chosen David, and established his kingdom.

And in connection with it as concerned Israel (ver. 10) and David (ver. 11): "And I have appointed a place

for My people Israel, and have planted it that it may abide in its place, and no more tremble; and that the

children of wickedness" (malice) "may no more oppress it as at the first, and from the day when I appointed

judges over My people Israel.286 And I give thee rest from all thine enemies, and Jehovah intimates to thee

that a house will Jehovah make to thee."

Thus much for the present. As for the future, it was to be as always in the Divine arrangement. For God must

build us a house before we can build one to Him. It was not that David was first to rear a house for God, but

that God would rear one for David. Only afterwards, when all Israel's wanderings and unrest were past, and

He had established the house of His servant, would the son of that servant, no longer a man of war (1

Chronicles 20:8; 28:3), but a man of peace, "Solomon," build the house of peace. There was inward and even

outward congruity in this: a kingdom which was peace; a king the type of the Prince of peace; and a temple

the abode of 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.

Apprehended from the first by the faith of God's people, it formed the grand subject of their praise, not only

in Psalm 89, but in many others, such as Psalm 2, 45, 72, 110, 132, and continued the hope of the Church, as

expressed in the burning language and ardent aspirations of all the prophets. Brighter and brighter this light

grew, even unto the perfect day; and when all else seemed to fail, these were still "the sure mercies of