II Samuel 23:1-7 - David's Last Words

There’s something about hearing the last words that someone famous has said. You think that you might learn something about someone by what it is that they have to say when they know they have reached the end.

Sometimes the last words someone speaks are profound. Joseph Addison, a writer who died in 1719 ended his life with a statement, “See in what peace a Christian can die.” He wanted his death to show the peace that faith can bring. Sometimes the last words are complete nonsense, or even ironic. J.M. Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan ended his life with the statement, “I can’t sleep.” Sometimes there is humor as in Lady Nancy Astor who awoke during her last illness and found her family around her bedside and asked, “Am I dying or is this my birthday?” Oscar Wilde also felt there was a statement to be made and said clearly that “Either that wallpaper goes or I do.” The wallpaper is still there. Some worry about what history will think. Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary told those with him to “Tell them I said something.” And Henry Ward Beecher, an evangelist in the 1800s, as he looked to what was to come, said, “Now comes the great mystery.”

Kings throughout history have had their last words recorded. Julius Caesar is famous for his, “Et tu Brute?” You too Brutus? Charles II of England told those around him to make sure his mistress, Nelly, didn’t starve. Louis 14 of France was confused by those around him who wept and reminded them that he too was mortal. Another king in France felt that kings should die standing up. And there was one Roman Emperor who, as he felt himself dying, stated that he felt himself becoming a god.

We are told that King David had some last words to share with those around him. And though his last words did talk about the greatness of his reign, they did not aspire to godhood. But we are told in 2 Samuel that the last words of David were inspired, and therefore something that we should listen to and learn from. And so today we are going to look at the last words of David and see what we can learn from this man after God’s own heart, even in his death.

I. Being God’s

We have spent the last three weeks looking at King David. We have seen his start as a young shepherd boy, who is called out from among his brothers to be the future king of Israel. We saw him trust God in impossible odds as he took on Goliath with a slingshot and rocks. And we saw David fall last week as he let his sin take control and build up on itself so that he was responsible for the death of someone; basically, murdering one of his subjects, and sending his army into disarray.

But this is not the end of David, and his great sin is not the end of his relationship with God. David repented and asked for forgiveness and God removed his sin from him completely, something God is willing to do for each of us.

And so we come to the end of David’s life. It wasn’t an easy life. He spent the first part of it running from the King of Israel, King Saul. He spent the middle of it at war with the Philistines, his neighbors. And he spent the end of his life dealing with his own sons who were warring with each other and even went to war against him in order to become the next king. David faced difficulty throughout his life, spent much of it on the run and constantly had to rely on the Lord because he knew he couldn’t handle everything that was happening to him on his own.

I think it is important to remember this when we look at David’s last words. It is important to avoid imagining that he lived the perfect life and everything went perfectly well for him. On the contrary, his life was quite difficult. He faced enemies on all sides.

David would be looked upon today as a self-made man: someone who took a difficult situation and made the most of it, someone who persevered when all was lost and amazingly found victory in the midst of it. But David’s last words aren’t about his own greatness, though they may first seem like it. David’s last words are about the one who was with him throughout his life. They are about who it is that allowed him to do the things he did, and helped him create the kingdom he created. Unlike that Roman Emperor, David did not see himself becoming a god, but David did see the work of God throughout his life.

II. Famous Last Words

From the beginning of the chapter, David puts the glory in God’s hands and not his own. It could sound like he is bragging, “I was so great and so wonderful that the Spirit of the Lord spoke through me.” Or, David could be telling those around him, “It was not me who spoke while I ruled, it was not me who made wise discernments, rather it was the Spirit of the Lord that spoke through me. I am not the great one here, it is the Lord that is the great one.” He goes on to tell his people that God told him that if he ruled in righteousness, if he ruled with fear of God, then he would be like the light of morning at sunrise, like the brightness after rain. Again, this could be read as if David were bragging. “I followed the Lord and therefore I was like the light of morning at sunrise.” But again, this is not the case. David knows what it is that made his rule great. He knows who it is that is responsible for his greatness, and it is not himself. It is the God whom he feared; it is the righteousness that God commanded.

David continues by telling people that there is a reason for his success. It isn’t his good looks, it isn’t his height or his ruddy good looks (hey, that’s how the Bible describes him). The reason for David’s success is that his house is right with God. David is telling the people of Israel. “You see my greatness. Yes, I am great. I have brought peace to this land. But this is not because of anything I did, rather it is because of the God who I follow.” And so we come full circle. We hear at the beginning, when Samuel is attempting to choose the next king; that God doesn’t look at that which people look at, but rather God looks at the heart. God looks at what we cannot see and God blessed David because David was faithful.

In David, who lived in the Old Testament, about 1000 years before Christ came and there was anyone known as a Christian, we see the example of what Christian faith is all about. David knew that he couldn’t earn God’s favor. He knew that he didn’t have to follow a bunch of rules to earn God’s favor. Instead, he loved his Lord, he trusted his God and he relied on his savior to, well, save him.

Again, it sometimes is hard to connect with someone like David. He lived 3000 years ago. The stories we read about him are legendary, larger than life, hey he’s in the Bible of all things. And he was the king of a country. Maybe when George Bush reads about David he can relate to him, but what about us, living here in Iowa in our small town of Albert City? How do we relate to this great man of God? How does his life connect with ours?

Well, obviously, I believe it does, or I wouldn’t be preaching about him. And I don’t see the connection in his ruling or in the great deeds he did. I see the connection in the small things. I see the connection in the way that he talks with his Lord. King David shows us what it means to have a personal relationship with God. David didn’t let his faith be something that he just accepted because he was born into it. For David, the faith was personal. It was real.

And this faith, this personal relationship with God is something that isn’t only for kings and rulers. God has told us that it is available for each of us as well. All the outward trappings are not important to God. He looks at your heart and he is ready to have that heart-relationship with you. We read Psalms that David wrote because they connect with our hearts. We have that same love and faith open to us as much as it was open to King David. Jesus, when he died on the cross and rose again, was sacrificing as much for you and for me as he was for the kings and rulers of this world.

So, let us learn from the king. Let us allow his example of faithfulness speak to each of us and guide us in our own faithfulness to God. And help us to remember that, like David, God is with each of us and God is the one responsible for helping us through our difficulties and troubles. We have not made it on our own, it is God who has been with us and helped us and brought us to where we are. I pray that we can always remember this and remember to give God the credit instead of trying to take it for ourselves.

III. Looking at that which is from God

There is something else we can learn from David and his final words. It’s something that I’ve been alluding to throughout this message. David didn’t lead the perfect life. The blessings he received from God were him being saved from his enemies and surviving battles as often as those blessings were riches. He didn’t live the American dream, and always have all his needs met. Actually, the crazy thing about him is that it was precisely when he did try to live the good life, sending his troops off to battle as he loafed around at home on his roof and sleeping until evening, this is when everything went so wrong for him.

If we look at David’s Psalms, he isn’t thanking God for riches or leisure. Rather, he is thanking God for saving him from evil, for sparing his life, for delivering him from those out to kill him.

And yet David, at the end, doesn’t focus on the negative that his life suffered. Instead he remembers those places where God was with him, where God worked on his behalf.

David didn’t have a better life than what we face. He dealt with a lot in his time as king. But he doesn’t let this get to him. He doesn’t allow himself to get overwhelmed by the negative. Instead he chooses to see where God was with him in the positive. He chooses to give God credit where it is deserved.

We face difficulties in this world. We struggle with many things that King David struggled with, we also struggle with things that were completely foreign to King David. But we need to know that these things are just temporary. They will not last, though it doesn’t always feel like that.

These things will too pass, and in the end we will be in the presence of our Lord, we will be with all those who love the Lord, and we will be filled with praise for our Lord.

David, at the end of his life, saw with clarity that God had been with him throughout. And he saw that all his own greatness had come from the Lord, and he even saw that God was with him in the midst of his struggles. And his last words, his final thoughts were not on the pains of the world, which he had faced and which were many, but rather they were on the God who brought him through these pains. Let us work in our lives to remember to give God the glory. Let us know that the pains of this world aren’t going to be the things that we remember in the end. And let us live lives that are inspired by David’s love for God and David’s faithfulness. Let us try to be people who are known to those around us as someone after God’s own heart. Amen.