God’s Love Never Changes (2 Samuel & 1 Chronicles)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Do you ever struggle to doubt God’s love?

If so, you’re not the only one. However, the story of David’s life gives us hope. 2 Samuel 22 parallels David’s words of thanksgiving in Psalm 18, while Psalm 23 records David’s last words to his people.

However, as Mary Evans writes,

Both describe the way in which David envisages relationship with God. His conviction that righteous service brings blessing and that God stands by those who are in covenant with him reminds readers of the teaching of Deuteronomy. Chapter 22 concentrates on God and what he can and will do for his people. Chapter 23:1–7 reflects more on the king and what could be done through him. Together these passages emphasize the writers’ conviction that what counts in life is relationship with God. Whatever the interests and lessons found in the human history recorded in these chapters, the point is for the reader to understand who God is and what it means for both kings and people to live in covenant relationship with him.^[1]

David Atkinson notes that 2 Samuel 23:1-7 “was probably intended to be read at David’s funeral and would be treated very seriously as David’s last wish.”^[2] This should make us pause and give these words the weight they deserve.  

¹These are the last words of David:

The declaration of David son of Jesse,
the declaration of the man raised on high,
the one anointed by the God of Jacob.
This is the most delightful of Israel’s songs.
² The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me,
his word was on my tongue.
³ The God of Israel spoke;
the Rock of Israel said to me,
“The one who rules the people with justice,
who rules in the fear of God,
⁴ is like the morning light when the sun rises
on a cloudless morning,
the glisten of rain on sprouting grass.”

⁵ Is it not true my house is with God?
For he has established a permanent covenant with me,
ordered and secured in every detail.
Will he not bring about
my whole salvation and my every desire?
⁶ But all the wicked are like thorns raked aside;
they can never be picked up by hand.
⁷ The man who touches them
must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear.
They will be completely burned up on the spot.

Not only is David providing “kingly instruction,” but he is also helping his descendants understand the nature of God’s covenantal love. As God promised David in 2 Samuel 7:15-16, ¹⁵ “My faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’”