A Life That Gives Thanks to God

1Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, the man who was raised on high says, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: 2“Yahweh’s Spirit spoke by me. His word was on my tongue. 3The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, 4shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.’ 5Isn’t my house so with God? Yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he doesn’t make it grow. 6But all the ungodly will be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can’t be taken with the hand, 7But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They will be utterly burned with fire in their place.”

8These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb Basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite, against eight hundred slain at one time. 9After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away. 10He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take plunder. 11After him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines.

12But he stood in the middle of the plot and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory. 13Three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

David knew that human words could never praise the greatness and justice of God, yet he always worshiped him with all his heart. Nothing is as beautiful as praising, at the last moment of life, the God who has kept us until now. David described himself as the man raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel. He did not say this out of pride.

When he introduced himself this way, it was because he had striven to live without shame and knew that God had recognized his effort. He confessed that the Spirit of Yahweh was speaking through him and that God’s word was on his tongue. That confession shows that he knew he had not become king because he was an outstanding man, but because the Holy Spirit had used his faith as an instrument.

David honored God as the true King of Israel. Through all that happened to him, he knew that God always helped him with a love too deep to measure, and for that he gave thanks continually. But as that love worked miracles for him again and again whenever he was in trouble, an overflowing grace made him forget, without his noticing, to give thanks, and he came to think of peace as his due. That is how he could take Bathsheba by force and then plot evil with Joab and commit the sin of killing Uriah. David, a man after God’s own heart, abandoned the faith that had said, “If I perish, I perish,” and fell into his own pleasure to commit such sins. Having taken God’s grace for granted and lived as he pleased, David came to the end of his life and only then thought that it had all been in vain. When, at the point of leaving this world, he realized that human desire, greed, and even the splendor he had enjoyed as king were empty, he saw the God who had been with him in every moment of his life.

When people face their last moment, they become more honest and more sincere. With death before them, and nothing of this world they can take along, they think about many things in that short time. Looking back over the years, some are left with regret and longing, while others feel relief that they need not struggle anymore. Some ache with regret that they did not do better for God, and others pray that they are now ready to enter peaceful rest. If on the last hill of your life you were told to say your final farewell to the world, what would you say first? And what do you regret most, and what have you left undone? If you start thinking about it now, you will have fewer regrets in that last moment.

David had set Solomon on the throne as God commanded, but he could help him no more. What he would have regretted most, then, was not having made Solomon stronger and firmer in faith. So David left his last testament: about the Kingdom of God, about the love he had received, and about the reward of the good and the judgment of the wicked. You can feel how fervent his heart must have been.

In the Gospel of John there is the scene in which Jesus, in his last moments on the cross, entrusts his mother Mary to his disciple John. When Jesus, as he was leaving the world, asked John to take good care of his mother, John at once took Mary into his own home. Even with Jesus’ request, if John had not understood the work of atonement, he would not have obeyed so unconditionally. Jesus became flesh to atone for the sins of sinners, but he also came to establish the Kingdom of God on this earth. To accomplish the whole of God’s plan, he worked in step with the times as Scripture had foretold and even gave up his life, yet not one person joined him in that work. Even so, God the Father planned it, God the Son accomplished it, and God the Holy Spirit works on until the last day.

David’s death was only the end of one man, but the last day God has appointed will be the end of this world and of all humankind. For this immense work, God used Mary for the incarnation. Of course, had Mary refused, God would have called another who had been prepared in faith. But Mary obeyed God’s command with faith and devotion. Jesus entrusted Mary, who had fulfilled so precious a calling, to his disciple John because he wanted her to live in peace and safety. He knew she had been faithful at the risk of her life, and he wanted to protect her. Mary bore and raised Jesus even though she could have been stoned to death for it, and her faith fully deserved God’s blessing. This is how much it matters to fulfill our calling in our own place. Blessing is not something we receive because we want it. It is grace, given by God on his own initiative when we have carried out the task he gave us, and that is what blessing is.

At death’s door David, too, told Solomon earnestly that God alone is the rock, the one who rules people in justice. He no longer had time to give Solomon the chance to be rebuked and turn back, and that likely filled him with sorrow and longing. When we love a child’s soul deeply, that pain cannot help but be greater. If we read chapter 23 understanding David’s heart, we will see what a great blessing it is to be in God’s grace, and how fearful and terrible it is to be outside the covenant. If we listen to David’s words believing that God’s covenant is everlasting, we will see how beautiful the Kingdom of God is, and how dreadful the punishment of the wicked who defy God. In his last moments David came to know the depth of God’s love and realized that he had been someone special. As he discovered the God who had been with him at every turn, he could sing from the heart of how blessed his life had been.

2 Samuel 23:2

2“Yahweh’s Spirit spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.

When David said that God’s word was on his tongue, he meant that all he had said and done until then was not his own will but God’s. He realized that the Holy Spirit, who knows best the purposes and plans by which God works, had revealed them to him directly. This is how God reveals himself directly through people of faith. David sang that Jesus Christ, who rules people in justice, is like the light of the morning when the sun rises, like a morning without clouds, like the tender grass that springs from the earth through clear shining after rain. He also said that the kingdom the Messiah rules is free from the torment of darkness and from sin, which makes it a kingdom without worry or care, a beautiful place brimming with life, like a cloudless morning, like new grass sprouting from earth soaked with rain under the warm sunlight. David knows that those who believe in Christ will live a beautiful and happy life forever, and he sings for joy. It is only natural that the saints who will live in such a beautiful world should live this life uprightly, cleanly, and in holiness. We are all children of God who will go to a heaven where there is no scorching sun and no night, a heaven full of God’s glory, so we must live now as saints should.

2 Samuel 23:6-7

6But all the ungodly will be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can’t be taken with the hand, 7But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They will be utterly burned with fire in their place.”

David said that those who do not hope for the beautiful Kingdom God rules, who do not believe God’s covenant, and who look only to their own righteousness and to the world, are as useless as thorns. Those who join hands with Satan to rebel against God are full of greed, lust, and resentment. Because God never forgives sin, and because the thorns that cover them do nothing but wound his people, he will cut them down with iron tools and throw them into the fire. Thorns can wound you if you merely come near them. So God will chop that thorn bush into pieces and throw it into the fire so that it cannot hurt his people, and the agony of it is beyond imagining. We must not think that only those outside the church will receive God’s wrath. Those who attend church and enjoy its grace while always putting themselves before God will also come under his discipline.

Ezekiel 28:24

24“‘“There will be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them that scorned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”

God spoke of the restoration of Israel. He called thorns the foreign nations that had tormented his people without end, and he said he would bring judgment on them so that they could torment Israel no longer. In the same way, when the Messiah’s Kingdom comes, the wicked who bristled with thorns and tormented the church will all be thrown into the fire of hell. God’s people need to take this seriously, as if they had seen with their own eyes the judgment of fire that falls on the wicked. These days even church members say it makes them uncomfortable to hear sermons on heaven and hell, on sin and judgment. But what the Bible proclaims is that we are saved only by faith in Jesus Christ, and that God will establish the Kingdom of Christ on this earth. Because their hearts have been captured by the glitter of the world, people go about forgetting that on the last day they will hear the trumpet and meet Christ in the air. But those who know God’s everlasting covenant know that the day will surely come, and they will live each day as people getting ready.

David confessed that the blessings he and Israel had received were not won by human strength. He also gave heartfelt thanks that the nation had grown strong because there had been mighty men who were faithful to God, to the kingdom, and to the people alongside him. As the apostle Paul recorded the names of the fellow workers who had served faithfully at the risk of their lives, so David gratefully recorded the names of the mighty men who had been loyal to him.

2 Samuel 23:17

17He said, “Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this! Isn’t this the blood of the men who risked their lives to go?” Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things.

Like a parent boasting of their children, David recorded the loyalty of his mighty men in detail. He boasted of how much they loved the nation and the king, and how hard they fought, even in dire straits, to show the might of Yahweh. Then, suddenly, he records his own fault in longing to drink the water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem, which the Philistines held. David was worn out in body and spirit from fierce fighting with the Philistines, and he wanted to drink the water of his hometown. He remembered how he had always drunk freely from the cool well in Bethlehem, and without thinking he said that he wished he could drink that water. When the three mighty men heard that David was longing for water from the well by the gate, they broke through the Philistine camp and drew water and brought it back. They loved David so much that they were faithful even to the point of laying down their lives. But David could not drink water his men had shed blood to bring, so he poured it out to God and repented. He said this was not water but the blood of men who had not cared for their own lives, and he repented, vowing never again to do such a thing. The Philistine guard was as tight as iron, but the three mighty men wanted to give their beloved King David what he longed for. They shed blood as they raced toward the well, ready to die, and so David repented of his fault.

David knew that all life belongs to God and that no one’s blood should be shed for one person’s desire. If we listen to David’s repentance knowing that God treasures life, we can see how self-centered and wrong his action had been.

We too sometimes cause others pain by words spoken without thinking. Leaders in particular must be all the more careful. Even when a leader sees things wrongly and makes the wrong decision, those who hear their words have no choice but to act on them, and lives can be harmed.

Whether David truly longed for the water or spoke without thinking, the three mighty men set out for Bethlehem at the risk of their lives because he was king. If some young soldier had said he wanted that water, they would not have raced toward the well at the risk of their lives. The mighty men acted out of love for David, of course, but David was a wise man who knew how to repent at once of his own wrong decision. He simply could not drink the water his men had shed blood to bring, so he immediately poured it out to God. When David realized that what he had done thoughtlessly was a sin that could take lives, he repented and turned back at once, showing what a true saint looks like.

Anyone can sin. But only when we turn back at once, as David did, when the Holy Spirit brings us to see our sin, can we be forgiven by God. There are times when God’s people, too, cannot forget the water they once drank in the world.

When we cannot forget the words and deeds of our worldly days and the pleasures of the world, we look back on those times without thinking, and sometimes even act on them. Jesus stated the standard of sin precisely: even a lustful thought in the heart is adultery. So we must stay on our guard so as not to sin. Every act that springs from putting something else at the center, when Christ is not at the center, is sin. We must not forget that if we do not grow to great spiritual stature, someone else may shed blood because of us, as David’s men did. When David held his place in faith, Israel could stand strong.

At home as well, we must be sure to remember that if a parent or a child has a misguided faith and character, the family can suffer. My child is mine, but also a child of God whom he has entrusted to me for a while. So if I speak and act according to my own feelings, it becomes sin. A child who thinks that of course their parents must look after them cannot grasp the deep love of God. So children must honor their parents from the heart.

Just as David, who feared God, repented at once, you must have a sound faith and character that look back and ask whether your words and actions have become sin, and whether those beside you are suffering because of them. When someone of poor faith and character is in the church or the home, they destroy its peace and rest, yet they themselves hardly realize what they are doing wrong. They think they are always right, but if one day, by God’s grace, they come to see their sin, great pain will come with their repentance.

There is no one without sin before God. The holy and perfect God hates sin, so we must not be slow to examine our sins and repent. David took the trouble to record this incident in the middle of praising his men. Perhaps he recorded it because he was deeply ashamed before them for wanting that water, and because it was so great a sin before God that he could not forget it. Sin comes back more vividly the more time passes, and even after repentance it remains as regret; for that reason we must weigh our choices well at every moment.

What work are you doing now, in the church or in the world? May the work you are doing now help to exalt the righteous God and to bring the gospel to many people.

How will you introduce yourself in that last moment when God calls you, as he called David? David introduced himself as the man God had raised up, the one anointed by the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel, which is to say, one who proclaimed the word well. Like David, as you look back on your past, is there some incident that comes to mind, now that the time to see God’s face draws near, of which you think, “I am so sorry for what I did then”? Are there things you regret, thinking that if you had not acted that way, you could have shown God a better faith? Or I hope you will examine yourself to see whether you are waiting for nothing but a drink of cool well water out of selfishness, while those beside you are suffering until they bleed.

If we live centered on ourselves rather than on God’s will, we will end up drinking the cool well water with relish even as we look at the blood of the mighty men. May you always be spiritually sensitive. And as the Spirit of Yahweh spoke through David, may you be used as people who proclaim God’s word fully.

Those who fully know God’s will receive from him the wisdom to look back on their past and reflect, as David did. God wants the saints he loves to enter heaven in holiness. For this reason he gives them the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that they may repent and repent again. Of course, the mighty men would have run to the well out of loyalty to David, but God saw that love and greatly blessed those men who had been faithful for David’s sake. In the church too, God raises up pastors to lead it, but he expands his Kingdom through the members who help those pastors and through the good relationships among the members themselves. When God sees his people serving with a sincere faith, he protects them so that they may be at peace and free from Satan’s attacks.

May you have a faith that lets you tell your descendants with confidence about the life you have lived, before you see God’s face. You should be able to leave them this testament: “I hope you will live as I have lived,” and to ask them to live in obedience to the God who has worked through you. May you confess with confidence that God lifted you up, glorified you, and helped you proclaim the word well. And as you confess with a smile that through the Spirit of Yahweh he gave you the blessing of bringing life to those beside you, may you be a holy saint who rests in God’s arms like David and enjoys his peace and rest.