God gives promises to David

7 The king was living in his palace. The Lord kept him safe from all his enemies everywhere. ² One day, the king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘I am living in a beautiful palace that is made of cedar wood. But God's Covenant Box still has a tent for its home!’

³ Nathan replied to the king, ‘Do what you think is right. The Lord will help you.’

⁴ But that night the Lord said to Nathan, ⁵ ‘Go and tell my servant David,

“The Lord says this: Do not think that you are the right man to build a house for me to live in. ⁶ From the time that I brought Israel's people out of Egypt until now, I have never lived in a house. While my people moved from place to place, I travelled with them. I lived in a tent as my home. ⁷ I have moved about to many different places with the Israelite people. I chose leaders to take care of Israel's tribes, like shepherds for them. But in all that time, I never said to any of the leaders, ‘You should have built a beautiful house of cedar wood for me.’

⁸ So tell my servant David that the Lord Almighty says this: I took you from the fields where you were taking care of sheep. I took you from there to become the ruler of my people Israel. ⁹ I have been with you everywhere that you have gone. I destroyed all your enemies that were attacking you. Now I will make you famous. Your name will be as great as the names of the earth's greatest men.

¹⁰ I have chosen a place where my people Israel will live. I have put them in that place, where they can be safe. They will not be afraid of trouble from any enemy. Wicked people will not hurt them any more. That happened in the past, ¹¹ from the time that I chose leaders to rule my people Israel. But now I will keep you safe from all your enemies.

I, the Lord, say to you, David: I will give you descendants who will rule as kings after you. That will be the royal house that I build for you! ¹² When you die, people will bury you in the grave of your ancestors. Then I will choose your descendant, one of your own sons, to become king. I will make his kingdom strong. ¹³ He is the man who will build a house for me. People will give honour to my name there. I will cause his descendants to rule as kings for ever. ¹⁴ I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does something wrong, I will punish him, so that he learns to do what is right. I will punish him in the way that human fathers punish their sons. ¹⁵ I removed my faithful love from Saul, and I removed him as king before you. But I will always continue to faithfully love your son. ¹⁶ The kingdom that your descendants rule will continue for ever. Someone from your family will always be king.” ’

¹⁷ Nathan told David the whole message that God had shown to him.

David prays

¹⁸ Then King David went into the Lord's tent.^[a] He sat down and he prayed to the Lord.

He said, ‘Almighty Lord, I am not a special person and my family is not special. You have helped me very much and I do not deserve it. ¹⁹ You have also made a promise about the descendants in my family, Almighty Lord. You have promised to help them in the future, as well as me. I am only a man but you have shown this to me, Almighty Lord.

²⁰ I am your servant, Almighty Lord, and you know me completely. There is nothing more that I can say. ²¹ Because of your covenant you have chosen to do all these great things. You have told me, your servant, what you promise to do. ²² Almighty Lord, you are very great. There is nobody like you. You alone are God. What we have heard about you is true! ²³ There is no other nation on earth like your people, Israel. We are the only nation that you have rescued so that we would belong to you. You did that to show that your name is great. You did great miracles to rescue your people from Egypt where they were slaves. Then you chased out other nations and their gods from the land that you were giving to your people. ²⁴ You chose Israel to be your own people for all time. You, Lord, became our God.

²⁵ Lord God, please do the things that you have promised to do for me, your servant, and for my family. Continue to do for ever what you have promised to do. ²⁶ Then people will always give honour to your great name. They will say, “The Lord Almighty is the God who rules over Israel!” And David's descendants will continue to serve you as kings.

²⁷ Lord Almighty, Israel's God, you have made this promise to me, your servant. You have said to me, “You will always have descendants who will rule. That is the house that I will build for you.” That is why I am not afraid to pray to you like this.

²⁸ Almighty Lord, you are the true God. We trust your promises. You have promised these good things to me, your servant. ²⁹ I pray that you will be pleased to bless my family and my descendants. Then we will serve you faithfully for ever. Almighty Lord, you have promised to do this. So I know that you will continue to bless my descendants for ever.’