Last words should be intensely meaningful, a distillation of the lessons that life has taught us.
“These are the last words of David” (2 Sam 23:1). Being uniquely positioned to describe how a shepherd boy became a king, David pinpoints the characteristics of a man after God’s heart. He is a man who understands both his humble origins as “the son of Jesse” and his elevation to divine privilege as “the man raised up on high.” But it was more than position he had; it was possession—“the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel” (v 1). A thousand years before Paul wrote of the relationship between the Spirit’s filling and the saint’s singing (Eph 5:18-19), David saw the same link. Of course, God’s man must also have God’s message. So he declares, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me” (2 Sam 23:2-3). What is God’s word to anyone thrust into spiritual leadership? “He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God” (v 3). Clearly there is a direct relationship between how we treat people and how we trust God. Reverence for the Lord results in righteous decisions and deeds towards His creatures. And the result in such a man’s life? “He shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, like the tender grass springing out of the earth” (v 4). You will be transparent in the light and abundant in the life. But wait! “Although my house is not so with God” (v 5). Only one Man ever qualified to be God’s perfect Servant. The rest of us? It’s only by His grace! “Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire” (v 5). If we want what He wants, He will give us those desires, and will defend us all the way Home.