Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - King David's Last Words | Historical Books | 2 Samuel 23:1-7

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

What were King David's last words? Does it feel like God has abandoned you? Will God be faithful? In today's episode, Jensen shares how 2 Samuel 23:1-7 reminds us that God has promised to bring us out of exile. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 2 Samuel 23:1-7

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. When a sitting president of the United States is leaving office, they give a final farewell address to the nation. The very first president, George Washington, published his farewell address, and it was focused on giving the young nation a vision for what was possible, and also warnings of what could go wrong if they didn't stick to their foundations. Now, this is often the tone of a farewell address, while none since have maybe been quite as impactful or memorialized in history, each president does their best to move the nation forward in hope while also giving their own sense of advice or warning for the betterment of the nation. Now, long before George Washington and the United States, another ruler, a king, King David, gave his final words.

And those are what we're looking at today in our passage. Now, much like the farewell address of the president, the words of David were not his actual last words ever. Unlike U.S. presidents, these words given in poetic form were David's last inspired word. Yes, his final address to the nation, but through words that were inspired by God to bolster and encourage his people via King David. This farewell address may be the most important because it isn't what David thinks. the people need to hear from him. It's what God speaks through David, the wisdom that God wants to pass down as their great King David leaves the throne. So let's just go ahead and start in with the passage. Verse one. These are the last words of David, the inspired utterance of David, son of Jesse,

the utterance of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, the hero of Israel's songs. So again, these are David's last words to his people, and you see right there, that it is the inspired utterance of David, a man that God gives words to, a man whom God appointed and exalted, the psalmist who wrote many songs of worship for God's people. Continuing on, verse 2. The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me.

His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke, the rock of Israel said to me. So again, David is reiterating. This is what God is speaking through me. Look at him, not me for guidance and wisdom. His word is on my tongue. He is the one who appointed and exalted me. David is taking a humble stance here in his last words. He tells the people to listen, because this is what the rock of Israel

said to him. When one rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of mourning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth. So David is going to die. He's leaving the throne soon. Another king will come up and another after him. David saw the division and devastation of a king who defied God in the reign of Saul. He saw the devastation in his own life of what happens when you're disobedient and rebellious to the ways of God as a king. And so here, here he is sharing the wisdom that God gave him to guide those in leadership. When a king rules in righteousness and the fear of God, when he is just, then he's like the light of morning, the brightness after rain that brings grass. The imagery used here is symbolic of life and health, of growth and flourishing. A wise, righteous, godly king brings life and flourishing to his people. This is a beautiful vision of what God's people could have, could experience under a good king.

This is what David hopes for from his descendants. And he continues in verse five, remembering the promise, of God. If my house were not right with God, surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secure in every part. Surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire. So David here is remembering the specific covenant that God made with him to establish his throne forever. David doesn't have the full picture, but he is steadfast and unwavering in his belief and trust, that because God has promised it, he will bring it to fruition. His covenant is secure. The people of God can rest knowing that God will establish the throne of Israel with an

everlasting king one day. They can have hope and trust in their God. And then David concludes with a warning. But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a sphere. They are burned up where they lie. So this is a warning. Though God has made a covenant with him, know that he will not excuse evil. The kings to come and the people of God

must continue to be faithful to follow God to live righteous lives. David knows this more than anyone. And yet, as we will see, as beautiful and eloquent and clear as David's last words are, his final address, not just wisdom from his own mind,

but from the mouth of God himself. the following kings and the people of God would not remain faithful. We will continue to learn the history of God's people this year in detail, but I want for a minute to imagine living in the time of the exile and reading David's final words. Would they sound foolish to you? Naive? Would they feel maybe like a reprimand?

There you are. Your nation is destroyed. You're living in a foreign country under an oppressive. rule. God seems silent. No king sits on a throne. There is no throne. Has God broken his covenant with his people? Has God abandoned them unjustly? Or maybe they'd feel the sting. They had failed to live upright lives. They had followed evil kings, kings who did not follow the advice of David, who did not bring life and flourishing, but death, destruction, and exile to his people. Was this the end of the promise? The end of the promise? The end of the

end of the story? Maybe you don't have to imagine yourself as an Israelite in exile to feel those same feelings and wonder those same thoughts. Has God abandoned you in your struggle? You thought he had promised you peace and joy and life and blessing and instead you're stuck. Stuck in sin, stuck in trouble, stuck in financial debt, stuck in a difficult marriage, stuck in illness. Is it time to give up this God delusion to realize you've been naive that life and peace and joy and aren't coming, why is God so silent? It's a real and vulnerable place to be in, and if you're there today, know that this is not the end of the story. Exile is never the end of the story. Exile does not render the words of God untrue. David's last inspired words were not found to be folly. They found

their fulfillment in the coming of Jesus. Descended from the line of Jesse, the perfect Israelite, upholding the covenant as the representative of God's people, dying as a sacrificial lamb to pay the price for the evil and reckless sins of God's people, and conquering death through his resurrection, ascending to the everlasting throne of the kingdom of God and establishing his rule as the only true, good, just, and righteous eternal king. David's covenant was fulfilled. His throne established forever.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the vision we read in David's last chapter. words. He is the king who rules, who brings life and flourishing to all of creation. He is the good king. When you're in exile and all seems lost, it can be hard to believe that God is going to be faithful. The people of Israel could have literally never imagined Jesus, imagined the kind of life he would bring, not just a thriving nation and peaceful life for the short years they had on earth, but a restored and renewed creation giving everlasting and eternal life to all people. Now, you might be an exile, hoping for a cure, a financial breakthrough, a peaceful marriage. And those things are not bad. Pray for them, hope for them, ask God to deliver you from the exile

you're in today, but do not lose sight of your true hope even if his answer isn't what you want, because he has promised to deliver you, and he has secured your inheritance already, an inheritance that is far greater than a momentary reprieve from pain in this life. He is holding secure for you eternal life. Eternal life in a kingdom with Jesus who is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth. King Jesus is bringing restoration and renewal and flourishing and eternal life to all things for all of time. His kingdom can never be shaken, never be overcome, death will be no more.

That is the hope that we cling to in the midst of exile. Let the final words of David remind you of the established reality that you have in the promises of our good, and faithful King Jesus. Amen.