing, for ___________(fill in the blank).
Instead, 2020 was filled with affliction. Global pandemic. Economic struggles. Racial and political unrest. Some of us have faced illness and even been touched by death. In popular parlance, it’s been a dumpster fire of a year.
Some of you may know that on YouTube, you can search for “Christmas music fireplace” and get an hours-long video of a crackling fire with your favorite carols playing in the background. Well, this year, you can search for “dumpster fire Christmas” and get an hours-long video of a crackling fire in a dumpster with your favorite carols playing. Check it out.
It’s been a dumpster fire of a year… and where is God? Where is Jesus? In Jeremiah 29:11, God says: “ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Do you still have hope? This quote of God’s will for good, not evil, for a future and a hope – this was said to the survivors after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. 586 B.C. was a dumpster fire year. Then God said he had plans for the Israelites’ good. Sarcasm? Or encouragement?
Is there hope for us here at the end of 2020? Is there hope in this psalm, in the ancient promise of 2 Samuel 7 to an ancient king in a faraway land? And what does this have to do with Advent, anyhow?
3,000 years ago God promised David that a physical descendant would sit on David’s throne forever. God would be a father to this Son of David, and this Son of Man would be God’s Son.
We are days away from celebrating the night when a daughter of David named Miriam gave birth to a baby boy named Yeshua, as a son of David named Yosef kept watch.
As Miriam, that is Mary, swaddled her newborn, as she caressed his face, surely she was remembering that strange day from nine months before: “Shalom, favored lady! The LORD is with you!” … “Don’t be afraid, Miryam, for you have found favor with God. 31 Look! You will become pregnant, you will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua (that is Salvation). 32 He will be great, he will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his forefather David; 33 and he will rule the House of Jacob forever — there will be no end to his Kingdom.” (Luke 1:30-33 CJB)
In a few days, we will celebrate the birth of the One who fulfills God’s promise to David. We will celebrate that we worship the promise-keeping God. We worship a God who remembers our afflictions, who has plans for our good, for our future.
This Son of David has come to build a house for God, a spiritual house of living stones…. We are those living stones, we who accept God’s free gift of salvation and transformation. In this holy temple, Jesus Christ himself is the cornerstone of the dwelling place of God.
Why Jesus? Let’s turn one more time to 2 Samuel 7. Let’s read it again, from v 14: “ I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’”
“I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men.” This sounds familiar… the stripes of men.
“But Jesus didn’t commit iniquity!” No, he did not. But all his ancestors did. All his great grandfathers did. But Jesus bore their discipline anyway. He subjected himself to the rod of Rome, to the awful scourge – the leather whip knotted and tipped with bits of metal – and ultimately to the Cross.
And this is why his throne is established forever. At the end of Isaiah 53, God says about the Suffering Servant:
I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Paul tells us in Philippians 2 that Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So as we sit here on the cusp of Christmas, we are waiting for this year to end. And we are waiting for Jesus to return as he promised… waiting… waiting…. waiting. Did he really promise? Is he really coming back?
YES! We serve a promise-keeping God, faithful and merciful who tarries only because he wants more people to know him! So let us persevere in our waiting and soon celebrate the birth of the long-awaited Son of David, Jesus Messiah the King.
Let us pray.
O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great Day; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.