21 JANUARY (PREACHED NEW YEAR’S EVENING 1770)
Bridging the generation gap
‘And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind …’ 1 Chronicles 28:9
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Deuteronomy 11:1–25
David was a man of great experience, and though upon some occasions he showed himself to be a poor, sinful man like others, yet the prevalence of his zeal and spirituality gave him the honourable title of the man after God’s own heart. He was warmly devoted to the Lord, preferred the light of his countenance to all earthly joys, and felt a concern for the honour of his name, worship and people, to the close of his life. The Lord greatly prospered him in many respects, and yet exercised him with many sharp trials. The sharpest of these were perhaps those he met with in his own family. One of his sons, Amnon, wickedly defiled his own sister, which afterwards cost him his life at a drunken feast. Absalom, another of his sons, rose up in rebellion against his own father. A third, Adonijah, attempted by fraud to possess the kingdom. The history of David’s family affords a caution to parents, not to connive at sin in their children, and a caution to youth, not to give way to their headstrong and ungoverned passions.
We have only the names of several of his children, but his principal hope and comfort was Solomon. The words I have read are his dying charge to this dear child. He was soon to take upon him the care and government of a great people, in the discharge of which he would need much wisdom, and a peculiar blessing. The death of his father would soon leave him at full liberty, and at the same time deprive him of an affectionate and experienced guide. But in my text David points out to him a resource for every difficulty, a supply for every want: Know thou the God of thy father and serve him and it shall be well with thee.
FOR MEDITATION: [written to be sung after this sermon]
O David’s Son, and David’s LORD!
Like David, when this life shall end,
From age to age thou art the same;
We trust in thee sure peace to find;
Thy gracious presence now afford,
Like him, to thee we now commend
And teach our youth to know thy name!
The children we must leave behind.
SERMON: 1 CHRONICLES 28:9 [1/5] [FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE]
