Through the prophet Nathan, God promised King David an eternal dynasty:

The LORD declares to you that the LORD Himself will establish a house for you. When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom...I will be his father, and he will be my son...Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever. (2 Samuel 7:11b-12, 14, 18, NIV)

David's contemporaries probably understood this promise to mean that God would "raise up" David's offspring in the sense of causing them to appear on the historical scene. However, a thousand years later, the first Christians realized that Jesus "fulfilled" God's promises to a deeper extent than any other descendant of David. They knew that Jesus was the "Son of God" in the sense that he was born of a virgin, with no father but God. Furthermore, the Lord had not only "raised up" Jesus in history. He had raised him from the dead, never to die again. And since Jesus lives forever, he alone can rule over God's eternal Kingdom. (See Bare Roots 6.1 and 6.2.) Accordingly, Paul proclaims the good news

regarding [God's] Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead : Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:3-4)

Likewise, David wrote Psalm 16 as an expression of thanks to God for delivering him from enemies like Saul, who desired to kill him:

Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge...because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. (Psalm 16:1, 10)

A thousand years later, their experience with Jesus "filled" this Psalm "full" of new meaning for his disciples. Peter, for example, used Psalm 16 to proclaim Jesus to thousands of Jews on the Day of Pentecost:

Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him (quoting Psalm 16:8-11a):

I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.

Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. (Acts 2:22-32; compare 13:34-41)

When Peter's audience saw their resurrected Savior in the Psalms, about 3000 Jews came to the Lord in a single day (see Acts 2:41).

Reflect...

1. Review God's promises to King David in 2 Samuel 7. Which promises were fulfilled by which "sons of David"?
   
   
2. Reflect on Peter's sermon on Pentecost in Acts 2:22-32 (quoted above). What led Peter to conclude that Psalm 16 spoke of Jesus, rather than David?
   
   
3. Read Acts 13:13-41, which describes how Paul used this same Psalm in a sermon at Pisidian Antioch. What led Paul to conclude that Psalm 16 spoke of Jesus, rather than David?

Christopher A. Davis, Ph.D.
Professor of New Testament
Hope International University
Fullerton, California

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