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peace. This, then, was the main point: a promise alike to David, to Israel, and in
regard to the Temple, that God would build David a house, and make his kingdom
not only lasting, but everlasting, in all the fullness of meaning set out in Psalm 72.
What followed will be best given in the words of Holy Scripture itself: "I shall be to
him a Father, and he shall be to Me a son, whom, if he transgress, I will correct with
the rod of men, and with stripes of the children of men; but My mercy shall not
depart from him as I made it depart from Saul, whom I put away from before thee.
And unfailing" (sure) "thy house and thy kingdom for ever before thee; and thy
throne shall be established for ever!"
That this promise included Solomon is as plain as that it was not confined to him. No
unprejudiced reader could so limit it; certainly no sound Jewish interpreter would
have done so. For on this promise the hope of a Messianic kingdom in the line of
David and the title of the Messiah as the Son of David were based. It was not only
the Angel, who pointed to the fulfillment of this promise in the Annunciation to the
Virgin (Luke 1:32, 33), but no one, who believed in a Messiah, would have thought
of questioning his application. All the predictions of the prophets may be said to rest
upon it. While, therefore, it did not exclude Solomon and his successors, and while
some of its terms are only applicable to them, the fulfillment of this promise was in
Christ. In this view we are not hampered but helped by the clause which speaks of
human chastisements as eventual on sins in the successors of David. For we regard
the whole history from David to Christ as one, and as closely connected. And this
prophecy refers neither only to Solomon nor only to Christ; nor has it a twofold
application, but it is a covenant-promise which, extending along the whole line,
culminates in the Son of David, and in all its fullness applies only to Him. These
three things did God join in it, of which one necessarily implies the other, alike in
the promise and in the fulfillment: a unique relationship, a unique kingdom, and a
unique fellowship and service resulting from both. The unique relationship was that
of Father and Son, which in all its fullness only came true in Christ (Hebrews 1:5).
The unique kingdom was that of the Christ, which would have no end (Luke 1:32,
33; John 3:35). And the unique sequence of it was that brought about through the
temple of His body (John 2:19), which will appear in its full proportions when the
New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven (Revelation 21:1-3).
Such was the glorious hope opening up wider and wider, till at its termination David
could see "afar off" the dawn of the bright morning of eternal glory; such was the
destiny and the mission which, in His infinite goodness, God assigned to His chosen
servant. Much there was still in him that was weak, faltering, and even sinful; nor
was he, whose was the inheritance of such promises, even to build an earthly temple.
Many were his failings and sins, and those of his successors; and heavy rods and
sore stripes were to fall upon them. But that promise never failed.
(^)