Trusting God’s Unconditional Faithfulness

Devotional Reflection, Monday, August 4, 2025

Proper 13, the week of the eighth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Phrase for reflection from today’s reading:

11b Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

You will find the full text of today’s Hebrew Scripture reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 978)

AM Psalm 80; PM Psalm 77, [79]

2 Samuel 7:1-17; Acts 18:1-11; Mark 8:11-21

David's Reflections

The play on words in verses 11-13 forms the heart of this remarkable passage.  In verse 11, God promises David that he will build for David an enduring "house" or dynasty.  David's dynastic succession to the kingship would endure forever.  In verse 13, God has Nathan tell David that his successor as king will build for God a "house" or temple.  David's desire to build a temple for God's worship will not be realized during David's reign but during that of his successor.  (Solomon, David's son, did indeed build the temple).

God's gracious love brings forth the unconditional promise that David's dynasty will abide forever.  If David's successors disobeyed God they would suffer discipline, but they would not be removed as was Saul’s, David's predecessor, whose sons (with the exception of the youngest, a child lame from infancy) died with him in combat with the Philistines, thus ending the possibility of a dynasty.  God had established David as king through Samuel's anointing.  He was God's choice; the kingship was God's gift.  So would it be with the dynasty.  God would establish and preserve it apart from human striving, human merit, or human ingenuity.

        David’s dynasty ended with the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 587 BCE, which precipitated a crisis of interpretation among biblical writers in light of this unconditional promise. Among the several attempts to reconcile the end of the dynasty with God’s promise that it would endure, Isaiah’s response was to proclaim that the dynasty would be renewed. The Christian take on Isaiah sees Isaiah’s hope realized in the coming of Jesus, a descendant of David.

I find these images of God encouraging--God the house-builder.  God the promise-maker and promise-keeper.  Any promise made to us by God involves that same graciousness apart from our ingenuity, striving, or merit.  Our behavior does not guarantee that God's promises will be kept; rather, it is God's gracious love that brings divine promises to fulfillment.

Think, for example, of the promises made to us in Holy Baptism, that we are buried with Christ in his death and will share in his resurrection and that the Holy Spirit brings the power and life of the resurrection into our experience now.  The promises themselves and the Holy Spirit bring that hope for tomorrow into our present experience; the promises pull us forward into their fulfillment.  We do not merely hope or wish for the certainty of resurrection life; we know it.

Jürgen Moltmann  has  said it so well:

In his promise, the coming God, casts an advance radiance of his future into the present, and determines the present by the hope which his promise awakens. The promise awakens a prevenient understanding of the fulfillment.  More than that: a promise of God's is a pledge and a covenant which binds the one who promises, and makes it possible to claim his faithfulness to that promise.  One must be able to depend on a promise, for promises must be kept, as every child knows.*

Like the biblial writers at the fall of the Davidic dynasty, we may struggle with trusting God’s faithfulness. What promises of God seem to have failed? Can you revisit your understanding of those promises? Have you misunderstood? Can you reframe the promise for the future? Can you see the promise realized in an unexpected way? Can you see any hints that the promise may indeed be coming into fulfillment? Can you bring your sense of God’s failure into God’s presence in prayer and ask for wisdom? Our faith is that any promise God makes God keeps. We can depend on God to welcome us with our questions and our struggles.

* Jürgen Moltmann, Experiences in Theology:  Ways and Forms of Christian Theology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis:  Fortress, 2000), pp. 54-55.

The Collect of the Day, Proper 13, the eighth Sunday after Pentecost

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 231)

A Collect for the Renewal of Life

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 99)

For Local Government

Almighty God our heavenly Father, send down upon those who hold office in this State (Commonwealth, City, County, Town, __________ ) the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice; that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their

offices to promote the well-being of all people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 822)

A Prayer for Light

Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)

Daily Office Old Testament Reading, 2 Samuel 7:1-17

7:1Now when the king was settled in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2the king said to the prophet Nathan, "See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent." 3Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that you have in mind; for the LORD is with you."

4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: 5Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6I have not lived  in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" 8Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. 17In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer 

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer 

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer