(1.) God's description of a perfectly Righteous King.

(2.) David's admission that no such King then reigned in Israel; and,

(3.) In connexion with this, he adds, "Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant." What was this covenant? We find it recorded in 2 Sam. vii. 12. "And when thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thine own bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I WILL STABLISH THE THRONE OF HIS KINGDOM FOR EVER. I will be his father, and he

shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will

chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

AND THINE

HOUSE AND THY KINGDOM SHALL BE ESTABLISHED

FOR EVER BEFORE THEE. THY THRONE SHALL BE ESTABLISHED FOR EVER." We find David referring to this covenant in Ps. cxxxii. 11-14. "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; OF THE FRUIT OF THY BODY WILL I SET UPON THY THRONE. If thy children will keep my covenant, and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also

sit upon thy throne for evermore. FOR THE LORD HATH CHOSEN ZION: HE HATH DESIRED IT FOR HIS HABITATION. THIS IS MY REST FOR EVER; HERE WILL I DWELL; FOR I HAVE DESIRED IT."

Some parts of the language of this covenant have, doubtless, immediate reference to Solomon, but "a greater than Solomon is here." The chief object of this covenant with David was to make known that JESUS CHRIST SHOULD FOR EVER OCCUPY DAVID'S THRONE; that is, reign literally as a king upon earth, over that very same people Israel, descended according to the flesh from Abraham, over whom David reigned.

Solomon was a type of Christ, and did indeed occupy that very throne upon which God cove

nanted with David that his seed should sit for ever. Thus we find David saying (1 Chron. xxviii. 5), "Of all my sons, the Lord hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. Moreover I will establish his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience

of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God, that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever."

And so we find Solomon himself saying, after the death of David, "The Lord hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised." (1 Kings viii. 20.)

But it is hard to suppose that either David or his successor believed that the "everlasting covenant" was fulfilled in the person of Solomon. If, indeed, we suppose (and why should we not?) that the words of the text were literally a part of the "last words" that David ever spoke, then it will be plain that he did not (in his dying hour at least) believe Solomon to be that son of his, concerning whom the everlasting covenant was made. For while Solomon was the anointed and throned king (1 Kings i. 32-35), David describes a righteous king (alluding to the promised seed), and adds, 66 THOUGH MY HOUSE BE NOT SO WITH God;" that is, though Solomon is not that king, "Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure;" that is, I shall have such a son to sit on my throne, "though he make it not to grow;" that is, though there is no immediate prospect of the

fulfilment of this covenant. But whether the words of the text were, or were not spoken, after Solomon began to reign (1 Kings i. 46), it is plain that the covenant was not fulfilled in him, because the prophets continually speak of it as unfulfilled after his death.

For example. "Thus saith the Lord, If ye can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season, then may also MY COVENANT BE BROKEN WITH DAVID my servant,

THAT HE SHOULD NOT HAVE A SON TO REIGN UPON

HIS THRONE." (Jer. xxxiii. 20.)

It was this very covenant that gave rise to the national and general belief that their promised Messiah should reign as a temporal king. Many of the texts which Christians now adduce, with one consent, as prophecies of Christ, were by the Jews regarded (and justly regarded) as repeated assurances of the literal fulfilment of that "everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure." For instance, when a Jew read in Isaiah ix. 7, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, UPON THE THRONE OF DAVID, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever,"when a Jew read such a passage as that, he

thought (as all Christians do) that it spoke indeed of his Messiah, but he thought also that it spoke of a literal successor on the throne of David. And this was the view with which they read the Prophet Ezekiel, when he says (xxxiv. 23), "I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them; even my servant David, he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and MY SERVANT DAVID A PRINCE among them." And (xxxvii. 24), "DAVID MY SERVANT SHALL BE KING OVER THEM, and they all shall have one shepherd; they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children for ever, and мY SERVANT DAVID SHALL BE THEIR PRINCE FOR EVER." The Jews understood all this literally. They very reasonably supposed this to be no other than the repetition of that promise which had been given to David. This was their belief, from the time of David to their captivity - during their captivity—after their return-and, in short, till Christ himself came into the world. In whatever part of their history we search, we find the same belief prevailing.