“Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow.”
(2nd Samuel 23:5)

King David knew his own sinfulness and impotence to save himself. He knew the depravity of all men by nature and the impossibility of any person being and made right with God by their works. He knew the sad state of his earthly family and kingdom, yet he expressed here an assurance of salvation and eternal life for himself. How could he be so sure and not be presumptuous or self-righteous? It was because of the “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.” This is the everlasting covenant of God’s grace which was set in order by Him before the foundation of the world. It was a sure covenant because the Lord Jesus Christ was (and is) the Surety of the covenant. All of its requirements, conditions, and demands were placed upon Christ, not upon David or any other sinful human being. God’s elect are certain to be saved because all the promises and blessings of this covenant are in Christ (2nd Corinthians 1:20; Ephesians 1:3). This is the Gospel covenant made sure by the blood of Christ whereby He paid the entire debt of the sins of His people owed to God’s justice. His righteousness is the ground of the certainty of the salvation of all God’s chosen people. 

David’s words in the time of his death reveal much as to what a believer’s comfort is at all times. David was a king and a prophet. He did great and mighty things by the power of God. He was a man after God’s own heart. Yet, with all he did, it was all marred and polluted by sin. He was also an adulterer, a murderer, and a sinner in heart. There was no comfort in himself, in what he’d done or in his circumstances around him. How could he live or die in peace?

His comfort was in the covenant. It was in the pledge and covenant of God who does not lie or change. God’s covenant with His people is an “everlasting covenant.” It was made before David ever breathed his first breath and God included and ordered all things pertaining to the salvation of David the sinner. His comfort was in the fact that God has already made this covenant of His grace and mercy “sure” in One who stood as the Surety of it, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the promise of God to save and bless His people placing all the securing of it into the hands of the Mediator of the Covenant, Christ Jesus. David, like every true believer did not cease to grieve over his sins; but above that, he was enabled by the Spirit of God to rejoice and find comfort in His Saviour. Like David, the covenant people of God find in this covenant all their salvation. Finding all, they want no more and need no more. God is perfectly satisfied and we are perfectly satisfied; all in the same God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the Sheep, in the blood of the everlasting covenant. By the blood of the Lamb, the covenant is confirmed (Daniel 9:26) and all things pertaining to our salvation is secured. This is all the believer’s desire. Christ is our desire for God has said of His holy One, “I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people.” (Isaiah 49:8) Christ is the Covenant and God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Him. He alone at any and all time is our comfort. Covenant comfort!

G. Shepard