Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
The above is Isaiah 55:4, a verse preceded by first telling all to come to these living waters and drink. The passage continues by saying all who do drink will live, and the LORD will make with them an everlasting Covenant. The Covenant is said to be the sure mercies of David, of who and what the title speaks. The phrase (the sure mercies of David), as we know, tells of the LORD (in the way of the title) correcting us into right standing (reconciling us to Himself) by His voice and His mercy; as opposed to Saul, from whom the LORD took away his right to reign over His people and nation (church and state).
This passage leads us into deep waters, first flowing from 1 Samuel 25, which itself leads us to Psalms 110. The course then takes us into the answer to the question the religious leaders couldn’t answer; their ignorance as a stone cast from David’s sling. The question appears in Matthew 22 and is the LORD speaking of Christ as David’s son, which is manifested as revealing His authority, as the Father makes the son’s enemies His footstool.
Matthew 22
31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. [This is speaking of the fathers always being alive in the offspring: the means of the resurrection.]
33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished [ekplesso, meaning to smite away, as if struck, in the head, by a stone from a sling] at his doctrine.
34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees [by describing the living as those resurrected] to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him [doubting he was the Christ – God with us in man], and saying,
36 Master [Teacher], which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself [showing mercy, as is most often asked for and shown by the LORD, as he is called the son of David – again referring to David and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25].
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
42 Saying, What think you of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David.
43 He said unto them, How then does David in spirit call him LORD, saying,
44 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you on my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool [quoted from Psalms 110:1, which is the point of the question]?
45 If David then call him LORD, how is he his son?
46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. [Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.]
Deuteronomy 29
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant [as in Isaiah 55, and the sure mercies of David], and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10 You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood unto the drawer of your water:
12 That you should enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day:
13 That he may establish you to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto you a God, as he has said unto you, and as he has sworn unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that stands here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
16 (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which you passed by;
17 And you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;
19 And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst [as did Nabal: his name meaning he was a fool]:
20 The LORD will not spare him [as He didn’t Nabal], but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:
22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid upon it;
23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore has the LORD done thus unto this land? what means the heat of this great anger?
25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant [the correction into right standing, by these living {life-giving} waters] of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
28 And the LORD rooted them out [by the revelation of His secret things, His word He has reserved for this moment, this time of war against those who think they are giants, who even exalt themselves above the LORD] of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Isaiah 55
1 Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader [nagiyd] and commander to the people.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run unto you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.
6 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, say the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
The Hebrew word negiyd, in verse 4 above, is speaking of David, and referring us to the meaning of the sure mercies as described in 2 Samuel 7, which also tells of the pattern of the son, who is Christ formed in us in this way, as we are reconciled to God by a like mind.
2 Samuel 7
…Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler [negiyd] over my people, over Israel:
9 And I was with you whithersoever you went, and have cut off all your enemies out of your sight, and have made you a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.
10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,
11 And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the LORD tells you that he will make you a house.
12 And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you: your throne shall be established for ever.
As we have seen, when Psalms 110 begin by saying, “The LORD said unto my LORD” the words rendered LORD are Jehovah and ‘adown, the latter meaning a ruler, the head lifted over all God’s people. These names are used multiple times in 1 Samuel 25 in describing Jehovah and David, none more descript than when verse 29 says, “but the soul of my LORD [‘adown] shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD [Jehovah] your God.”
1 Samuel 25
1 And Samuel [who heard God – as in 1 Samuel 3:10] died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah [in the city on a hill]. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran [where God makes thing clear, by explanation – see Habakkuk 3:3].
2 And there was a man in Maon [in the house of God], whose possessions were in Carmel [in the place the LORD planted]; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3 Now the name of the man was Nabal [fool – wicked]; and the name of his wife Abigail [whose father {God} is her joy]: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb [dogs].
4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal [fool – making merchandise of the flock] did shear his sheep.
5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:
6 And thus shall you say to him that lives in prosperity [the pattern of the thieving TV preacher types – making merchandise of the flock], Peace be both to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be unto all that you have.
7 And now I have heard that you have shearers: now your shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.
8 Ask your young men, and they will show you. Wherefore let the young men find favor in your eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray you, whatsoever comes to your hand unto your servants, and to your son David.
9 And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.
10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse [who is the son who is to possess all – see Colossians 1:16 below]? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.
11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?
12 So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.
13 And David said unto his men, Gird you on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.
14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.
15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:
16 They were a wall [this is the wall later spoken of in verse 22 & 34 – against which these men let out their drunkenness – as does the fool {Nabal} in verse 37 below] unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
17 Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.
18 Then Abigail made haste [to come out of the house of David’s enemy, to ask for mercy, and become David’s footstool], and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.
20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert on the hill, and, behold, David and his men [I and the children God has given me] came down against her; and she met them.
21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he has requited me evil for good.
22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that urinates [lets out the waters of his drunkenness] against the wall [those who’ve done them no wrong, who can be trusted, because in their mouths is found no guile].
23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground [and became as David’s footstool],
24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my LORD, upon me let this iniquity be: and let your handmaid, I pray you, speak in your audience, and hear the words of your handmaid.
25 Let not my LORD, I pray you, regard this man of Belial [those who’ve replace God with their own creations {idols}], even Nabal [the wicked and foolish]: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I your handmaid saw not the young men of my LORD, whom you did send.
26 Now therefore, my LORD, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, seeing the LORD has withheld you from coming to shed blood, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies, and they that seek evil to my LORD, be as Nabal.
27 And now this blessing which your handmaid has brought unto my LORD, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my LORD.
28 I pray you, forgive the trespass of your handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my LORD a sure house; because my LORD fights the battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in you all your days.
29 Yet a man is risen to pursue you, and to seek your soul: but the soul of my LORD shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God; and the souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my LORD according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you ruler [negiyd] over Israel;
31 That this shall be no grief unto you, nor offence of heart unto my LORD, either that you have shed blood causeless, or that my LORD has avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my LORD, then remember your handmaid.
32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent you this day to meet me:
33 And blessed be your advice, and blessed be you, which have kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
34 For in very deed, [God showing mercy, to and from the merciful – the sure mercies of David and Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.] as the LORD God of Israel lives [giving the meaning to verse 29], which has kept me back from hurting you, except you had hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that urinates against the wall.
35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to your house; see, I have hearkened to your voice, and have accepted your person.
36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.
38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.
39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept his servant from evil: for the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.
40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke unto her, saying, David sent us unto you, to take you to him to wife.
41 And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my LORD.
42 And Abigail hasted, and arose and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.
43 David also took Ahinoam [his brethren who please God] of Jezreel [those who God has sown]; and they were also both of them his wives.
44 But Saul [the desire of God’s people] had given Michal [from where the false word of God flowed] his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti [delivered them] the son of Laish [to the crushing of the lion’s mouth], which was of Gallim [which are their corrupt springs].
Verse 37 above tells us the fool and the wicked (Nabal) become as a stone, referring back to verse 29 where we are told of the enemies (as stone from a sling) cast out. We next see in verse 39, this is when the LORD “returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head,” like the stone sunk deep into the forehead of Goliath.
Christ is David’s son, as David became the son of God by the same mind (heart).
Acts 13
…I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.
23 Of this man’s seed has God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus:
24 When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think you that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there comes one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.
26 Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you fears God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.
28 And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
29 And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher.
30 But God raised him from the dead:
31 And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
33 God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.
34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
35 Wherefore he says also in another psalm, You shall not suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
41 Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.
Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
The brook is the same (nachal) from where David picked his stones. The head that is lifted up is the son of David, who is the son of man and the son of God.
1 Samuel 17
43 And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44 And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
45 Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46 This day will the LORD deliver you into mine hand; and I will smite you, and take your head from you; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.
48 And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came, and drew nigh to meet David, that David hastened, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
49 And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
51 Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
Psalms 2
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD has said unto me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Colossians 1
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
