Read: 1 Chronicles 14:1-17; Philippians 2:10-11
The fame of David went out into all lands. (1 Chron. 14:17)
One of my favorite hymns is “Jesus Shall Reign.” The song expresses longing for the day when every creature will recognize the honors of Christ as king. It originated in the early eighteenth century during the modern Protestant missionary movement when it appeared that the Christian faith would penetrate every culture and land.
The writer of Chronicles does not tell everything about King David such as David’s relationship with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). He doesn’t specifically include King David dancing in only a linen ephod before the ark of the Lord (6:14, 16). His readers in 400 BC, more than five hundred years after King David, knew those stories very well. The Chronicler’s audience faced a hostile population and spiritual apathy. He wanted to accent not the faults of David, but the fame of King David (v. 17). The writer wanted his people to focus on the power and strength of God rather than the weakness of David, which foreshadows the cross of Jesus when the power of God was made known in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Similarly, today as Christians we may not have the cultural force that we once did. Yet we’re not meant to focus on our limitations but rather on the power of God that can work in and through us. We long for the day when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:10-11).
As you pray, ask that God’s fame will one day be known in every land.
About the Author
Kent Fry is a retired pastor and visiting research fellow at the Van Raalte Institute in Holland Michigan.
