The Steadfast Love of God: The Davidic Covenant

The next covenant that we encounter is the Davidic. As you can probably tell from the delay after the last blog, I struggled with what to say on this one. I have actually written about David and Jesus’ ancestry a decent amount, so I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted to add. Yes, God guaranteed David a great name, rest from his enemies, an eternal throne, and many other promises in both 2 Sam. 7:8-17 and 1 Chron. 17:7-15. This is also an unconditional covenant delivered through an intermediary (Nathan the prophet). Yet for this blog post, I want us to think about one particular promise, “I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever” (1 Chron. 17:13-14).

There are so many parts to the Davidic covenant, and eternal kingship is the one that we most often think of (especially around Christmas). However, I think this promise – to “not take his steadfast love from him” – would have made David drop to his knees in worship. David had gone to the palace as a young man to play his harp for King Saul. He had seen anger, disobedience to God, jealousy, and even seemingly demonic oppression turn a strong king into a paranoid shell of a man. There had to be a small part of David that always had Saul’s fate in the back of his mind. Could that happen to him? What first steps on the slippery slope of disobedience and unbelief might lead to his own fall? How do I avoid going crazy?

Now, anyone who knows David’s story understands that even after these covenant promises, David fails. He commits adultery at minimum and possibly rape depending on how you read the passage with Bathsheba. He orders the murder of Uriah. He conducts a census of the people. He fails to govern his own household well (with devastating consequences). It is easy to read the soap opera saga of David’s later life and wonder if God made a mistake. Maybe David was the wrong choice for an eternal throne? However, perhaps more than anyone else in Scripture, David’s story is one of repentance and redemption. God would never take his steadfast love from the house of David because 1) God chose to establish an eternal covenant with him 2) David wanted intimacy with his creator. When David failed, and he failed massively – in ways that impacted the entire nation – he repented. Unlike Saul, who refused to repent, made excuses, blamed others, and tried to take circumstances into his own hands, David always came to a point of acknowledging his sin and need for God. One of the verses that seems to capture David’s attitude toward repentance is found in 2 Sam. 24:24 (after the unauthorized census that resulted in 70,000 people dying), “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” David took responsibility for his own actions and turned to the only person who was able to do anything about it.

There were descendants of David who were judged very harshly for their sin. This covenant was not a free pass for them to do whatever they wanted. This covenant was also not a guarantee of personal salvation if they were unwilling to repent, but it was a promise not to cast aside the house of David, as God had removed the house of Saul. Ultimately, we understand that the Davidic covenant is fulfilled by his eternal Son, Jesus. God himself is inherently loving in his nature. Not permissive and interested in treating sin casually. However, he pursues the lost sheep and prodigals. David was not perfect, and there were consequences for his sins. However, he experienced the steadfast love of God in ways that few people outside of the New Covenant seem to have understood. Because of this, it makes sense that many of the promises we find in the New Covenant build upon the promises made to David. In the New Testament, we read a different version of this promise for steadfast love. In Romans, Paul writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, or things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:1-39).

Still, when we fail, when we deliberately sin – come home. Remember that if we are truly saved, God will never remove his steadfast love from us. He may judge; there may be consequences (hopefully 70,000 people don’t die), but he will deliver us from guilt and shame. He will restore us to a right relationship with himself so that we can experience the manifest peace and joy of his presence. And if you don’t know him, or you’re not sure, come to him for the first time. David wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51:17). He has never turned a broken soul away. He came to seek (notice the active and intentional word choice) and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). As we head into the new year, I pray that you find so much joy and the same sense of genuine awe/worship/praise that David must have felt when God guaranteed his steadfast love. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 Jn. 3:1-3). Steadfast love will never condone sin, but oh, the measureless love of the Father that has forgiven and longs to restore.