Word of Encouragement (10/26/2023)
And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel,' and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. (2 Sam. 7:25-27).
David finally comes to the main petition after praising God for His greatness and great work for His people. It is only right that we proceed in this order when we pray. God is no servant of ours that we can just blurt out our requests to Him. As David has done, we should not forget to acknowledge what He has already done for us and thank Him before we proceed with other petitions.
This order is also beneficial for us. Remembering how great God is will put our problems in proper perspective, no matter how big they seem to us. And remembering how God has led us through all kinds of dangers, toils, and snares in the past will boost our hope in coming to Him in prayer.
What was David’s petition about? In this petition, he was not asking God to rescue him out of trouble or meet his needs; he was praying that God would fulfill His gracious promise to him: “O LORD God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.”
Was this a sign of unbelief? Why should he pray for what God has already promised to give him? When someone promises something big, we can respond by saying, “Are you sure? Are you sure?” We cannot view this as a sign of unbelief. There may be an element of incredulity because the promise is unexpected and seems too good to be true. But it is not a skeptical doubt. Whatever incredulity is felt is overshadowed by excitement and gratitude. We cannot expect to have no sense of incredulous surprise when something wonderful, which we did not expect at all, is promised to us.
But we can say that David was simply praying “according to God’s will” here. This is what God encourages us to do: “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:14). Amazingly, God does not get annoyed with us when we appeal to His promise and ask what He has promised, saying, “Didn’t I tell you that I would do it? Why do you keep pestering me by asking again and again?” But we have a hard time imagining how God can be pleased with our persistent prayer to keep His promise, don’t we?
One answer is that God sees our prayers an expression of our trust in His promise. He sees them as a sign that we treasure His promise enough to remember it. God also sees them as a sign that we desire His promise to be fulfilled as He was delighted to give it. To pray according God’s will is to conform our hearts to His will and make His will our own.
David shows us that what he desired ultimately in this prayer according to God’s will was not for the benefits he could receive from the promise; rather, it was for the result that “your name will be magnified forever...”—not only for the gracious promise He made to His people but also for the magnificence of His fulfillment according to the riches of His goodness. What comes to your mind when you think about the promises God has given to those who are in Christ Jesus? Maybe you can start by praying the Lord’s Prayer.