Sitting In the Promises of God

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Sermon Outline

David’s Prayer of Thanksgiving

• Begins with humility (v. 18)
• Exalts God’s power (v. 19, 22)
• Recounts God’s faithfulness (v. 23, 24)

Listening closely to David’s prayer

We hear how intensely God-centered this prayer is.

• Yahweh is on full display (God’s personal Name is revered, see Ex. 3:13-15)

We hear how close and personal David’s relationship with Yahweh is.

• Yahweh’s promises are personal, and David takes deep personal delight in them.

We hear an appeal to God’s truthfulness and a radical confidence in God’s reliable words.

• Confirm forever the word You have spoken (v. 25)
• Do as You have spoken (v. 25)
• You are God, and Your words are true (v. 28)
• For You, O Lord God, have spoken (v. 28)

Consider:

1. Are your prayers fixed on the name and the glory of God?
2. Do you approach God like you really know Him?
3. Are your appeals in prayer rooted in a confidence in God’s truthfulness?

The Magnification of God’s Name

• God’s Name will be magnified forever (v. 26)
• This magnification does not make something small look big; it makes something  enormous look more like it should to the eyes of our hearts.
• Yahweh magnified as the Lord of hosts and God over Israel (v. 26)
• Yahweh is the one who will build the house (v. 27), and Yahweh is the one who will get the glory.

Consider:

1. Do you need a reorientation to the enormity of God’s Name and God’s glory?
2. Would someone listening to your prayers hear how highly you revere the God you’re addressing?
3. What might it look like if our prayers were less focused on our comfort and our kingdom and more on seeing God’s name being honored among all people?

Knowing the promises, trusting the God who made them

• David rightly takes God at His word and finds courage to pray with confidence (v. 27)
• David bases his confidence in God’s word in the certainty of God’s character (v. 28)
• Our knowledge of God’s promises depends on our feasting on God’s word.
• Our readiness for battle with the Sword of the Spirit requires us to know how to handle this weapon.

Consider:

1. Are you regularly feasting on God’s Word?
2. Are you armed with the promises of God and ready to battle fear, doubt, and unbelief?
3. Are you filling your mind with triviality or with the deep and precious truths of life-giving  Scripture?

The promises are certain, the path is not

• David believes his house will continue forever, but he has no idea what’s to come in his earthly line and no idea how these promises will be fulfilled (v. 29)
• The real fulfillment of this covenant with David is the true and better Adam, the true and  better David, the true and better King.
• The prophet Ezekiel makes this fulfilment clear (Ezek. 34 and 37)
• We have no idea HOW God will fulfill His promises, but we can stake our lives on the truth THAT He will fulfill them.

Consider:

1. Do you need a fresh confidence in the power and the promises of God?
2. Are you tempted to think God is failing in His promises when the path of your life doesn’t look like you think it should?
3. How can you reflect on God’s faithfulness and cling to His promises to build steadiness and hope in your life?

Know God’s promises, claim God’s promises, and trust God’s faithfulness to fulfill every one of them.