2 Samuel 23:5

Although my house be not so with God.

David’s sorrow and resource

The great and elevated among mankind have sorrows proportioned to their greatness, as the highest points of earth are most exposed to the fury of the fiercest storms. Kings have their griefs as kings.

I. David’s domestic sorrow: “My house is not so with God.” Many were the occasions when this distinguished man had to say: “The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: bring thou me out of my distresses. All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me. I sink in deep waters” (2 Samuel 22:5.) Probably as a king, as a public man, David more habitually and simply cast himself upon the Lord. As a domestic man, he was less upon his guard. He expected no lion, no bear, no Goliath difficulty in his home; he therefore did not meet home temptations and troubles as he had met them: “I come to Thee in the name of the Lord of hosts.” And some of you may now be drinking of a similar cup of domestic bitters.

II. Let us look at David’s personal resource: “Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant.”

1. In duration it is everlasting. From everlasting the counsel of peace was between them both--the Father and the Son; the Son, who as Messiah was to sit and rule upon His throne, and be a priest upon His throne (Zechariah 6:13.) It is that covenant, which, to use the forcible language of Paul to Titus, “God, who cannot lie, promised in Christ before the world began.”

2. Observe its completeness: “Ordered in all things: This is all my salvation, and all my desire.” Nothing is left to captious chance; nothing to inconstant and changeable man. There are no contingencies with God; nothing takes Him by surprise.

3. Look also at its certainty: “Sure.” The uncertainty of all earthly things is one sad ingredient in the cup of earth’s bitterness. Such was David’s personal resource at seventy, amidst domestic sorrow. And when we look at the sufficiency: of it, we may well ask, What has the man of the world to fall back upon, when all his earthly hopes are blighted; what to be compared with the believer’s resource? (J. East, M. A.)

David’s dying song

How many choice thoughts have we gained in the bedchamber of the righteous, beloved? I remember one sweet idea; which I once won from a death-bed. A dying man desired to have one of the Psalms read to him, and the 17th being chosen, he stopped at the 6th verse, “Incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech,” and faintly whispering, said, “Ah, Lord, I cannot speak, my voice fails me; incline Thine ear, put it against my mouth, that Thou mayest hear me.” None but a weak and dying man, whose life was ebbing fast, could have conceived such a thought. It is well to hear saints’ words when they are near heaven--when they stand upon the banks of Jordan. But here is a special case, for these be the last words of David.

I. The Psalmist says he had sorrow in his house. “Although my house be not so with God.” What man is there of all our race, who, if he had to write his history, would not need to use a great many “althoughs?” If you read the biography of any man, as recorded in the Sacred Word, you will always find a “but,” or an “although,” before you have finished. Naaman was a mighty man of valour, and s great man with his master, but he was a leper. There is always a “but” in every condition, a crook in every lot, some dark tint upon the marble pillar, some cloud in the summer sky, some discord in the music, some alloy in the gold. So David, though a man who had been raised from the sheepfold, a mighty warrior, a conqueror of giants, a king over a great nation, yet had his “althoughs,” and the “although” which he had was one in his own house.

1. But I imagine that the principal meaning of these words of David refers to his family--his children. David had many trials in his children. It has often been the lot of good men to have great troubles from their sons and daughters.

2. What must I say to any of those who are thus tried and distressed in estate and family? First, let me say to you, it is necessary that you should have an “although” in your lot, because if you had not, you know what you would do; you would build a very downy nest on earth, and there you would 1ie down in sleep; so God puts a thorn in your nest in order that you may sing. It is said by the old writers that the nightingale never sang so sweetly as when she sat among thorns, since say they, the thorns prick her breast, and remind her of her song. So it may be with you. Ye, like the larks, would sleep in your nest did not some trouble pass by and affright you; then you stretch your wings, and carolling the matin song, rise to greet the sun. Trials are sent to wean you from the world; bitters are put into your drink, that ye may learn to live upon the dew of heaven: the food of earth is mingled with gall, that ye may only seek: for true bread in the manna which droppeth from the sky. Your soul without trouble would be as the sea if it were without tide or motion; it would become foul and obnoxious. But, furthermore, recollect this, O thou who art tried in thy children--that prayer can remove thy troubles. There is not a pious father or mother here, who is suffering in the family, but may have that trial taken sway yet. Faith is as omnipotent as God Himself, for it moves the arm which leads the stars along.

II. David had confidence in the covenant. Oh! how sweet it is to look from the dulness of earth to the brilliancy of heaven! How glorious it is to leap from the ever tempest-tossed bark of this world, and stand upon the terra-firma of the covenant! So did David. Having done with his “Although,” he then puts in a blessed “yet.” Oh! it is a “yet,” with jewels set: “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.”

1. David rejoiced in the covenant, because it is Divine in its origin. “Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant.”

2. But notice its particular application. “Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant.” Here lies the sweetness-of it to me, as an individual.

3. Furthermore, this covenant is not only Divine in its origin, but it is everlasting in its duration.

4. But notice the next word. “It is ordered in all things.” “Order is heaven’s first law,” and God has not a disorderly covenant. It is an orderly one. When He planned it, before the world began, it was in all things ordered well.

5. That word things is not in the original, and we may read it persons, as well as things. It is ordered in all persons--all the persons whose names are in the covenant; it is ordered for them, and they shall come according to the promise: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

6. To wind up our description of this covenant, it is sure. We cannot call anything “sure” on earth; the only place where we can write that word is on the covenant, which is “ordered in all things and sure.”

III. The Psalmist had a satisfaction in his heart. “This is,” he said, “all my salvation, and all my desire.”

1. He is satisfied with his salvation.

2. Then, the Psalmist says, he has all his desire. There is nought that can fill the heart of man except the Trinity. God has made man’s heart a triangle. Men have been for centuries trying to make the globe fill the triangle, but they cannot do it; it is the Trinity alone that can fill a triangle, as old Quarles well says. There is no way of getting satisfaction but by gaining Christ, getting heaven, winning glory, getting the covenant, for the word covenant comprises all the other things. “All my desire”--says the Psalmist. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The everlasting covenant, the believer’s support under distress

Now there are three parts of this last prophecy of David:, The first of them concerns the subject of all prophecy and promises, that he had preached about and declared, and that is Christ himself, in the third and fourth verses. The second of them concerns himself, as he was a type of Christ (2 Samuel 23:5.) The third part concerns Satan and the enemies of the Church, in opposition unto the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

I. A great surprisal and disappointment; “Although my house be not so with God.” I have looked that it should be otherways, saith he, that my house should have a great deal of glory, especially that my house should be upright with God; but I begin to see it will be otherwise. The best of the saints of God do oftentimes meet with great surprisals and disappointments in the best of their earthly comforts: their houses are not so with God. The reasons hereof why it may be thus, are:

1. Because there is no promise of the covenant to the contrary. There is no promise of God secures absolutely unto us our outward comforts, be they of what nature they will, be they in our relations, in our enjoyments, in our persons, of what kind they will, why yet we may have a surprisal befal them in reference to them all; because there is no promise of God to secure the contrary, therefore it may be so.

2. Sometimes it is needful it should be so, though we are apt to think the contrary; and that for these three reasons:

(1) To keep continually upon our hearts a due awe of the judgments of God; of the actings of God’s providence in a way of judgment; which otherwise we should be apt to think ourselves freed from.

(2) It is needful to keep us off from security in ourselves.

(3) They are sometimes actually needful to awaken the soul out of such deep sleep of present satisfaction, or love of this world, which nothing else will do.

That which we should learn from hence, by way of use, is:

1. Not to put too great a value upon any contentment whatever we have in this world, lest God make us write an “although” upon it.

2. Let us be in an expectation of such changes of Providence, that they may not be great surprisals unto us.

II. That the great reserve and relief for believers, under their surprisals and distresses, lies, in betaking themselves to the covenant of God, or to God in His covenant. “Although my house be not so with God.” Why do they so?

1. They do it because of the author of the covenant.

2. The second reason is taken from the properties of the covenant; what kind of one it is: and they are three. It is an everlasting covenant. His a covenant that is ordered in all things. And it is a covenant that is sure.

(1) It is the great relief of our souls, because it is “an everlasting covenant.” How is this everlasting? It is everlasting in respect of the beginning of it; it is everlasting in respect of the end of it; and it is everlasting in respect of the matter of it.

(2) The second property of this covenant is, “That it is ordered in all things.” What is order? Order is the disposition of things into such a way, such a relation one to another, and such a dependence one upon another, as they may all be suited to attain their proper end. This is order. Now, saith he, this covenant is ordered. These are the heads of the glorious order of this covenant, that gives it its life, beauty, and glory. Its projection was in the wisdom and love of the Father. It had a solemn confirmation in the blood of the Son: hence the blood of Christ is called “the blood of the covenant.” But when all this is done, how shall this covenant be executed? That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

He hath undertaken two things.

(1) To assure our souls of all things on the part of God. And

(2) to undertake on our parts to give us hearts, that we shall love Him, and fear Him.

There is an addition of order, in reference to the matter of it, here expressed.

(1) It is ordered in all the things “of grace on the part of God.”

(2) It is ordered in reference unto sin. There was a great deal of glory and beauty in the first covenant; but there was no order taken about sin; that, if any sin came in, the first covenant was gone and broken, and of no use any more.

(3) The last property of this covenant is, that it is sure. It is “ordered in all things, and sure.” If it had not been sure, it would not have been a relief unto us.

The springs of the security of this covenant are two:

1. The oath of God;

2. The intercession of Christ. (J. Owen, D. D.)

Household religion

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. (2 Samuel 23:2.) 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.)

David’s distress, consolation, and experience

I. A depth of distress. “My house,” says David, “is not so with God.” He had many trials; but with regard to the affliction before us, we may observe two things; that it was domestic; and that it was principally, though not entirely, of a moral nature.

II. An all-sufficiency of consolation. “Although my house is not so with God.”

1. And first it tells us that this “covenant” is everlasting. Its counsels and its contrivances were from eternity.

2. Secondly, he tells us that this “everlasting covenant” is ordered in all things. Nothing in it is left to any contingency, nothing left to the intermeddlings of men.

3. Thirdly, he tells us that this “covenant ordered in all things” is sure. The covenant of works made with Adam was soon destroyed; the national covenant of the Jews was soon destroyed; and the people, dispersed over the face of the earth, remain to this day a proverb and a by-word. But this covenant is unchangeable; it is as sure, as the truth of God, as the faithfulness of God can make it.

4. Fourthly, the importance he attached to it. “It is all my salvation,” says he. All my salvation requires to be done is here, and all my salvation requires to be given is here. And how much is required? Is the pardon of our sins necessary? There it is. Is holiness necessary? There it is. Is strength necessary? He will put strength in us. Is grace necessary? This covenant gives it. Is glory necessary? It provides it. Is God necessary Himself, with all His relations and attributes? This is the grand provision in the covenant--“I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” They have all of them a God, each a God for himself; a God to guide them, a God to guard them, a God to supply all their need from His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

5. He tells us also of the love he bare to it. It is “all my desire.” What can I wish for besides?

III. An instructive experience.

1. This experience of David calls upon you, in the first place, and says, see what variations there are in the views and the feelings even of the Godly. If it is now dab, with them, the day is neither clear nor dark, as Zechariah says, it is a mixture of both. Every thing with regard to them now is a chequered scene. The image of the Church now may be a bush burning with fire, and not consumed; and the motto of the Church should be, “Perplexed, but not ill despair; cast, down, but not destroyed.”

2. This experience admonishes you, in the next place, and says, do not look for too much here. There are some persons, who idolize life; but after all, what is it found to be? In what condition, and at what period of it, does it effectually belie the language of Young, who says that, for solid happiness--

“Too low they build who build beneath the stars?”

They are “walking in a vain show,” they are “disquieting themselves in vain;” they are seeking the living among the dead.

3. This experience admonishes you how to improve your afflictions; and how to render them, not only harmless, but even beneficial. And this will be the ease, when, like David, we are turned towards Him, and ask, “Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?” “Though no affliction for the present is joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby.” The ploughman is not angry with the ground; but he drives the ploughshare through it to prepare it for the reception of the seed. The husbandman is not angry with the vine; but he cuts it, and prunes it, in order that it may bring forth more fruit. As constantly as the ox is in the field of labour, he must have the yoke on; and Jeremiah compares affliction to a yoke, and says, “It is good for a man to bear the yoke.” Let but the Lord impose it upon us, and it will sit easy, and it will bear well.

4. This experience of David admonishes you not to cherish discontent, nor to dwell principally on the dark side of your condition, but to cherish cheerfulness, to look on the bright side.

5. What you are principally to derive from this experience is to see what resources genuine Godliness has. From what you have heard, you learn that it-does not exempt; its votaries from afflictions; but then, you see, it sustains them under those afflictions; it turns them, at least, into a blessing. (W. Jay.)

The covenant of grace, a support under sorrow

Standing on the borders of the eternal world, David looks back to his humble original, and blesses that goodness Which God had displayed to him, in elevating him to eminence both in the Church and the state.

I. Even the children of God, those who are within the bonds of His covenant, may have to contend with domestic afflictions, may have to lament their errors and their falls, and must be extended on the bed of death.

II. The nature of this covenant. It was primarily made with the glorious Redeemer, as the head and surety of believers; but it is also made with all those who, by faith, accept that Saviour who has ratified it with His blood, and who make of this covenant thus sealed, “all their salvation and all their desire.”

1. It is everlasting; it is, in the language of the apostle, “The eternal purpose which the Father purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” All the manifestations of it in time, and all the blessings which constantly flow from it, are only the accomplishment of the gracious designs that were formed infinite ages before a creature lived.

2. It is “ordered in all things;” planned and arranged by Him whose knowledge is infinite, and whose wisdom is unerring; by Him rendered so comprehensive that “all things,” all possible exigencies, all conceivable events that can befall the Christian, are provided for; every difficulty, every trial, every, tear, and every struggle, were foreseen; together with the effects to be produced by them.

3. This covenant is sure. If there be any truth in the promise and in the oath of Jehovah; if there be any strength in that mighty Redeemer, who is its surety, or any virtue in that blood which sealed it, then those who have a personal interest, in it, may triumph in the stability of their hopes. (H: Kollock, D. D.)

A sure covenant

I. The description which he gives of this great covenant.

1. The time it is to last. It is “an everlasting covenant”--strictly everlasting--never, never to expire.

2. The completeness of its arrangements. It is “ordered in all things, and sure.” The covenants of men are often very incomplete. Something, perhaps, hath been forgotten or lost sight of in the drawing of them up, which makes them almost good for nothing to the parties they are made with. Some case, some circumstance, is unprovided for, which, as soon as it occurs, makes the covenant of none effect. Not so in respect of the covenant of grace made with sinners through a Saviour. No, that is all complete in its provisions. Complete in reference to God’s requirements. For it satisfies His justice; it fulfils His truth; it displays His holiness; it magnifies His love; it sets forth His wisdom; it commends His mercy; it shows forth at once all His glorious perfections, and puts a song of praise into the lips of men and angels. And it is complete, again: in reference to man; nothing, nothing is there wanting in the salvation of Christ Jesus to make it everything poor sinners want.

II. The interest which David states himself to have in this everlasting covenant. “God hath made it,” saith he, “with me.” He had an assurance, then, that he was personally interested in this covenant. He could lay his hand on it and call it his--a covenant made particularly with himself. And, brethren, there is little comfort otherwise. It is a poor thing to look upon salvation, and to say, “This and that man have a part in it. The comfort is when we can bring it nearer home; when we can think, upon good grounds, “I have a share in it.”

III. David’s fillings.

1. “All my salvation.” Why that, in other words, is to tell us that he could most comfortably rest upon it, rest upon it altogether.

2. “This,” saith he, this everlasting covenant of grace, “is all my desire.” (A. Roberts, M. A.)

Consolations of the covenant of grace

“Yet” this little word “yet” wraps up a great and sovereign cordial in it. “Though Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah be gone, and gone with many smarting aggravations too; yet hath He made with me a covenant; yet I have this sheet anchor left to secure me: God’s covenant with me, in relation to Christ, this under-props and shores up my heart. As all the rivers run into the sea, and there is the congregation of all the waters; so all the promises and comforts of the Gospel are gathered into the covenant of grace, and there is the congregation of all the sweet streams of refreshment, that are dispersed throughout the Scriptures. The covenant is the storehouse of promises, the shop of cordials and rare elixirs, to revive us in all our faintings; though, alas, most men know no more what are t, heir virtues or where to find them, than an illiterate rustic put into an apothecary’s shop. (Flavel.)

Divine covenant compensates earthly disappointment

It is wise, when we are disappointed in one thing, to set over against it a hopeful expectancy of another, like the farmer who said, “If the peas don’t pay, let us hope the beans will.” Yet it would be idle to patch up one rotten expectation with another of like character, for that would, only make the rent worse. It is better to turn from the fictions of the sanguine worldling to the facts of the believer in the Word of the Lord. Then, if we find no profit in our trading with earth, we shall fall back upon our heart’s treasure in heaven. We may lose our gold, but we can never lose our God. The expectation of the righteous is from the Lord, and nothing that comes from Him shall ever fail.