While wondering what to post about at the very end of this month, I stumbled across the Devotions page on Biblehub.com. From there, I jumped to 2 Samuel 7:25, and then the full chapter of 2 Samuel 7. It is a brief excerpt with a simple, yet profound message.
The verse 2 Samuel 7:25 reads “And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.”
Reading the rest of the chapter surrounding this verse reveals the context and the lesson, giving us insight into both the character of God and a man following His will. In this passage, David has decided it would be a good thing to build a dwelling place for the Lord, since the Ark has been carted around from place to place for quite some time. The Lord instructs the prophet Nathan to inform David that He does not want David to build Him a temple, but that his offspring will do so later and that an eternal kingdom to come will be established through David’s line. David is content with this, and even overjoyed. He rejoices that God’s plans for his life are greater than the plans he had devised himself, and thus he is blessed in the putting away of his own plans in submission to the greater plans of Adonai.
The lesson for us to learn from this passage is then clear. Sometimes we may attempt to do something for God of our own initiative, but God may have something else in mind to be done. That is not to say that what we intended was bad or ill-intentioned. Certainly not. On the contrary, if we are following the Lord and His ways, our plans should be good and well-intentioned. However, God’s plans will be better than ours, and thus it is good to submit to those greater plans. In fact, going along with God’s plans will bring about even greater joy for us and everyone else than our own plans would have, being made separate from His.
With that said, it’s time to write a poem on all this.
Prepare in me, O Lord, a willing heart;
One always seeking good to do
Yet also ready to depart
When thou hast for me something new.
Let me not cling to mine own plans
When there may be something greater still
That You would make by both our hands
Guiding mine to do what is Thy will.
This way, may I, always come to be
Your instrument by which You play
The great songs of all that is to see;
The music that does make each day.
For I do know you see more than I
No matter how I am to seek
For Yours is much the greater eye
And I, the student, of Your technique.
And to change course from one's own way
When a better path is to be found
Is never a source of dismay
No matter what has yet been bound.
For better still is God's design
Than ever should I make alone
What better way than one divine;
Carved by He upon the throne?
And what is my wish for all that be,
But to align my will to His?
The One whose hands gave shape to me;
The One who made all that there is.
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