City Of Dreams

[0:00] Second Samuel chapter five, the whole chapter. David becomes king over Israel. All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, we are your own flesh and blood.

[0:17] In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, you shall shepherd my people Israel, and you shall become their ruler.

[0:32] When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.

[0:45] David was 30 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 40 years. In Hebron, he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem, he reigned over all Israel and Judah for 33 years.

[1:00] David conquers Jerusalem. The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, you will not get in here.

[1:13] Even the blind and the lame can ward you off. They thought David can't get in here. Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, which is the city of David.

[1:25] On that day, David had said, anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those lame and blind who are David's enemies. That is why they say the blind and lame will not enter the palace.

[1:41] David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the city of David. He built up the area around it from the terraces inwards, and he became more and more powerful because the Lord God Almighty was with him.

[1:59] Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent envoys to David along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had established his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

[2:20] After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him. These are the names of the children born to him there.

[2:32] Shamua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ipar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishamah, Eliada, and Eliphilet. David defeats the Philistines.

[2:47] When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him. But David heard about it and went down to the stronghold.

[2:59] Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. So David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hands?

[3:12] The Lord answered him, Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands. So David went to Baal-Pirazim, and there he defeated them.

[3:23] He said, As waters break out, the Lord has broken out against my enemies before me. So that place was called Baal-Pirazim. The Philistines abandoned their idols there, and David and his men carried them off.

[3:38] Once more, the Philistines came up and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. So David inquired of the Lord, and he answered, Do not go straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the poplar trees.

[3:53] As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.

[4:06] So David did as the Lord commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. This is the word of the Lord. Good morning, St. Silas.

[4:24] Thanks, Esther, for reading. It would be a great help to me if you could keep your Bible open at 2 Samuel 5. If you're visiting here, I'm Martin. I'm the minister here, Martin Ez. And if it would help you, there's an outline inside the notice sheet if you'd like to just follow where we're going as we look at 2 Samuel 5 together.

[4:41] Let's ask for God's help as we turn to his word. Let's pray. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

[4:58] Heavenly Father, we've celebrated this morning the gift of your Holy Spirit as we come to your perfect word this morning. May your Spirit who has gathered us be pleased to refresh our souls.

[5:12] Fill us, we pray, with a knowledge of your will that we can walk through life knowing you better and discerning what is best. In Jesus' name we pray.

[5:24] Amen. Well, this chapter of the Bible makes us think a little bit about cities. And of course, we live in a great city, don't we? And at St. Silas, we're passionate about loving the city that God has placed us in to live.

[5:40] We are actually just doing this little series in our growth groups at the moment where we're thinking a bit about what it looks like as Christians to serve the city and seek the well-being of the city we live in.

[5:51] Lots of us would agree, Glasgow is a great city. Now, when I listen to the radio, because I'm a man of sophistication and culture, the radio station I listen to is Talk Sport.

[6:03] And they have Jim White on a weekday. And on Friday, there was this banter going on. Normally, Talk Sport's pretty England-focused. But there was this banter because someone had been to Scotland.

[6:16] And they started talking about three cities. So we're just going to listen to it, okay? There are three cities they talk about. Edinburgh City, Glasgow City, and Brecon City.

[6:27] So it's a couple of minutes. Let's just have a listen. It's Jim White with Perry Groves and Bob Mills. And we're with you until 1.

[6:42] Morning, morning, morning. Good morning. Here we go. Perry Groves, Bob Mills, is just back from Bonnie, Scotland. Now, Perry, tell me about it.

[6:52] Did you just do it yourself off to Edinburgh? I just had a little break off to Edinburgh. And I have to say what a fantastic city it is. It is. Full of culture. The new town, which is Georgian. Yep.

[7:02] The old town was medieval. Edinburgh Castle. Lawn Market. Grass Market. Yep. Greyfries Bobby. Greyfries, you got about. Birkenhair. Oh, wow. Alan Brazil came out, didn't he?

[7:13] I said he just had a little break up in Edinburgh. What a fantastic city that is. He went, yeah, Edinburgh's all right apart from the people. And you think, Scottish people actually hate other Scottish people, not just English people. No, it's highly recommended.

[7:27] Well, I am very proud of my hometown, which is Glasgow, because Glaswegians are the best. They are the best. I mean, was there anything to suggest to you that Edinburgh people are totally a different breed, a wonderful breed?

[7:42] Did they embrace you? Were you loved? I think if you... See, Glasgow people would love you. They do, anyway. The thing is, the brilliant thing about Glasgow is, which Bob probably knows as well, is the tube, the underground, is basically like a carousel ride, isn't it?

[7:54] It lasts for about a minute and a half, isn't it? Is it like six or seven stars? Fun, isn't it? Yeah. It's genius. It's more of a fun thing, isn't it? I've been further on those little horses outside newsagents.

[8:05] Exactly. And the other thing about, we did the... My missus is the cultural attaché. She said, let's go and do that. You know, you do the walking tours, the audio tours going round Edinburgh Castle.

[8:16] Yeah. And then as you're going round, you know, telling you about the crown jewels that are there. But I didn't realise that William Wallace actually run away as well. I didn't realise that. He did not. He did not. He did, he run away. He did not. Half a year.

[8:26] Well, hang on. Within a week of the battle, he was in France. Exactly. He'd run away. And this is before your start. Yeah. That's moving. He gave it a real gorge. Hey, I'll be back in a minute, guys.

[8:38] Just hold it a second. You see that? You're... Glasgow next. I know you've been to Glasgow a few times. Yeah. Is it Byers Road? Byers Road. And Tenants, the pub.

[8:48] Tenants. Tenants, which had the first lady owner of a pub in Scotland. That's right. The first lady land. It took them a while to get a lady's toilet as well. I used to remember going in there.

[8:59] I don't remember coming out. But thankfully those days have gone. But certainly Glasgow, wonderful. The cathedral, the university. Bob, I mean, what a place. Is it the Duke of Wellington statue that they always put a traffic cone on the top of it?

[9:13] The cone in the top of the head. That's genius. While we're on the subject of Scottish places, our hearts go out to Breakin. They've had an awful season. They've had a terrible season. Breakin. They went through the whole season without a win.

[9:24] Breakin City. And to add to it, and someone tweeted to me, a young Breakin fan tweeted to me and said, to add to the horror of going through a whole season, Breakin City fans have just discovered that although we have Breakin City Football Club and Breakin City Council, Breakin City College, and also Breakin City Pipe Band, we're not even a city.

[9:46] Oh! Was it an admin error? Well, listen, Penny, I'm glad you... It's just like the sound of the name. You only have a drawback. Great. So there we are. So normally we talk about sport, but there we were.

[9:57] You know, Glasgow, the focus of Talk Sport Radio, as we learned about Byers Road. But even if you live in a great city, or even if you don't live in a city like the citizens of Breakin, what happens when you turn to the Bible is that as well as God calling or telling us his places in places so that people will come to know God through us, he also calls us to fix our eyes on a different city, one that's coming.

[10:25] He speaks of another city, and it's a city that opens up to us the most wonderful idea. It's an idea that changes how you think about the city you live in today, and it changes how you think about your whole life and about the whole world.

[10:40] But the wonderful idea is this. It's that God's plans for the future of our world are actually far better than we could ever dream of.

[10:51] His plans for the future of the world are far better than even we can imagine. And so he gives us a vision of his plans at the end of the Bible in Revelation. Revelation, Revelation chapter 20, tells us that the devil, the source of the evil spiritual force in the world, is finally defeated.

[11:10] Then you get these last two chapters of the Bible, and it's as though because we cannot imagine how good the future is going to be, we get all these images.

[11:20] It's as though God has a big screen erected in Revelation, and he's just throwing up vivid ideas on the screen that each give us a picture of what the future is like that he is promising so that we can pin our hopes on these visual aids.

[11:35] And one of these key pictures is of a city. Revelation chapter 21, we'll just have it on the screen, and I'll read it for you. John says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

[11:51] I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.

[12:10] They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

[12:27] He who was seated on the throne said, I'm making everything new. Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. So friends, this is what the living God who made us has promised for all of us today about the future, what he's going to bring.

[12:44] And if you trust him, it gives you a life-transforming hope for your life. Whatever your life is like today, it puts our greatest triumphs in perspective.

[12:55] It gives us something with which we can deal with even the worst tragedy, the new Jerusalem. It's this city that is resplendent. It's precious. It's secure.

[13:06] Everybody's safe. There's no fear. It's prosperous. It's full of people from every tribe and tongue and nation united together. And the highlight of the new Jerusalem is that God is there.

[13:20] God himself. That we will know him intimately. So do we trust that promise from the living God? The promise new Jerusalem. Do we trust it in a way that we could build our lives on that promise?

[13:33] Well, to help us trust it, God has woven into human history a glimpse of his future kingdom. And that's what we're seeing in 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel, looking at events that happened about 3,000 years ago in the Middle East, in what's modern-day Israel, God has been working there to establish his kingdom at the time.

[13:56] He's rescued his people from slavery in Egypt. He's brought them into the Promised Land. And through his prophet Samuel, a little while back, he has picked out David and anointed him.

[14:07] This is the man who will be my king. His Messiah. His anointed one. His chosen king for his people. So that in verse 3 of chapter 5, what happens is really momentous.

[14:20] Have a look with me at verse 3. We've been waiting for that for years.

[14:37] So now we see that the Lord, how is the Lord going to behave? What is he going to do once his chosen, anointed king is on the throne? And if he is good then for his promises that he made to his people then, so it is that he is good for his promises that he's made to us today.

[14:58] So our first point this morning, Yahweh captures a significant city. If you have a look with me at verse 6. The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there.

[15:11] Then the Jebusites, they mock David in verse 6. They say, you'll not get in here. Even the blind and the lame can ward you off. And they've got reasons for their arrogance.

[15:21] Because Jerusalem, if you've ever been to Israel, Jerusalem is high up on a mountain. At that time it was a fortress, a fortified city. And the Jebusites have held it safely for centuries.

[15:34] Lots of the other towns and settlements around Israel have been conquered and reconquered. But the Jebusites occupied Jerusalem and it stands firm. But here there is no stopping David.

[15:46] He gets in through the water shaft. Every city needs a water supply. They've got this water shaft that heads down to supply them. And David and his men go in through the water shaft to get to the city.

[15:56] And we get the summary in verse 7. David captured the fortress of Zion, which is the city of David. And he'll reign from that city as king over Israel for the next 33 years.

[16:08] So we hear verse 9. David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the city of David. Verse 10. And he became more and more powerful because the Lord Almighty was with him.

[16:23] Now whenever we see the Lord, spelt like that in the Bible. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. The Lord. It's the translation of the Bible word Yahweh.

[16:33] And Yahweh was the name that God revealed, his name, to his people when he made his promises to them. That they would be his people. It's called his covenant, his promises that he made.

[16:46] He is Yahweh to his people. Whenever we see that Lord in capitals, we think promise keeping God. Relationship promise keeping God. And Yahweh has moved David into David's royal city.

[17:01] In the words of Psalm 2, he has installed his king on Zion, his holy hill. And that move for David from Hebron to Jerusalem, it's much more significant than just a change of address.

[17:12] Here's the key. We've already thought about how God's promises to us today, living after Jesus has died and risen and ascended, they're tied in with this city, the new Jerusalem.

[17:25] Well, for God's people then, his promises to them were tied into the old city, Jerusalem. We can see that traced through the Bible so far.

[17:36] So many centuries before David's time, the seedbed really of God's promises in the Bible are God speaking to Abraham. And God, in Genesis chapter 12, makes a covenant with Abraham that through his descendants, Abraham's descendants, God will build a kingdom and establish a kingdom that will ultimately be a blessing to all the nations of the world.

[17:58] And then in Genesis 15, Abraham says, in effect, are you really going to do this to God? And God says this, Genesis 15, it's on the screen. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and said, To your descendants I give this land, from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.

[18:29] The Jebusites are the last tribe mentioned in the list. Now, these nations were involved in horrific wickedness. They were worshipping false gods and they used to slay children, sacrifice children to these false gods.

[18:44] And in God's great patience, he gives them centuries to repent. They don't repent. And then he judges them. Part of sending his people in to get the land is a judgment on the people who were there for their wickedness.

[18:58] But the promise is repeated that Yahweh will give this particular land to these people. In Exodus chapter 3, when Moses encounters God in the burning bush. Exodus 3, the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.

[19:14] I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. And I'm concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians. And to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land.

[19:26] A land flowing with milk and honey. The home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites. And Jebusites. There they are again, the Jebusites. If you're really going to build your life on God's promises, he needs to give his people the land of the Jebusites.

[19:42] In fact, he mentions the Jebusites again as he repeats his promise in Exodus 13, in Exodus 23, in Exodus 33, in Exodus 34. He says it again to the next generation in Deuteronomy 7.

[19:56] Then he leads his people under the leader Joshua into the promised land. And they take the land and they divide up the land and there's this great celebration. But then we read this, Joshua 15, verse 63.

[20:09] Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem. To this day, the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah.

[20:21] Generations of God's people have lived and died, trusting God's promise that one day, Jerusalem will belong to the people. You can imagine them in the land.

[20:33] They're enjoying the settlements that God has given them to establish. But they look in the distance and they can always see that city on the hill, fortified. And maybe they think, will God really ever keep his promise and give that city to his people?

[20:48] It seems pretty unlikely that we would ever get that city. And then this chapter, 2 Samuel 5, shows us how right they were to keep trusting God, to keep his promise.

[21:01] And that's so key for us because it assures us today as we wait for our Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem. God's great promises for the future of our world tied in with that wonderful city.

[21:13] It's good to remember that as we see news this week coming out of the Middle East, isn't it? When the U.S. have set up their embassy in Jerusalem and the bloodshed that we saw last week.

[21:26] 60 Palestinians killed, including children, on the border with the Gaza Strip. And it's important to say that God's promises to us today as Christians are no longer based around that old city of Jerusalem.

[21:43] The Bible is not political about what's going on in Jerusalem today. The new Jerusalem that we're waiting for in Revelation comes down from heaven for us.

[21:54] It's a picture of God renewing our whole world. But we could also say, couldn't we, that in a deeper way, the Bible's promises here are vital to what's happening in Israel just now.

[22:06] For ultimately, the only real hope for Israel, for Gaza, for the West Bank, is the same as the only real hope for Syria and for North Korea and for Glasgow.

[22:18] And for our whole world blighted by sin and death. A whole world where we are separated from the God who made us to know him. Our only hope is that God will do what he has promised and build the new Jerusalem.

[22:32] And when we hear about David's men creeping up that water shaft to get the old Jerusalem, it gives us confidence.

[22:42] Yahweh, their God, is our God and he keeps his promises. We can wait on him. But as we wait, things are not going to be easy. Our second point is that Yahweh smashes a significant enemy.

[22:56] So the promised land is meant to be a land of rest for God's people. That is that they'll enjoy the rest of being with God and knowing God. But also that they'll have rest from their enemies around them.

[23:07] It's the Garden of Eden restored, if you like. And for years, one particular nation has stood in the way of that promise. It's the Philistines. Israel, it seems, tried everything.

[23:20] They took the Ark of the Covenant, which was their kind of box that symbolized God's presence with them. They took it with them into a battle in 1 Samuel. And the Philistines won the battle and took the Ark off with them.

[23:32] And the priest Eli, his daughter-in-law, gives birth to a baby. And she calls the baby Ichabod, which means no glory. Because the glory has left Israel. The Philistines have taken God's presence away.

[23:44] Then at the end of 1 Samuel, the Philistines inflict a terrible defeat on Israel. They kill the king, King Saul. They kill his sons. And they occupy huge swathes of the land that God had promised to his people.

[23:58] And now they rise up against this new King David in verse 18. Now the Philistines have come and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. So David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack the Philistines?

[24:12] Will you deliver them into my hands? The Lord answered him, Go, for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hands. So David went to Baal-perazim.

[24:23] And there he defeated them. Then they rise up against him again in verse 22. Again, verse 23, he inquires of the Lord. He obeys God's word. And then he defeats them.

[24:36] Verse 25, he struck down the Philistines. He clears them out of the land for his people. And it looks at first like something out of Braveheart or Gladiator. You know, wow, David is an absolute warrior.

[24:48] He's the man. But just as when this same David killed Goliath when he was a boy or a young man, he knows that his victory has come because the battle belongs to the Lord.

[24:59] And the Lord is the one who is going to defeat his enemies. He's bringing the victory. So then there's this great irony in verse 21. That on the battlefield, the Philistines abandoned their idols there.

[25:12] And David and his men carried them off. So they're carrying their gods into battle. And previously, they'd taken off the ark away from Israel. But now, Yahweh is keeping his promises.

[25:25] And the glory days are coming back to Israel. It's their gods, their false gods, that just get left on the battlefield. And David knows exactly who's responsible for the win.

[25:36] That word perizim that he calls the place means breaks out. So if you keep that in mind as you look at verse 20, you see the point the writer's making for us and David's making because breaks out, that word, comes four times.

[25:51] So David went to the Lord breaks out. And there he defeated them. He said, as waters break out, the Lord has broken out against my enemies before me. So that place was called the Lord who breaks out.

[26:05] In other words, the enemies of God's people have been smashed by God. And we find that hard to deal with because it kind of breaks the box that we put God into, doesn't it?

[26:20] The meek and mild box that we put God into. One of my favorite books is the book To Kill a Mockingbird. And it's all about how surprising people are if you take them at face value, as you'll know if you've read the book or seen the film.

[26:34] You shouldn't take people at face value. And there's the key character in the book, Scout. And she has this great relationship with her dad who she calls Atticus. But Atticus is an old dad. And he's a lawyer.

[26:45] And he's kind of a man with lots of books. And he's a very quiet man. And although they have a nice relationship, you feel like he's very much an indoors man, Atticus. And you wouldn't really catch him doing anything adventurous.

[26:58] And he just seems a bit tired of life. Doesn't really seem to get out much or do very much, apart from being a lawyer. And then there's this great moment where one day, in the heat of the day, this mad dog comes up the road that the family live on.

[27:12] And all the families live on. And they're all hiding because this mad dog is so dangerous. And Atticus comes out of the house with a rifle. And he shoots the dog at distance. And it turns out that Atticus is an amazing marksman.

[27:26] And Scout had no idea. And it, like, explodes her view of her dad. He's this hero who can defend the whole street. Well, it's a bit like that in the Valley of Rephaim when we look at what God is really like.

[27:41] God smashes. That's who he is. Our God acting a way that maybe challenges our views of him. It's also, it's sobering and it's reassuring to see this.

[27:52] It's sobering because it reminds us that as Christians we must expect opposition and enemies. Jesus is establishing his reign in the world today. And the devil hates him and opposes him.

[28:05] So when you are one of his people and you're in his church, you are on the front line of spiritual warfare. And we need to remember that. The devil wants to tear down the church.

[28:16] And he will do it. He will seek to do it. He won't succeed. But he'll seek to do it through people. He is the prince of this world. The God of this age. So we will see people irrationally bent against the church in our culture.

[28:30] And it's so easy to forget that and to fall into the mindset as Christians of thinking, if only we're just really nice, we'll get on with everyone. If we just try and do good stuff in Glasgow and love people, no one will have a bad word to say about us.

[28:49] That's how we basically think. So that if we hear about a Christian getting arrested or getting persecuted or losing their job, a little bit of us thinks they must have been a bit daft.

[29:02] They must have been a bit unkind or unloving to get into that trouble. Whereas we need to remember that Jesus said, if the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me too.

[29:14] And if we want to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, we will be persecuted. We won't re-evangelize Scotland unless we are persecuted in the midst of it and afflicted.

[29:27] Jesus has enemies and those enemies want to tear down his church. It's very sobering. But when we see Yahweh here fighting to defeat his enemies and establish David, as well as being sobering, it's very reassuring.

[29:41] Because we see that God is powerful enough to smash anyone who stands in the way of his promises. The Lord who breaks out against the Philistines is a God worth praying to.

[29:54] You can endure a lot knowing your God is as powerful as that. He is the God of empty tombs who smash death to bits. He's the God of church revivals through history.

[30:06] The God of gospel advance. He's a God worth hanging on to for all his promises because he's powerful. And how will he keep his promises? Well, that's our third point. So Yahweh, he captures a significant city.

[30:20] He smashes a significant enemy. And thirdly, he establishes a significant king. All through this story, Yahweh is exalting David because this is God's way of working.

[30:32] He keeps his promises through his promised king, his Messiah. And in that, we're seeing a prototype of the Messiah that God will send in David's line.

[30:43] So in verse 2, we're reminded that he's a shepherd. The Lord said to you, You shall shepherd my people Israel, and you shall become their ruler. And then if you have a look with me at verse 12, Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

[31:05] The Lord seeks a king, not for the sake of the king, but for the sake of his people. One who will rule them with authority, but as a shepherd, caring for them. A shepherd king.

[31:16] And in lots of ways here, David fits the bill. So God is exalting him so that he can bless his people. David, in the two battles with the Philistines, does exactly what God tells him to do.

[31:29] Verse 19, So David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack the Philistines? And then he obeys. Then in verse 23, So David inquired of the Lord, and he answered.

[31:40] Then verse 25, So David did as the Lord commanded him. In his obedience to God's word, he is pointing us forward to the one in David's line, Jesus Christ, who will be king forever.

[31:53] The one who said to the people, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work. Jesus obeying his heavenly father all through his life.

[32:04] And David here is a model for us as people of King Jesus. In how we should demonstrate that we trust God's promises. David is humble because he trusts that God will keep his promises, and they will be for David's good.

[32:20] So all that matters is that David keeps obeying God's word. Let God do the exalting. David knows he just needs to trust and obey. And how often for us, when we sin, when we live sinfully, it's because we've stopped trusting that if we just obey God, he'll do what's best for us.

[32:43] I wonder, where might you be tempted to sin because you don't really trust that God will do what's best for you if you just obey him? Well, David waits on God.

[32:55] But we see even here, in David's golden era, that David is not the finished article. We know from Deuteronomy 17 that the king mustn't take many wives. And then look at verse 13.

[33:07] As David gets exalted and established, we read this, verse 13. After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.

[33:20] Well, as we go on in 2 Samuel, later on, we'll see that this glimpse of David's sin becomes his catastrophic downfall. David is not going to be God's final answer.

[33:32] But his greatest son, Jesus, will fulfill the whole of God's law perfectly. So that when he's led before Pontius Pilate, Pilate says, I find no basis for a charge against this man.

[33:47] And for us this morning, now that we have such a king, let's keep our eyes fixed on those promises of a new Jerusalem. God is going to do it. Let me ask this week, how could you reflect on God's promises for our future?

[34:03] How could you enjoy those promises? Build your life on those promises this week. Let them shape your reaction to what happens to you. So that when you're frustrated, you have a different perspective.

[34:17] When you're sitting in a traffic jam and you're late and it really matters and the cars won't move. Or your baby won't stop crying and it's three in the morning and you're wrecked. Or your boss doesn't seem to show any gratitude for the report you stayed up all night doing.

[34:31] Or you go into your exam and the questions you were longing for don't come up. Or you realize that the person that you really like isn't really very interested in you. Or your children just won't stop fighting and biting each other.

[34:42] When life is broken like that, we shouldn't be overwhelmed in our frustration as Christians because these things remind us that this city was never meant to be home and it won't ever be home for us.

[34:56] We can still rejoice even in the midst of frustration because there is another city coming. The New Jerusalem. It's coming.

[35:07] And so we have a different perspective. We're looking for a place where the streets are paved with gold. Where there's no more fear. Where there's no more sadness. Because God wipes the tears from everyone's eyes.

[35:21] And we enjoy rest with Him forever. The truth is we don't deserve to go there. But our place there is secure because our King has earned it for us.

[35:33] This morning we've seen that King David went into the city of Jerusalem to reign. But Jesus went into the city of Jerusalem to be rejected. David imported the finest wood into the city to build himself a palace.

[35:49] But our King Jesus carried a wooden beam out of the city to die in agony and shame. And He did that because He is our Good Shepherd.

[36:00] Laying down His life for us. Bearing our sin. So that one day He can welcome us home into His city. And we can be citizens there forever. Let's pray together.

[36:10] Father, we praise You, Yahweh, our Heavenly Father, that Your promises are trustworthy and true. We thank You that in Jesus You have given us the King that we need.

[36:26] And we thank You that You've exalted Him and He will be our forever King. We thank You for the new Jerusalem He will bring. Help us to reflect more deeply on the promises that You have given us of that future city.

[36:43] Our world put right. May we live today in light of that perspective. Holy Spirit, may our hearts be set on fire with the living hope of what's to come.

[36:58] And Father, as we entrust our future to You, like David, would we be a people marked by obedience to Your Word, for Your glory and for our good. Amen.