Last week, our study of 2 Samuel brought us into a conversation about worship.  Biblically,

Worship is the proper response to God based on who He is, what He’s done, what He is doing, and what He will do.

 Therefore, in his final message to Israel, Moses made sure the people understood the summation of a proper response to who God is, what He’s done, is doing, and will do.  He wrote,

4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

 Later, Jesus assured a group of religious leaders of the same exact truth when they attempted to get Him to say something that would contradict the Law God gave Moses.  Jesus said,

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' (Mark 12:30)

 If we know who God is, what He has done, is doing, and will do, then there can be no other logical response other than to love Him with all that we are!

So, with that as our baseline understanding of what the Bible teaches about worship, we went through the story in 2 Samuel 6 and saw what happened when David brought the Ark of God into the new capital city of Israel—Jerusalem.  Unfortunately, David didn’t appropriately respond to God in his first attempt because he disregarded the unambiguous instructions God had laid out concerning the transport of the Ark, and a man named Uzzah ended up dead because of it. However, this failure led to a realignment of David’s heart and mind with God’s holiness and grace, and as such, three months later, David brought the Ark into the City the way he was supposed to do it! David’s response to God in all of that pointed us to three specific lessons about worship that are seen even better through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   I’m not going to take time to explain those lessons today, but just to make sure they are in our head, let me remind you of them,

 A proper response to God (worship) begins with a proper perspective of His wrath. It doesn’t contradict His grace; it clarifies it.

A proper response to God (worship) is based on a proper perspective of His grace. It doesn’t excuse disobedience; it confronts it.

 A proper response to God (worship) is based on a proper perspective of His glory. It doesn’t lead us to bow before man; it leads us to bow before Him.

Now, with that, let’s turn our attention to what happens next in 2 Samuel. Like chapter six, chapter seven will point us to lessons about worship that are even more clearly seen in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

  2 Samuel 7 teaches us two lessons about worship that are made even clearer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 The first lesson is that,

Worship is the proper response to God’s glory, not an enhancement of it.

The measure of a person’s glory is often determined by our perception of their power and influence; as such, the more power and influence we perceive they have in society, the more glory we assess they possess. Interestingly, all kinds of things influence our perception of how powerful and influential a person actually is in society, one of which is where they live.  For instance, imagine if somebody invited you to dinner at their house, and when you showed up, you found out their house was a van down by the river.  True or not, you would automatically assume they had very little power and influence in the world, and therefore, you also wouldn’t assume they had much glory at all in context to their relationship with society.  You would assume they are rather unnoticed by the masses.  Now imagine what your perception would be if you showed up at that person’s house and it ended up being a mansion by the river!  Your assumption of their power and influence in the world would be totally different!  Unavoidably, you would automatically assume the glory ascribed to them by society was entirely different than a guy living in a van down by the river, and this is precisely what’s influencing David here in 2 Samuel 7.  The Bible says,

1 Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent."

If you recall, after conquering what most people considered an unconquerable city (Jerusalem) and setting it up as the new capital of Israel, the King of the Tyre sent cedar and skilled craftsman to build a house for David. Cedar was by far the finest wood in that part of the world that one could build a house with, and as such, David had been glorified by the Phoenicians in that they had given him something that enhanced the perception others would have of David as king.  Not only was it an impressive-looking house, but it was also a costly gift from another King, and, as such, when emissaries of other kingdoms traveled to Jerusalem to establish trade relationships and alliances with David, they would not find him in a tent or some other nominal dwelling place, but rather a grand mansion of sorts built with the finest materials available in that part of the world as a gift from another highly respected King and kingdom!  Their perception of David’s glory would be unavoidably enhanced by the house he lived in and how he even got it!

However, as David looked at the dwelling place for the Ark of the Lord, the symbol of God’s covenant with Israel and His holiness, power, and faithfulness, he saw a van by the river. Therefore, in David’s mind, the Ark's dwelling place was robbing God of glory, all while his dwelling place was ascribing himself glory!

Nathan, the prophet of God to Israel at that time, agreed with David.It didn’t make sense to him either.  They were robbing God of His glory by placing the symbol of his glory in a tent!

3 And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you."

Now, that sounds perfectly reasonable, right? David’s heart was to ensure God's glory was properly acknowledged, so what could be wrong with that?  There’s nothing selfish in David’s motives at all.  However, despite the innocence of David’s heart in the matter, God doesn’t agree with David and Nathan’s conclusion!

 4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 "Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"'

God was making it really clear to Nathan that the symbol of His covenant with Israel that He used to remind them of His holiness, power, and faithfulness didn’t need any enhancement at all because God doesn’t need any enhancement! God’s glory has nothing at all to do with our perception of Him!  God doesn’t need a marketing team to create a perception of His glory with anybody because His glory is eternal!  He can’t be given any more glory than He already has; therefore, in both David and Nathan’s assumption that God needed a house for the Ark to be properly glorified, we find a deficiency in their understanding of who God is and thus, an insufficiency in their response to God!

The entire universe is a testimony of God's glory, so how is a house for a box that symbolizes God’s covenant with Israel somehow adding to His glory? If anything, claiming to have built a suitable house for the Ark could distract people from His glory because no matter how fancy the house may be, it would be a product of man and eternally short of the measure of His glory!  Think about it.  Isaiah wrote,

1 Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? (Isaiah 66:1)

 Likewise, David himself eventually wrote,

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.  2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

 What house could David build that would display the glory of God better than creation? What could possibly communicate God’s glory more clearly?  Well, there actually is something—the GOSPEL!  The Bible says,

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Creation points us to God’s glory; it testifies of it, but Jesus IS the eternal glory of God! When the eternal Logos of God, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, became flesh, the glory of God took upon flesh as well.  Paul wrote,

“15 He is the image of the invisible God ...” (Colossian 1:15a)

 The writer of Hebrews stated it this way,

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:3a)

 In speaking of the eternal glory innate to the person of Christ, John wrote,

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. (Revelation 1:12-18)

 Elsewhere, John wrote,

8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,  "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." (Revelation 4:8-11)

The point is that in this revelation, John hadn’t witnessed an effort to enhance God’s glory because it can’t be enhanced beyond what it already is (eternal); He witnessed it being acknowledged—WORSHIP!

Therefore, the more we learn about who Jesus is, the more we learn about the GLORY OF GOD, and thus, the more our worship becomes a PROPER response to who He is!

Therefore, putting this all together with what’s going on in 2 Samuel 7, we learn that David could no more enhance God’s glory by building a house for the Ark than we can through anything we do or say either. God isn’t sitting around waiting on us to devise a way to enhance His glory; He’s not even waiting on us to acknowledge it!  He has no need of our response to His glory to somehow affirm it in His eyes.  Therefore, we need to understand that worship has nothing to do with giving God something He doesn’t already have but rather responding to who He is to the extent that if we ever think we are worshiping God by trying to give Him glory that He is in need of, or is dependent on us creating for Him, then we are by definition NOT properly responding to who He is and thus not worshiping Him at all!  If we think we are giving God glory He doesn’t already have, then we are saying God’s glory is deficient and that we have some way of enhancing it.

The second lesson about worship in 2 Samuel 7 that is made even more clear by the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that,

To properly respond to God, we are dependent on Him to help us understand what He has done, is doing, and will do. 

Now, you would think that given creation itself testifies to God’s glory, we wouldn’t need any further explanation to cause us to properly respond to God!But the fact of the matter is we prove time and time again that we don’t have the wherewithal to look around us and see what He has clearly done and is doing, much less what He will do; therefore, it makes sense why we don’t properly respond to God!  As a matter of fact, despite how wise we see ourselves to be, if God doesn’t open our eyes and soften our hard hearts, our pride, arrogance, and sinful nature will continually distort the obvious testimonies of the Glory of God that leap off the pages of the universe all around us—“no one understands” (Romans 3:11a)

So, to no surprise then, David needs God to clarify things to him as well, and that’s precisely what happens in the second part of 2 Samuel 7.God doesn’t respond in anger to David’s misguided concept that His glory is somehow dependent on David or can be enhanced by David, but quite the opposite!  Instead, God blows David away with a reminder of what He has done but then clearly reveals what He is doing and will do!  God sends Nathan back to David with this message,

8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you.

That’s a clear reminder to David that God didn’t choose him because of his resume! He took him from a pasture where he was taking care of his family’s sheep to make him King!  Furthermore, all the amazing things that have happened so far in David’s life have happened because God hasn’t left him, even in the times that David reacted to his circumstances as if God had!  Even when David was living in faithless fear and panic, God remained faithful to David!

That’s what God had done for David, which is all the reason one could ever need to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and body. But God wasn’t done! God then clarified what He was doing and going to do for David and Israel!

And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.

 Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'" 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

 That’s incredibly good news to David’s ears! Most people not only want to accomplish great things in their life but they also long for those who come after them to do even greater things!I don’t want my kids to be as good as I am; I want them to be better, not at preaching or leading a church, which would be really cool for sure, but much, much more at life itself.  I want them to make wiser choices and to give and receive love better; I want them to abide in Christ better than I do; I want them to be discipled and make disciples better than me; I want them to bear more fruit of His life than I have and the reason isn’t so I can be proud, but rather because I love them!

 The point is that even though David was a sinful sinner like the rest of us, his love of God, his family, and Israel was still truly sincere. Therefore, David’s response to hearing this message highlights what a proper response to God sounds like when we start understanding and genuinely appreciate what He’s done, is doing, and will do! Here's how it went!

 18 Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, "Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

 David's decision to sit before the Lord gives us insight into the incredible comfort he experienced in his relationship with God, not in an irreverent way but very much in a Gospel way. David well knew that he had no right in and of himself to commune with God, but nonetheless, he knew he had that right, and as such, we have all kinds of testimonies in the Old Testament of David doing just that!

However, the more relevant point here is that David clearly states that the only way he could have known about all the greatness God was doing and would do was for God to reveal it. Had God not revealed it, he would have been walking in total blind faith, with no idea what was going on or what was coming!

David then continued his response to what God had clarified that He had done, is doing, and will do!

23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God.

 25 And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel,' and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever."

 Once again, Gordon Keddie does an exceptional job of capturing what’s going on here. He wrote,

 “God’s goodness always transcends our limited anticipations of his blessings. He is ‘able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine’ (Ephesians 3:20). David begins to consider that he might have the blessing of building a temple for the Lord. The Lord answers by denying him that privilege but promising, first, that his son will be the builder; second, that he will have a dynasty of kings following him and, third, that the Davidic kingdom ‘shall be established forever’. The last declaration would surely have been understood by David as prophetic of the same Holy One of whom he speaks in Psalm 16:10 (cf. Acts 2:27) and the Lord (whom we know to be the Son of God) to whom God speaks in Psalm 110:1. These intimations of Christ were veiled from David, to be sure. His understanding was not that of the noonday light of the New Testament. But he knew when he was near to the Lord and being given to hear, or to speak, the words of inspiration from the Lord. And it filled his heart with inexpressible joy and a sense of the glory of the Lord.”¹Keddie, G. J. (1990). Triumph of the King: The Message of 2 Samuel (pp. 59–65). Evangelical Press.

 So, again, the point here is that David had no way of really knowing what God was doing or was going to do through Him, nor for Israel until God told him. You could argue that the promises to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and, later, the covenant God made with Moses should have been all he needed, but since then, minus a handful of periods of their history, things had been a mess. The ups and downs of Israel’s history throughout the book of Judges, then the disastrous priestly leadership of Eli, followed by the narcissistic leadership of Saul, would cause anybody to wonder what God was up to!  When you add to it that we are sinners who are incapable of rightly understanding anything about God or His will unless He explicitly tells us, then it’s totally understandable that David didn’t really know what was going on until God told him … and what a blessing it was that God told him!

But what about us?  Are we supposed to know what God has done, is doing, and will do?  If not, how are we supposed to understand who He is and properly respond to Him?  If you look around your life, you see tons of things that don’t make sense, tons of things that are impossible for us to explain what God is doing, and sometimes even see that He is working at all.  So how, then, are we to properly respond to God if we don’t know what He’s doing?

Well, the answer is that even though I may not be able to explain in detail what He is doing, I can certainly explain what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do in all the things that I can’t make sense of or see Him at work in because He has already told us!

There are tons of places I could take you in the New Testament that show me what God is doing, meaning in everything, God is at work doing these things, no matter if I understand how He’s doing it or not, and thus, I can praise Him no matter what.  In 2026, I’m probably going to be preaching the book of Ephesians, so let me just give you a taste of it and what it has to say about what God has done, is doing, and will do!

As I read this, look for the declarations of what God has done, is doing, and will do.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-12)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10)

7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift … for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians 4:7, 12b-14)

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

So listen, if that’s what God has done, is doing, and will do, then I have every reason to respond to God with complete glad surrender and praise because in everything, He is rescuing me from sin and into His life!  In everything, He is using me to proclaim His goodness to a world that doesn’t know it.  In everything, He is using me to build His family and His bride, which I’m a part of!  In everything, He is accomplishing His purposes in me and through me to usher in His Kingdom, which is more glorious than anything this world has to offer!  So no matter how nominal or remedial my life may seem, no matter how many trials and tribulations I may go through, no matter how many letdowns and failures I experience, according to what God has said, He is accomplishing in all things the noblest, most praiseworthy, most life-giving purpose in the universe in and through me!

So then, is my life a proper response to that truth?

 Challenge  

How are you responding to the clear revelation of God in Christ of who He is, what He has done, is doing, and will do?  Is your life a testimony of proper worship or rebellion?

 After writing eleven chapters to the church in Rome about who God is, what He has done, is doing, and will do, Paul challenged the church with this:

1 I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)