2 Samuel 7:24

For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD, art become their God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

2 Samuel 7:24-26. For thou hast confirmed — Partly by thy promises, and that solemn and sure covenant into which thou hast entered with them; and partly by thy glorious works wrought on their behalf, as it appears this day. Thou art become their God — In a peculiar manner, and by special relation and covenant; for otherwise he is the God and Father of all. The word concerning thy servant and his house, establish thou it — And yet he did not desire this great kindness merely for his own sake and the sake of his family, but that God might be glorified in what he did for him and them. Thus it follows, And let thy name be magnified for ever — Never cease to manifest thyself to be the God and governor of Israel, and let all men acknowledge that the God of Israel is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of heaven and earth, of angels and men, and faithful in his promises to the house of David.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:18-29 David's prayer is full of the breathings of devout affection toward God. He had low thoughts of his own merits. All we have, must be looked upon as Divine gifts. He speaks very highly and honourably of the Lord's favours to him. Considering what the character and condition of man is, we may be amazed that God should deal with him as he does. The promise of Christ includes all; if the Lord God be ours, what more can we ask, or think of? Eph 3:20. He knows us better than we know ourselves; therefore let us be satisfied with what he has done for us. What can we say more for ourselves in our prayers, than God has said for us in his promises? David ascribes all to the free grace of God. Both the great things He had done for him, and the great things He had made known to him. All was for his word's sake, that is, for the sake of Christ the eternal Word. Many, when they go to pray, have their hearts to seek, but David's heart was found, that is, it was fixed; gathered in from its wanderings, entirely engaged to the duty, and employed in it. That prayer which is from the tongue only, will not please God; it must be found in the heart; that must be lifted up and poured out before God. He builds his faith, and hopes to speed, upon the sureness of God's promise. David prays for the performance of the promise. With God, saying and doing are not two things, as they often are with men; God will do as he hath said. The promises of God are not made to us by name, as to David, but they belong to all who believe in Jesus Christ, and plead them in his name.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The nations and their gods - i e. the people and the idols of Canaan.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. what can David say more unto thee?—that is, my obligations are greater than I can express.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thou hast confirmed to thyself; partly by thy promises, and that sure covenant which thou hast made with them; and partly by thy glorious works wrought on their behalf, as it appears this day.

Thou art become their God, in a peculiar manner, and by special relation and covenant; for otherwise he is the God and Father of all things, 1 Corinthians 8:6.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever,.... So long as they were obedient to him, and observed his laws and statutes, and abode by his worship and ordinances, otherwise he would write a "loammi" on them, as he has, see Hosea 1:9,

and thou, Lord, art become their God; their covenant God, they having avouched him to be their God, and he having avouched them to be his people, Deuteronomy 26:17.

Geneva Study Bible

For thou hast {m} confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD, art become their God.

(m) He shows that God's free election is the only reason why the Israelites were chosen to be his people.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. thou hast confirmed] Established, the same word as in 2 Samuel 7:13. Cp. Deuteronomy 32:6.

art become their God] Hast proved Thyself to be their God, in fulfilment of the promises in Genesis 17:7-8; Exodus 6:7.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - For thou hast confirmed. The word means "thou hast firmly and securely established Israel to "be thy people." This plainly refers to [he settlement in Canaan, now at last completed by David's victories, and not to the deliverance from Egypt. In the words that follow David recognizes the spiritual importance, not only of the permanent continuance of his house, but also of the empire given unto him. For Israel is now to be a people forever: and thou, Jehovah, art become their God. It is very necessary to retain here the personal name, Jehovah, as it is in the Hebrew, and not dilute it down to the Lord of the Septuagint. For now, to David's mind, the covenant seemed complete, and ratified forever. Israel is to have an everlasting existence - a promise belonging to it in its full sense only spiritually. For as long as the world lasts, it is against the spiritual Israel that the gates of hell shall never prevail. And next, first as the theocratic people, and then as the Church, it is to hold a unique relation to Jehovah, who is to be its God. For Israel, that is, the Jewish and the Christian Church, worships, not the God of nature, Elohim, but Jehovah, the God of grace; and they learn his attributes, not from philosophy, nor by metaphysical inquiry, but from his own revealed will, in which he teaches us what he is, what we are, and how we are to become one with him. 2 Samuel 7:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And Thou hast established to thyself Thy people Israel to be a people unto Thee for ever: and Thou, Jehovah, hast become a God to them." The first clause does not refer merely to the liberation of Israel out of Egypt, or to the conquest of Canaan alone, but to all that the Lord had done for the establishment of Israel as the people of His possession, from the time of Moses till His promise of the eternal continuance of the throne of David. Jehovah had thereby become God to the nation of Israel, i.e., had thereby attested and proved himself to be its God.

To this praise of the acts of the Lord there is attached in 2 Samuel 7:25. the prayer for the fulfilment of His glorious promise. Would Jehovah set up (i.e., carry out) the word which He had spoken to His servant that His name might be great, i.e., be glorified, through its being said, "The Lord of Sabaoth is God over Israel," and "the house of Thy servant will be firm before Thee." The prayer is expressed in the form of confident assurance.