Scripture Daily

Context No. 2296 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 7:17-24: in context

17Nathan spoke to David all these words, and according to all this vision. 18Then David the king went in and sat before the LORD; and he said, “Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far? 19This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord GOD, but you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come; and this among men, Lord GOD! 20What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Lord GOD. 21For your word’s sake, and according to your own heart, you have worked all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22Therefore you are great, LORD God. For there is no one like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23What one nation on the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed to yourself out of Egypt, from the nations and their gods? 24You established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever; and you, LORD, became their God.

When the prophet Nathan brings David God's astonishing promise, that God will establish David's house and kingdom forever, David goes in and sits before the LORD, and prays. But his prayer does not begin with claims or requests; it begins with humble wonder. Who am I, Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far? And this was a small thing in your eyes; you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come. Overwhelmed by God's undeserved grace, David responds not with entitlement but with amazed humility.

David's response to God's grace is worth learning: who am I, that you have brought me this far? He does not receive God's promise as his due, as something he had earned or deserved; he receives it with amazed humility, marveling that God should be so good to one like him. He was a shepherd boy raised to be king, and now given a promise of an everlasting house; and rather than taking it as his right, he is overwhelmed that God should show him such grace. Who am I, he asks, that you have done this? It is the response of humble wonder to undeserved grace. This is the right response to God's grace toward us, and it searches our own. We can come to regard God's blessings as our due, as things we have earned or deserve, receiving them with entitlement rather than wonder. David's prayer models the opposite: the amazed humility that recognizes God's goodness as undeserved, and responds not with entitlement but with wonder, asking, who am I, that God should be so good to me? All that God gives us, his grace, his blessings, his mercy, is undeserved; and the fitting response is not entitlement but the humble wonder of David. By the grace of God, Paul says, I am what I am; his standing was all of grace, and he marveled at it. This humble wonder is the mark of a heart that rightly receives God's grace. It does not take God's goodness for granted or as its due, but is amazed by it, recognizing that it is all unearned, and responding with gratitude and wonder rather than entitlement. What is man, the psalmist marvels, that you are mindful of him? The heart that grasps the grace of God is filled with this wonder: who am I, that God should regard me, bless me, save me? This calls us to receive God's grace with humble wonder rather than entitlement. David, given God's astonishing promise, responded with the amazed humility that asks, who am I, that you have brought me this far? And we too are called to receive God's grace and blessings not as our due but with wonder, recognizing that all he gives is undeserved, and responding, as David did, with the humble gratitude that marvels that God should be so good to us. I am not worthy, Jacob prayed, of the least of all your mercies; and this humble wonder at God's undeserved grace is the response he desires and the mark of a heart that rightly receives it.

Do I come to regard God's blessings and grace as my due, as things I have earned or deserve, receiving them with entitlement rather than wonder, and can David, who responded to God's astonishing promise with the amazed humility that asks, who am I, Lord GOD, that you have brought me this far, move me to receive God's grace not as my right but with humble wonder, recognizing that all he gives is undeserved and marveling, as David did, that God should be so good to one like me?

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