SITTING BEFORE THE LORD

2 Samuel 7:18 “Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said: Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?”

There’s something about our culture — we find it very hard to sit still for any length of time. We’ve lost the art of solitude. No time for contemplation. I’m sure King David was a busy man — he had a whole kingdom to run — and yet it’s quite obvious that he still made time to regularly sit in God’s presence. I know that must be true because of the scores of Psalms which he wrote. Psalms of worship and prayer. Psalms which are rich and weighty and which have the touch of eternal reality upon them. They’re quite obviously the product of wonder and musing.

In our scripture, we read how David receives the most amazing revelation of God’s Word of promise to him by Nathan the prophet — how God is going to build David a house. David had wanted to build a temple — a house for God. God said, “No, David, I’m going to build you a house”. God would establish David’s throne forever.

David was not a perfect man — he made his share of mistakes. He knew what it was to really blow it. But one thing about David — he always knew his place. Whereas Saul became proud because of his position as king — David never suffered from the same false illusions of grandeur. He never forgot that it was the Lord who had raised him up in his purposes. And he kept a humble heart. Many men, hearing of God’s promises of greatness for them, may become proud and loud. But not David. “Who am I?” he says.

You see, for David it was God and his glory that mattered. God was not a means to an end for David. God is the glorious end of everything. How many times do we unwittingly reduce God to be merely our means to an end? This has been man’s tendency right through history. God is the one we turn to in trouble. His sovereignty becomes the convenient excuse for every shortcoming

Look at David — he’s just received God’s gracious word of promise. God is going to lavish his blessing on David. He’s going to make David’s name glorious. Where is David? He’s sitting humbly in God’s presence giving all the glory back. Giving the glory to one who is the only rightful recipient of it.

It is true that David wanted to build a magnificent temple to God. But God’s plans were different. It wasn’t God’s purpose — it wasn’t God’s time.

The desire is good. But that in itself is not enough. God desires obedience — not just great ideas. And so he visits the prophet in the night hours. Perhaps the prophet could hardly sleep for excitement over David’s plan, but God speaks to Nathan: “Tell David to stop. He won’t build me a house — I’ll build him one instead. A lineage on the throne forever”.

When David hears the Word of the Lord — as soon as he hears it — there is not argument — no attempt to somehow reason with or persuade God (like we so often do). He goes in and sits before the Lord and says in essence, “not my will by thy will be done.”

Sitting before the Lord requires ultimate submission from you and me. It could be that the one thing stopping you from being completely submissive to God is the laying down of your own agenda — your plan — your vision — your dream — to find God’s purpose.

Maybe the great plans you have seem so right — so noble — they must be good. But being good plans is not the point. They must be God’s plans.

Only spending true time in his presence will reveal those things to you. Come to him. Be humble. Be thankful. Be submissive.