…of David: Why does God want us to hear David’s songs in particular?
In the last post I talked about
songs.
…of David
David sticks out. As soon as we
start reading the Psalms, we notice that lots of these Psalms are “of David”.
Psalm 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 … Almost all of the first “book” of Psalms (i.e. Psalms
1-41) are Davidic. They tell us the inner emotional world of David. God’s
anointed King over the united Israel for 30-40 years around 1000 BC (1 Kings
2:11).
Why David’s inner world?
David wasn’t merely a figure in
history. He was a major figure in theology. In 2 Samuel 7, God spoke to him in
particular and made huge, unconditional promises to him…
|
From
the very beginning, these promises were always going to be fulfilled in a
future King, not him. |
12 When your days are
fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up
your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, |
|
God
promised to establish the future King’s rule. |
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. |
|
God
promised to have an intimate relationship with this future King. |
14 I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. |
|
God
promised that God would not abandon His commitment to David’s line, even if
his descendants were disobedient along the way. This Kingdom would be
eternal. |
When
he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the
stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast
love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I
put away from before you. 16 And your house and your
kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be
established forever. |
Historically, David was a
successful king, eventually bringing peace and prosperity in Israel.
But theologically, he was only
the beginning. His reign was to point forward to a far greater Kingdom to come,
ruled by one of his descendants.
Davidic Promises in Psalm 2
Near the very beginning of the
Psalms, we hear about the future King. This future King in David’s line will
fulfil God’s 2 Samuel 7 promises.
|
All the
other rulers gather against him… |
Why
do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel
together, against
the Lord and against his Anointed,
saying, 3 “Let
us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” |
|
…but God
thinks they look ridiculous… |
4 He
who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then
he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, |
|
…because
He has made a promise to establish His King’s rule. |
6 “As
for me, I have set my King on
Zion, my holy hill.” |
|
The
future King knows the 2 Samuel 7 promise of intimacy with God… |
7 I
will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You
are my Son; today
I have begotten you. |
|
…and
the promise of an eternal Kingship, and the destruction of enemies that
implies… |
8 Ask
of me, and I will make the
nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your
possession. 9 You
shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel.” |
|
…which calls
for a response of total surrender to this King, and taking refuge in him. |
10 Now
therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve
the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss
the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the
way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed
are all who take refuge in him. |
Not David’s heart but God’s
future King’s heart
Right here, at the beginning of
the Psalms, we can see that the book of Psalms is pointing forward to someone
later than David. David’s words are recorded, but not because there is ever
any credible belief that David might be this ultimate, 2 Samuel 7, Psalm 2 King.
(Notice here: It cannot be a
possible application of the Psalms to teach “David is not the one.” That should
be immediately obvious to anyone who has ever opened the book of Psalms even
before they’ve read a word. It was not a theological bombshell when the apostle
Peter said in Acts 2:29, “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the
patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to
this day.” Everyone knows that David did not himself sit on his throne forever!)
The Flexibility of Song
How can the early Psalms (3, 4,
6, 7, 8…) all be Psalms “of David” but actually about God’s future King?
If this were a narrative, they
couldn’t be. The historical events that happened to David happened to him alone.
Even in Psalm 3, the very next
Psalm after Psalm 2, David knows he is “not the one,” not the ultimate promised
King. Psalm 3 is written “when he fled from Absalom his son”, which is recorded
in 2 Samuel 15. Psalm 3 comes after the 2 Samuel 7:12 promises that David would
die and a descendant of his would receive those promises, and even after his horrendous
sin and its consequences in 2 Samuel 11-12. When writing Psalm 3, David knew
that he was not the future King of Psalm 2.
Yet, in Psalm 3, David seems to go through exactly what the Psalm 2 King goes through:
- Being opposed by enemies (Psalm 2:1-3; Psalm 3:1-2)
- Certainty of being protected by God (Psalm 2:4-6; Psalm 3:3-5) and even that salvation coming from God’s “holy hill” (Psalm 2:6; Psalm 3:4)
- Confidence that God will destroy those enemies (Psalm 2:7-9; Psalm 3:6-7)
- Blessings being given to God’s people more broadly because of this King’s salvation (2:10-12; Psalm 3:8)
The next few psalms continue to
hammer home that David is talking from the point of view of the one who fulfils
Psalm 2. Vain words (Psalm 2:1; Psalm 4:2) are spoken against him and those who
take refuge in the Lord (Psalm 2:12; Psalm 5:11) are promised the blessing.
These Psalms of David are written
to teach us what “God’s King” really feels like. They are written by David since
he knows he has the unique experience of feeling “God’s King’s” feelings. But
they are also written by the David who knows that “God’s King” will, in a more
meaningful sense, be one of his own descendants.
Why do we need to know about
God’s future King’s heart?
David’s Psalms give us an
insight into the inner world of God’s future King. They help us to see his
heart.
God thinks it is really
important for us to know Jesus’ heart. We can’t just know what he’s done but He
wants us to know how he felt on the inside.
What God really cares about
Christianity is a faith more
than it is a set of rituals: it calls us to turn our hearts to God.
Our hearts matter to God, but
even more than our hearts, the King’s heart really matters to
God.
The reason that David was
chosen in the first place was because God looked on David’s heart. “For
the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7b
For us to rely on God’s King,
we need confidence that his heart is turned to God in the way that God desires.
Our response to God’s King
Psalm 2:12 told us the ways we are
to respond to God’s King: Kiss him (which in the context of the military
language in the Psalm, probably means something like “surrender to him”) and
take refuge in him.
We are to look at the King that
God gives us and ask him to cover us, to give us protection. We are called to a
level of trust and allegiance which affects us at the deepest levels.
God gives us so much help to want
to take refuge in His King. When we get an insight into the inner world of God’s
King, we are given reason after reason to take refuge and surrender. These
songs show us the immense trust in God that the King has, even through the most
vile opposition.
“Singing” Psalms with Jesus
When we come to the Psalms of
Book I, then, we can “sing” them joyfully, knowing that Jesus sings them best.
These are not necessarily psalms
for us to “pray” (as discussed in the previous post) since they are not all sung
to God (see, for example, Psalm 37) or necessarily applicable to our situations,
but as we “sing” them, we will feel their emotion.
If we get really familiar with
these Psalms, we will know Jesus and his heart so much better. As with Ed
Sheeran or Taylor Swift, we will instinctively know His emotions in a far more
direct way than we can even explain.
Peter Agrees
David wrote these songs for us
to know what Jesus would go through.
The Apostle Peter agrees. He said:
29 “Brothers,
I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he
both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being
therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he
foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he
was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This
Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.” – Acts 2:29-32
This is the Apostle Peter
speaking about Psalm 16 on the day of Pentecost, just after the Holy Spirit has
been poured out on Jesus’ followers. There were huge numbers of people present,
and this speech made its way into the God-inspired book of Acts. As Christians,
we can be sure that God definitely intends at least some David Psalms to be
read this way: pointing forward to Jesus’ experience.
It’s really interesting what
Peter doesn’t say. He doesn’t say “the human author David thought
it was about him, but we now know that the divine author God was writing about
Jesus.” There is no division here between what God intended and the intention
of the people he spoke through. David knew it was about one of his descendants,
and God knew it was about one of David’s descendants too.
What’s really exciting is that
if we read the book of Psalms from the beginning, we can see that anyway!
Clearly, the David who puts Psalm 3 after Psalm 2 knows this is about the
future King.
“Love Jesus More”
“Love Jesus more” is a very
common Christian application. But how can we do that?
Well one way that God has given
us to love his King is by reading his songs. His heart is revealed even through
the chapters of the Old Testament, as God speaks through His King David, to
give us all the more reason to take refuge in His King, Jesus.
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