Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of our Sunday School preview. This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “David’s Prayer” and is found in 1 Chronicles 17:16-27. Today’ lesson is a continuation of the account of God’s interaction with David as King of Israel.
In this lesson, David reacts to God’s decision to establish his house and throne forever. One of the things we see in David’s reaction and prayer is humility. Humility is the ability to see oneself as one truly is instead of how others may view you or how you may want to be seen. Humility allows us to see just how frail and insignificant we are apart from the purposes of God.
Only God is able to give our lives meaning and significance. David recognized this in himself and acknowledged God as the one who elevated his life. He blesses God for not only what He has already done for nothing special about him or his house, but praises Him for what God says He is going to do in the future.
David seeks but doesn’t have the words to say concerning the magnitude of the blessing God and God alone has chosen to do for him. He only says let it be as you desire. David then goes on to praise God for being unique and for choosing Israel to be His people.
He recognizes also that God is not establishing his house for him or because of him, but for His name’s sake. He sees that by doing what God proposes, the whole earth will recognize Him as the God of Israel who is able to establish eternal things. David says he is accepting of what God has chosen to do and wishes it to be so.
Without God, David would have lived an insignificant life as a shepherd or something similar and died without anyone beyond some family or friends knowing him. And this is how most people live and die with only a few people knowing anything about us, weeping for us and remembering us much beyond our time on earth. Relatively few people are remembered for anything they did or accomplish in their lifetime.
There are a few names that have survived through the centuries, but not many. For everyone people still remember, there are 10’s of millions no one knows. This is why what God promised David was such a big deal to him because he was about to become one of those unique individuals whose name and family would survive long after he was gone.
And because of the fulfillment of that promise, no one has to live and die insignificantly. God has taken notice of those whose lives would have otherwise been unnoticeable and meaningless and made their and our lives count for something greater than what we or they can even think or imagine.
This is why all of us who believe in Jesus Christ should pray prayers similar to the one David prayer for taking someone like us and giving to us this great blessing of life and significance not because we deserved it or earned it or was worthy of it, but because He desired to do it for us.
We too don’t have the words to express the magnitude of this blessing either. Let us simply say Lord, let your will be done. Well, I hope you will attend SS this coming Sunday and share your thoughts with your class. If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview. So, until next time remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
