The Blessings of David

Jesus is the descendant of David and heir to the royal Throne, the Anointed Son of God, and the Servant of Yahweh who redeems his people. The Gospel of Matthew declares Jesus to be the promised “Son of David.” This same Jesus demonstrated what it means to be the Messiah and the King of Israel when he sacrificed his life “to ransom many.” The ideal king was linked to the House of David in Scripture; however, with the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth, the traditional understanding of kingship was altered forever.

The “Son of David” is more than the ruler of Israel or God’s appointed king over the nations. God anointed him with His Spirit rather than olive oil, and Christ thus became a Messiah who differed radically from popular expectations. This is emphasized by Scripture’s identification of him as the suffering “Servant of Yahweh.”

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Scriptural citations and verbal allusions are applied by the Gospel of Matthew to establish Christ’s messianic status and Davidic credentials. For example, at his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus “like a dove,” and the voice from Heaven declared, “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I delight.”

Matthew’s description combines words and images from several messianic passages and predictions about the Servant of the Lord who would bear the sins of his people:

• “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. And behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” - (Matthew 3:17).

• “Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, You are my son! This day, I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession” – (Psalm 2:6-8).

• “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom My soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations” - (Isaiah 42:1).

• “The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” – (Matthew 20:28, alluding to Isaiah 53:13 – “Because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he carried the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors”).

In the birth narratives of the Gospel of Luke we also find the Messiah associated with God’s promises to the household of King David:

• “And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive and bring forth a son, and you will call his name Jesus.  He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the Throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end” – (Luke 1:30-32).

• “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and wrought redemption for his people. And He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” – (Luke 1:68-69).

After his Death and Resurrection, we read how the Church continued to connect Jesus with David. The Apostle Paul, for example, proclaimed Christ’s descent from David in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch:

• “And we bring you good tidings of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled the same for our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the Second Psalm, you are my Son. This day, I have begotten you. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thusly, I will give you the holy and trustworthy things of David. Because he declares also in another psalm, You will not give your Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep and was laid to his fathers, and he saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption” - (Acts 13:32-37).

• “When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you that will proceed from your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” - (2 Samuel 7:13).

Jesus of Nazareth is the anointed son who brings the promised blessings to us, including the Gift of the Spirit. The Spirit guarantees our inheritance of and participation in the “trustworthy things of David.” They have been secured for us by the self-sacrificial death of Jesus, “the Servant of Yahweh,” and the Gift of the Spirit is the foretaste or “first fruits” of the inheritance – (Romans 8:23).

Christ also fulfills the roles of the Davidic King who was opposed by the nations and of the suffering Servant of Yahweh who was “cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of My people” – (Isaiah 53:8).

• “One of the elders said to me, Weep not! Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome to open the scroll and its seven seals. And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb, standing as though slain” – (Revelation 5:5-6).

The roles of king and servant cannot be understood apart from each other. God appointed the Suffering Servant to be King. Jesus is the conquering Lion of Judah, but it is the sacrificial Lamb who undertakes that mission. Christ became King because he submitted to an unjust death and thereby brought redemption to Israel and the nations:

• “Let all the house of Israel know that God has made him both Lord and Christ, even the same Jesus whom you crucified! <…> Repent, therefore, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will call” – (Acts 2:36-39).

• “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” – (Philippians 2:8-11).

• “And they sing a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation” – (Revelation 5:9).

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

The Second Psalm is applied by the writers of the New Testament to Jesus in his present role as the man anointed by God’s Spirit who reigns from the Messianic Throne. He qualified for this exalted position by dying on the Cross.

Christ endured the conspiracy to overthrow God’s Son as prophesied by the Psalmist when the religious leaders of Israel plotted to destroy him - The “chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus that they might put him to death” - (Matthew 26:59, 27:1).

This is how the early church interpreted the Second Psalm. After enduring threats from the priests and Sadducees, for example, Peter prayed:

• “O Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is, who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant, said, Why did the nations rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth in this city, against your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the nations and the people of Israel, were gathered to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to come to pass” - (Acts 4:24-28).

In the preceding passage, Peter combines the image of the Suffering Servant with that of the royal figure of the Second Psalm. It was not just the nations that raged against Jesus, but also the religious leaders of Israel. Christ was the heir of David anointed by God’s Spirit, but he endured persecution and death first for his people before his exaltation.

Jesus is the heir to the throne of David, but before his installation as King, he became the “Servant of Yahweh” who suffered and “gave his life as a ransom for many.” The Royal Road to Mount Zion must pass through Golgotha. Now, not only is he the Anointed King, but the promised Messiah who baptizes his people in the Spirit – (Mark 1:8).

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SEE ALSO:

• Son and Spirit - (Jesus is the Anointed Son of God, and from the start, his life was characterized by the empowering presence of the Spirit)

• Salvation of Yahweh - (Jesus means ‘Yahweh saves.’ In this Man of Nazareth, the Salvation promised by the God of Abraham and Israel has arrived for all men)

• The Anointed Son - (The Spirit of God and the voice from heaven confirmed that Jesus is God’s Son, the Messiah, and the Servant of Yahweh)

• King and Servant - (Following his baptism, the voice from Heaven identified Jesus as God’s Son and the Suffering Servant of the LORD)