God’s Covenant with David

When David was settled in his palace at Jerusalem, he said to the prophet Nathan that he lived in a house of cedar while the ark of God stayed in a tent. Nathan told him to do what he had in mind (2 Samuel 7:1–3). That night, the account says, the word of the Lord came to Nathan with a different answer. The Lord had moved about in a tent since the exodus and had never asked any leader of Israel for a house of cedar (2 Samuel 7:4–7).

The oracle then turns on the word “house”. The Lord had taken David from following the sheep to be prince over Israel, and now “Yahweh will make you a house”. After David’s death a son of his will succeed him and will build a house for the Lord’s name. “I will be his father, and he will be my son.” If he does wrong he will be punished, but the Lord’s favour will not be taken from him as it was from Saul. “Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:8–16).

The chapter does not use the word covenant. David’s last words do: “he has made with me an everlasting covenant” (2 Samuel 23:5). In Psalm 89 the Lord says, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant” (Psalm 89:3–4). The texts differ on whether the promise has conditions. Samuel and Psalm 89 say that the sins of David’s sons will be punished but the promise will stand (Psalm 89:30–37). Psalm 132 and the prayer of Solomon in Kings make the throne depend on their obedience (Psalm 132:11–12) (1 Kings 8:25). Chronicles repeats the oracle without the clause about punishment (1 Chronicles 17:11–14).

Kings explains by this promise why David’s family kept part of the kingdom when it was torn from Solomon’s son (1 Kings 11:11–13). Psalm 89 laments a time when the king’s crown lay in the dust, and asks where the Lord’s sworn faithfulness to David has gone (Psalm 89:38–49). Prophets spoke of a king still to come from David’s family: a child on David’s throne, a shoot from the stock of Jesse, a righteous Branch (Isaiah 9:6–7) (Isaiah 11:1–2) (Jeremiah 23:5–6).

The New Testament applies the promise to Jesus. In Luke the angel tells Mary that God will give her son “the throne of his father, David”, and that his kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:32–33). Peter says at Pentecost that David knew of God’s oath and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ (Acts 2:29–32). Paul calls Jesus a descendant of David “according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3), and Hebrews quotes “I will be to him a Father” as said of the Son (Hebrews 1:5). Augustine, in the early fifth century, argued that the promise was not fulfilled in Solomon and pointed to Christ (Augustine, City of God 17.8).