Devotionals

Desire and Salvation

by Gail Davis
09/05/20
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“Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?” (2 Samuel 23:5 [NASB])

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Colossians 2:6 [NASB])

After reading these two passages, you might wonder what God teaches from both that is a commonality weaving them together. Remember, every book and passage in the Bible has one commonality.  The thing in common is God - who He is, and what He has done, is doing, and will do.

Consider 2 Samuel 23, David’s last words before his death. He began by declaring an oracle, like a prophet, that these are his last words, then emphatically made his point with four descriptors of himself in relationship to God that could not have been if he had not made God his LORD. David said he is the son of Jesse. His Hebrew ancestry traces back to Abraham through Judah, and to Ruth, the Moabitess God considered righteous because she followed the God of Naomi, her Hebrew mother-in-law, into Canaan. He had covenant ancestry, meaning he is part of the tribe God has chosen, and he made God His LORD by His choice. David continued by saying he was “raised on high” and was “the anointed of the God of Jacob.” Literally, God raised David from the status of being a common man, a shepherd, and made him the king of His people, Israel. As king of Israel, God anointed David to be the one who would lead His people to act righteous, as God is righteous, representing Him on earth. David concluded by saying he was the psalmist of Israel, the one who would lead His chosen people to testify about God and praise Him in word and action by testifying and praising Him himself. David recognized his covenant connection with Yahweh through his ancestry. He confirmed his God-chosen connection with Yahweh through His anointing of him and raising him to the throne over His covenant people. Finally, David reminisced of his intimate relationship with God through his psalms. His relationship with God spoke of how each believer can relate to God.

David continued by proclaiming his “last words,” this oracle, came from God in 2 Samuel 23:2. He said, by His Spirit, Yahweh’s words were on his tongue. Next, David emphasized who Yahweh is, the God of Israel (the Covenant-maker) and the One who is the Rock of Israel (faithful, steady, and strong). This Covenant-maker, faithful, and strong God is the One who chose the Hebrews, anointed for them a king, and provided for them a psalmist to lead them to remember, revere, and worship Him alone.

God’s oracle through David told about the people who God chose; they are faithful to Him and revere Him. They are like David. The chosen of God are righteous and fear God with awe and reverence (vs. 3b). They show God’s righteousness by living righteous lives empowered by God. These children of God are like the light of morning when the sun rises with no clouds in the sky after a rain and the grass rises from the ground (vs. 4). They radiate their faith and trust in God. The people of God radiate Him with their lives like the God-chosen and God-anointed psalmist and righteous king of Israel. They shine God’s radiant glory through their spirit and lives. Visible in the Israelites lives is King David’s relationship with God.

David explained how God worked in his life as His righteous man and king. God made an unending covenant with him. He promised David’s kingdom would never end. Jesus the eternal King, the descendent of David and the Son of God who reigns forever, shows God faithfulness to His covenant with David. David confirmed his faith in God’s fulfilling His covenant with him when he said, “He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured” (2 Samuel 23:5 [NASB]) God set forth and made a legally binding covenant with David, unlike the old covenant with Moses, and kept and secured it (vs. 5). He is always faithful to His promises. God kept this covenant with him through His coming Messiah, Jesus. At the end, this righteous psalmist and anointed king of Yahweh declared God would provide for his salvation and his desires (vs. 5b). God would do it because of His faithfulness and would make it grow. He, through David, emphasized this by asking a rhetorical question with his last words in verse five. God would make David complete and perfect with the full salvation He can offer. He provided for David’s soul to be with Him eternally, just as He provided for his natural body during his life. David trusted God completely and explicitly. His final words prophesied of the Messiah to come and he trusted in God to keep this covenant promise. David’s life presaged the life of the Messiah, who fulfilled the old covenant and brought in the new covenant with God, who God raised on high and anointed to be the righteous King for eternity, and who led the people of God to testify in action and praise about who God is. David looked forward to the Messiah and King. David had been the admired king of the Israelites. God’s people would look to the King from David’s line, Jesus Christ, fulfilled prophecy from God as the epitome of how to be in relationship with God.

Contrasted to this righteous, faithful, trusting, radiant servant and child of God are those who are not such in verses six and seven. God, through David, said unrighteous, unfaithful, untrusting, self-serving people are “worthless.” He instructed His people to “thrust them away like thorns, because they cannot be taken in hand” (vs. 6-7). God’s people must keep these wicked people from influencing their lives on earth. God will keep them from His kingdom because of their lack of faith in the Messiah and the surety of His covenant to David. He, through David, compared them to thorns which only draw blood but have no fruit. These, God said, will burn as rubbish because their wickedness proves they are not God’s people and because they bear no good fruit. When living among and working with wicked people, God’s people must not touch them, but keep them the distance of a rake or spear shaft’s length away so they will not prick and trick them to heed and follow them. Paul said in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Wicked people try to trick people into following them instead of God. They declare human deceitful philosophies and false teachings. Thorns are not part of God’s plan of salvation and have no place in God’s kingdom.

This oracle from God through him was David’s personal testimony of his life with God. For David, God’s presence and activity in and around his life led to testifying about Him. Testimony serves two primary purposes – to tell people about God, His works, and His promises (covenant) and to praise Him. Testimony can lead people to know Him personally. Like David’s psalms, this oracle from God serves to testify to people about who God is, what He has done, and what He promises, and to lead them to want to know Him personally. This, David’s last testimony, is a prophecy of the Messiah God will send. It foretells, just as the prophets did, of God’s fulfilling His covenant to and through David to the Israelites and to all people as their God. David was a shepherd and psalmist whom God raised to lead people to Him with his life and testimony. God’s people today, Christians, are ones whom God raised to lead people to Him with their lives and testimonies. David’s testimony about God was that He is faithful to His covenants and His promises. He testified God is his strength, protector, and provider. David believed He would provide for his daily needs, his desires, and, through the revelation of the Messiah, his eternal need, salvation (2 Samuel 23:5). He tuned his heart to God’s. David’s ultimate desires were that God give him salvation and his life give glory to Him. Though David’s flesh led him into sin (thorns), he desired God more than anything. David repented of his sins and sought the God of His heart, mind, and soul. He chose God over the thorns and turned to Him repeatedly. David’s life and last words declared God and his eternal trust and faith in Him.

Like David, Christians can live testifying about God and praising Him. God’s covenant promises are for each person. He wants and provides for him or her to become part of His chosen people. God does not want anyone to die eternally separated from Him. Anyone can be righteous because God sent Jesus the Messiah to make him or her clean, holy, and right with Him when they believe in Jesus as the Son of God. As a follower of Jesus, a believer can live a life in reverence and awe of God. He or she can be like the morning sun rising upon cloudless skies. The Light (Jesus) in a person can lead the new grass to spring up toward Him. Each Christian can lead people to know Him through His light in him or her so people can arise and praise Him, too. God kept His promise to David. David believed in God. God counted it to him as righteousness.

Each person who knows Jesus as Savior can identify with David’s ways of relating to God. Believers can know God as David knew Him. He or she has a covenant ancestry with Yahweh through Jesus by choosing to believe in Jesus as God’s Son, the Savior. God changes and raises on high each person from his or her fleshly self to a child of God, a child of the King, part of His people. He lifts each believer up out of the morass of his or her sins and away from Satan to lead him or her to Him and strengthen him or her with His truths. Like God anointed David from Jacob’s line to lead His people righteously, He anoints each of His children, by salvation through Jesus Christ, to act righteously on earth, representing Him. God calls each Christian to be the psalmist for his or her people. The psalmist testifies in word, action, and song about Jesus Christ and of his or her intimate relationship with the God through Christ. He or she tells of who God is, what He has done, and that God wants to be in a loving relationship with the person and how He has provided a way for that relationship. Like King David of the Old Testament, God’s people have at least four roles and as they live these out, an intimacy grows between that Christian and God. No one is like Christ, but we can be like David, in a righteous and intimate relationship with God. The words of Paul in Colossians 2:6-7 aptly describe this relationship and its growth, from being firmly rooted in Christ to overflowing with gratitude.

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Colossians 2:6-7 [NASB])

            Each person must decide if he or she will let God be his or her Lord, if he or she will become part of the lineage of faith like David. God will anoint believers to proclaim Him with righteousness, reverence, and awe. This makes it possible for them to arise and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to others. The Light of Jesus (the sun of a cloudless sky) that flows through believers from His Spirit living in them attracts people to Him like the “tender grass springs out of the earth” (2 Samuel 23:4).  Christians should “walk in Him,” as Paul said in Colossians 2:6-7, since they have been firmly rooted in Christ and are being built up in Him. They must be establishing their faith and overflowing with gratitude so other people will know about Jesus Christ and seek to be in a personal and saving relationship with Him. David’s life with God sets an example for a Christian relationship with Him (2 Samuel 23:1). Paul challenges each Christian to “walk with Him” because Jesus laid the foundation for their faith. Have a relationship with God like David did, one of covenant-faith, anointed and chosen, and proclaiming the Lord.

As David realized and “declared” (testified) with his last words, we must decide if we will testify about Jesus, who provides salvation and our heart’s desires. As David matured, God’s desires became his desires. He realized God provided all he truly desired – a relationship with Him. This right relationship with God is salvation, freely given by His grace through His Son, Jesus. Notice, in 2 Samuel 23:13-17, the life of David’s men and his own sacrifice to God was more important than drinking water from Bethlehem’s well. Bethlehem was the place where he began life in covenant relationship with God. David’s birth city was where he was shepherd and psalmist, and from where God raised and anointed him as His king chosen for His people, Israel. David’s deepest desire was to serve God and to show this testimony of his absolute dependence and devotion to Him. He did this by pouring out the desired earthly water from Bethlehem’s well as a sacrifice of his desires to God’s desires. By this, David’s desires were God’s desires, oneness in heart, mind, and spirit.

God calls to each person to receive His saving grace. He chooses us to receive it but are not part of God’s family until we accept His grace and forgiveness and believe in Jesus Christ.

Are you walking in Him as one who has received Christ Jesus?

Walk in Him.