The Greater David's Greater Kingdom Text: 2 Samuel 22:44-46
Introduction: A Song of Total Victory
The song of David in 2 Samuel 22 is a psalm of retrospect, a victory anthem sung at the end of a long and bloody career. David has been delivered from all his enemies, not least of whom was Saul. He has been brought through countless battles, intrigues, betrayals, and wars. And now, looking back, he gives all the credit for his deliverance and his exaltation to the Lord. This is not the song of a self-made man. It is the song of a God-made king.
But we must understand that this song is far more than just David's personal diary set to music. David was a prophet, and he spoke of things far greater than himself. He was a type, a shadow, a stand-in for the ultimate King, the Lord Jesus Christ. When David sings of his victories, he is, whether he fully grasps it or not, singing of the victories of the Messiah. The deliverance from Saul prefigures Christ's deliverance from Herod. The battles with the Philistines prefigure Christ's war against the demonic powers. And the establishment of David's throne over the nations is a scale model of the establishment of Christ's kingdom over all the earth.
The verses before us today are the crescendo of this theme. They describe the scope of the victory God has given him. It is a victory that begins at home, with his own people, and extends to the ends of the earth, to nations he has never even met. This is a picture of a total, comprehensive, and global triumph. If we read this as merely the boast of an ancient Near Eastern warlord, we miss the point entirely. This is a prophecy of the unstoppable advance of the gospel of the kingdom. This is a description of the Great Commission in poetic form. David's kingdom was the shadow; Christ's kingdom is the reality that cast it.
The Text
You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people;
You have kept me as head of the nations;
A people whom I have not known serve me.
Foreigners cower before me;
As soon as they hear, they obey me.
Foreigners fade away,
And come trembling out of their fortresses.
(2 Samuel 22:44-46 LSB)
Victory at Home (v. 44a)
The first line of this victorious declaration is crucial. The victory begins at home.
"You have also delivered me from the contentions of my people..." (2 Samuel 22:44a)
Before David could be the head of the nations, he had to be the head of Israel. And this was no simple matter. His fiercest opposition came not from the Philistines, but from his own countrymen. He was hunted by Saul, the sitting king of Israel. He was opposed by the house of Saul even after Saul's death. He was betrayed by his own son, Absalom, which was a contention that tore the kingdom in two. David's throne was established through civil strife, through the "contentions of my people." God had to deliver him from his own kin before He could use him to subdue foreigners.
Now, how does this point to Christ? The parallel is exact. The Lord Jesus came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). His most bitter opposition came from the religious establishment of Israel, the scribes and Pharisees. They were the "contentions of His people." They plotted against Him, lied about Him, and ultimately handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified. The central conflict of the Gospels is an in-house dispute. It is a contention within Israel over the identity of her true king.
But God delivered Him. He delivered Him not from the cross, but through the cross. The resurrection was God's final verdict in the "contentions of the people." God publicly vindicated His Son, seating Him at His right hand, far above all rule and authority. The destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 was the historical confirmation of this verdict, the final deliverance of the true King from the contentions of a rebellious and apostate generation. The victory of the gospel had to begin with the subduing of the old guard.
Dominion Abroad (v. 44b-45)
Once the internal conflict is settled, the kingdom explodes outward. The dominion is global.
"You have kept me as head of the nations; A people whom I have not known serve me. Foreigners cower before me; As soon as they hear, they obey me." (2 Samuel 22:44b-45 LSB)
David's kingdom expanded. He subdued the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, and the Syrians. Peoples he had not previously known were brought under his dominion. They became his servants. This was a literal, historical reality. But it was a reality pregnant with typological meaning. God was making David the "head of the nations" as a down payment on the promise that his great Son would be the head of all nations.
This is a direct prophecy of the Gentile mission. "A people whom I have not known serve me." This is the story of the book of Acts. The gospel breaks out of Jerusalem and goes to the Gentiles, to peoples who were formerly strangers to the covenants of promise (Eph. 2:12). The Romans, the Corinthians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, they were a people David had not known, but they came to serve David's Son.
Notice the nature of their submission. "Foreigners cower before me; As soon as they hear, they obey me." The King James says they "submit themselves unto me." The Hebrew has the sense of a feigned or grudging submission at first, which is what "cower" gets at. But then, as soon as they truly hear, they obey. This is a brilliant description of how the gospel conquers. The kingdom of Christ advances, and at first, earthly kingdoms and pagan cultures submit out of fear or compulsion. They see the writing on the wall. Their pagan idols are being toppled, their philosophies are being dismantled, and they grudgingly give way. Think of the Roman Empire. First it persecuted the church, then it tolerated the church, and then it submitted to the church under Constantine. The initial submission might be political, a sort of cowering.
But the gospel is not content with that. It demands true heart-obedience. "As soon as they hear, they obey me." This is the power of the preached Word. When the gospel is truly heard, it produces faith, and faith produces obedience (Romans 1:5). This is the story of missions. The gospel goes out, and people who were once hostile or fearful hear the good news of the victorious King, and they joyfully obey. Their submission moves from the neck to the heart.
The Collapse of Rival Fortresses (v. 46)
The final verse describes the inevitable decay and collapse of all opposition to this global kingdom.
"Foreigners fade away, And come trembling out of their fortresses." (2 Samuel 22:46 LSB)
This is the language of utter defeat. The enemies of the king lose heart. Their strength withers. Their confidence evaporates. They "fade away." This is not a stalemate; it is a rout. All their centers of power, their "fortresses," become prisons of fear. They thought their high walls and strong gates could protect them from the king, but those walls become their tombs. They come out, not with swords drawn, but "trembling."
This is what happens when the kingdom of Christ advances. The spiritual fortresses of paganism and secularism cannot stand against it. Paul tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). These strongholds are arguments, philosophies, worldviews, and religious systems that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. But when the gospel comes in power, these fortresses begin to crumble from the inside out. The people who once trusted in them find that their confidence is gone. They "fade away." Their secularism cannot bear the weight of meaning. Their paganism cannot answer the problem of evil. Their atheism cannot provide a basis for reason. They become terrified of their own intellectual and spiritual emptiness.
And so they come trembling. They come out of their ideological bunkers, blinking in the light of the Son, and they surrender. This is the postmillennial vision of the Old Testament. It is not a picture of the church huddled in a bunker, waiting for a last-minute rescue. It is a picture of the church on the offensive, with a victorious King, pulling down the enemy's fortresses by the power of the gospel. The nations of the world will not all be converted overnight, but the promise is that they will be discipled. Their false religions will fade. Their secular fortresses will be emptied. They will come trembling to Christ, the head of the nations.
Conclusion: From David's Throne to Christ's Kingdom
David's song is our song. His victory is a type of our victory, which is Christ's victory. We are citizens of this kingdom that is headed by the greater David. We have been delivered from the "contentions" of our old man, our sinful nature. We who were once "foreigners" have been brought near. We have heard the gospel, and by God's grace, we have obeyed.
But the scope of this text pushes us outward. It reminds us that our King is not just the head of the church; He is the "head of the nations." All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. Our task, therefore, is to live and proclaim this reality. We are to announce to the nations that their king has come. We are to tell the secularists cowering in their materialist fortresses that their walls are coming down. We are to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that every knee will bow and every tongue confess this reality.
This is not a hope for some far-off future. The process began at the resurrection and ascension. David's song is being fulfilled now. The nations are being given to the Son as His inheritance (Psalm 2:8). Foreigners are fading away and coming trembling out of their fortresses every time the gospel is preached and a sinner is converted. Let us therefore be confident. Our King is on the throne, and His kingdom cannot fail.