“If my house were not right with God, surely he would not have made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part; surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire. – 2 Samuel 23:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 17, 2016): 2 Samuel 23

“We cannot achieve more in life than what we believe in our heart of hearts we deserve to have.” At least, according to James Ball, this is the truth. And it makes a kind of sense. If we don’t think we deserve something, sometimes we just don’t pursue it. I see it all the time – people who simply don’t apply for jobs because deep down they just think that they don’t deserve it, or if they do apply, somehow they succeed in sabotaging themselves. After all, don’t we get absolutely what it is that we deserve – and no more.

This theme of getting what we deserve seems to be David’s message in his final Psalm. Because his house is right with God, God has made an everlasting covenant with David; God has ordered and secured David’s future and the future of his house. But there is a problem with that interpretation. First, even David knows that not everything that he has done in his life was God approved. Yet God has stuck by David. And second, his house was secured even though there was sin in many of the kings who followed David. And even though eventually God would allow Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to carry the House of David into exile because of their disobedience, David is right that it was an everlasting covenant that God had made with the House of David. God was going to honor the House of David by sending the Messiah from that House.

But the passage is actually more ambiguous than we realize. While the NIV chooses to phrase this Psalm as David believing that his house deserved the everlasting covenant with God, the King James translation actually translates this passage in the reverse. According to the King James –

Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow (2 Samuel 23:5 KJV).

Maybe sometimes we actually do get more than we deserve.

In this case, the King James translation of this verse actually fits better with what we know as reality. Ball is wrong. Sometimes we do get more than we deserve. The bottom line is that most of us wonder around hoping that we can fool everyone else in our lives. Because, deep down, we don’t think that we measure up - we don’t deserve the love and the forgiveness that we need, yet we get it anyway. All because God remains faithful to his promises.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 108