Menu

2 Samuel 7:4-17 – Responding to the Promises

The Bible doesn’t suggest we pray – it commands us to pray and expects us to pray. Nor does it leave us without any guidance in terms of how to pray. Instead it gives us both instruction and examples. Jesus’ disciples were men who had been praying all their lives, but when they hear Jesus praying, and realise how different it is from their prayers, they say ‘Lord, teach us to pray’. He doesn’t respond by saying that that would be unspiritual. Rather, he teaches them the Lord’s Prayer. So the Bible gives us specific instruction on prayer. It also gives us examples as to how we should pray. And we have one of those examples in the second half of 2 Samuel 7. This passage has been described as teaching ‘the nature of true prayer’. Of course describing it as the nature of true prayer implies that there’s such a thing as false prayer. So we need to examine our prayers in light of God’s Word – just as we do every other part of our lives.

The first thing we see about prayer in this chapter is: true prayer is fuelled by God’s Word. The way this chapter is structured is very significant. The first part of the chapter contains what’s referred to elsewhere in the Bible as God’s covenant with David. As we saw last week, it’s one of the most significant chapters in the whole Bible. It’s really God revealing the next stage in his great plan of salvation, or at least God beginning to fulfil promises that he’d made centuries beforehand. We’re told in the first part of the chapter that at the centre of God’s promises is going to be a king on the throne. We’re told that a king descended from David will reign forever on the throne – and will be known as the Son of God. It’s only really when the New Testament comes that we can begin to fully grasp all that that meant. As it is, David is just overwhelmed with God’s goodness to him. In a sense, we could nearly skip from v17 of chapter 7 on over into chapter 8 because the second half of chapter 7 doesn’t add any new information. It doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. But actually, David’s prayer here is the only appropriate response to God’s gracious promises in the first half of the chapter.

Question

  1. How does David respond to the promises of God?

Prayer Points

  1. Pray that God’s Word would fuel our prayers.
  2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
  3. Pray for family matters.