David's Charge to Solomon

If you got your Bible, turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 2. 1 Kings chapter 2, as we continue our study of the life of Solomon, looking at his success, looking at his setbacks, his sin And of course, his sadness That's where we are in the life of Solomon We looked at his birth in week number one Last week, we looked at the fact that he became king Over Israel And this week we look at David's charge to his son as he begins his ministry For the next forty years and what God has for him as David gives this charge to Solomon

Things that he wants them to understand, things he wants them to know, things he wants them to live out The most important words are our last words What do you have to say to your son or your daughter? That you might set in their mind what the legacy is they are to continue Every one of us has a legacy The question is: is that legacy one of truth? One of integrity, purity, and holiness? Or is it a legacy of sin and sadness? David wants to leave a legacy with his son

He knows that his son's going to continue on establishing the kingdom and to take his name and the truth of God's word into the future And so he wants his son to understand those things And so this is what he says: 1 Kings 2, verse number 1 Reads as follows As David David's time to die drew near He charged Solomon his son, saying, I am going the way of all the earth Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man

Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to what is written in the law of Moses. that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn so that the Lord may carry out his promises which he spoke concerning me, saying, If your sons are careful of their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man On the throne of Israel

Now you also know that Joab, the son of Zer, did to me what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel. to Abner the son of Ner, and to Am the son of Jath, whom he killed, he also shed the blood of war and peace, and he put the blood of war on his belt around his waist. and on his sandals, and on his feet So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to She in peace But show kindness to the sons of Bar, the Gile, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for they assisted me when I fled from Absalom, your brother

Behold, there is with you Shemme, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bah Now it was he who cursed me with a violent curse on the day I went to Mohammed But when he came down to me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword Now, therefore, do not let him go unpunished For you are a wise man, and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you will bring his gray hair down to She with blood Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David David has been ruling Israel for 40 years and six months

And he has had an incredible journey But that journey is coming to an end He knows it He's about to exit this life And enter into the next life And therefore, his ex is imminent Therefore, he has an exhortation he wants to give to his son That exhortation is important So, because his ex is imminent, he has words he wants to say The Bible tells us that David's life is coming to an end That he knows the way in which he's going to go David had the assurance of eternity David had the assurance that he was going to pass from this life into the presence of the living God

That's why he could very calmly speak to his son He know where he's going to be when he dies This is what he has said: Psalm 16 Verse number 8, I have set the Lord continually before me, because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices My flesh also will dwell securely For you will not abandon my soul to She, nor will you allow your holy one to undergo decay You will make known to me the path of life In your presence is fullness of joy In your right hand there are pleasures Forever

He also wrote in Psalm 17 these words, verse number 15: As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied with your likeness when I awake So, David knew that he was going to die He knew that when he died He would awake in the presence of his God That's why he wrote in that famous Psalm, Psalm number 23, these words: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me beside quiet waters He restores my soul He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake

And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me Your rod and your staff, they comfort me You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies You've anointed my head with oil My cup overflows Surely goodness And loving kind will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever Now, David knew that David knew he would dwell in God's house forever He had the assurance that once he passed from this life, he would enter into glory

Now, you can't help but think about what Saul would write in the book of Ecclesiastes in chapter 3, verse number 1, when he wrote There is a time for everything under the sun. A time to be born and a time to die When he wrote those words at the end of his life, I'm sure he would reflect back on the time of his father's death In fact, maybe that was the motivation for Ecclesiastes chapter 7 when he wrote these words Ecclesiastes 7, verse number 1, a good name is better than a good ointment And the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth

It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man And the living takes it To heart. I wonder if when Solomon wrote those words, the inspired word of God, that he would think back about his father's name, the good name of his father It's better than a good ointment that would come and go The perfume smell is here for a little while, then leaves, but the good name lasts forever And everyone's going to die There, if you build character and develop the kind of name that God wants you to have, it will last forever

The living take it to heart And I wonder if he would reflect back on his life and think about the fact that maybe he didn't take to heart all the words that his father said On those last days of his father's life You can't help but read the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Proverbs, without thinking about Solomon's interchange with his father Solomon's upbringing with his family and the reason he wrote the words he did in the book of Proverbs

Because so many things that he said reflect back on the life that he lived. I wonder if you have the ironclad assurance that David had that you will spend eternity with the living God The book of Amos says, Prepare to meet your God Are you prepared to meet the true and living God? Everybody meets him Are you prepared to meet him? I remember that when my father was diagnosed with ALS and we sat down and began to write out his memorial service He knew he was going to die He knew it was inevitable He didn't know how long he had

He knew he had somewhere between one and two years, maybe a little bit more than that, if the Lord would grant it to him But he knew he didn't have a long time In fact, I think he lived about 18 months after he was diagnosed with ALS But he knew he was going to die He was prepared to die He was not afraid To pass from this life to the next life Because he knew he would spend eternity with God He knew that he would dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life He knew that

So when we sat down and wrote a memorial service, we wrote it out so that the people who came would ask the question: Are you ready to die? Because everybody in the room will die But are you ready to die? That was the topic for his memorial service Are you ready to die? Think about those this past Sunday on that flight, that Ethiopian flight, that went down just minutes after it took off. I wonder if they were prepared to meet their God You know, some of us are diagnosed with an illness, and so we can sort of map out and plan out How things will end

We don't know how we're going to die necessarily We don't even know when we're going to die But we know that death is inevitable And yet there are times when there are tragedies that happen and people are taken unawares that that was their last day And those people who snapped on those seat bel and got ready for that trip to wherever they were going had no idea that just in a matter of minutes they would pass into eternity And probably for most part, I'm sure that most of them did not know the Lord Jesus Christ And that's unfortunate But David did David knew about the Messiah

David knew about the dwelling place with the living God He knew that's where he was going to go He was prepared His exit was imminent But he had no fear, no fear of dying And I tonight if you have a fear of dying You shouldn 't if you know the Lord You know where you're going You know you'll spend eternity with him David had that assurance Having that assurance, he could give an exhortation to his son that would be absolutely important for him. to grasp He needed to know ex what needed to happen in his kingship So David says these words: I'm going the way of all the earth

No news to you, Solomon. I'm about to die. I'm an old man My time is at hand Be strong, therefore, and show your a man What great words Be strong Be strong What did David have in mind when he said to his son Solomon, be strong? You're going to be the king of Israel In fact, you are the king of Israel You're anointed king over Israel To be the king, you got to be strong You can't be a weak king You can't be a, for lack of a better phrase, a girly king You got to be a manly king And you got to be strong

You got to be strong physically, you got to be strong mentally, you got to be strong emotionally, and you got to be strong spiritually But you got to be strong You can't afford to be weak physically, Solomon Kingship wears on you You can't afford to be weak when it comes to ruling a nation You have to be strong It's not that you got to go out and lift weights physically and build your body up David was a warrior David knew about strength David was a soldier He was a man of bloodshed He was a man of war That's why he couldn build the temple He was a man of bloodshed, a man of war

Solomon, on the other hand, was a man of peace But it didn't mean he didn't need to be strong He needed to be strong And I wonder if Solomon, when he wrote the book of Proverbs, would think about that when he wrote these words In the book of Proverbs, the sixth chapter, he said this: Go to the ant, O sluggard Observe her ways and be wise, which having no chief, officer, or ruler, prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest

How long will you lie down, O sl? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little rest? Of the hands to rest, or little folding of the hands to rest, your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man If you're going to be strong, you can't be a sluggard You can't be lazy You can't rule the kingdom and be lazy, right? He would go on to say these words: Proverbs 24, he says. I passed the field or the house of the sl, and by the vineyard, the family of the man lacking sense

And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles, its surface was covered with nettles, and stone wall was broken down When I saw, I reflected upon it, I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest Then your poverty will come as a robber and your want like an armed man Read the book of Proverbs See what Solomon has to say about the lazy man, the sluggard That's the weak man He has no discipline He lets his schedule control him He doesn't control his schedule And David says to Solomon, you need to be strong, my son

We know that Timothy is told by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:8, that bodily exercise profiteth little But it doesn't mean it doesn't profit It does profit, but only for a little while God is profitable for all things because godliness is profitable not just in this life, but in eternity Your physical prowess does you no good in eternity, but bodily exercise does profit a little And David says to his son, You need to be strong Because kingship wears on you You need to be strong, not just physically, but mentally You have to be mentally astute You have to be discerning

Twice in the passage, he says, Solomon, you are a wise man You are a wise son And we need to be strong mentally That's why the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4: that we need to be strong We need to be renewed in the spirit of our minds It's imperative that our minds become strong Paul would say in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 that we are to exam everything Abstain from that which is evil, cling to that which is good In other words, we are to be discerning Our minds need to be alert Our minds need to be strong You can't rule a kingdom and have a lazy mind Your mind must be astute

So be strong physically Be strong mentally Be strong emotionally You can't rule the kingdom And let people get under your skin You can't rule the kingdom and wear your emotions on your sleeve Because you can't please everybody in the kingdom You're going to make a decision, and a number of them are going to be happy. A number of them are not going to be happy And if you get emotionally wrapped up in that, You can't rule as a king needs to rule You must be strong em Remember what he wrote in the book of Proverbs? Again, Solomon wrote these words

Proverbs chapter 18, verse number 2. A fool does not delight in understand Doesn't want to know the facts, doesn't want to have the knowledge. A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing their own heart In other words, the foolish man wants to reveal everything in his heart He wants to let you know how he feels You got to know. I don't care about what's right or what's wrong. I don't care to understand the truth. I just want you to know how I feel on the inside That's more important to the foolish man than it is to the wise man

Solomon knows his father exhorts him to be strong emotionally, physically, mentally, but most importantly, he's got to be strong spiritually He has to be strengthened in the inner man He has to be strong when it comes to the ways of God He must be strong Spiritually For that to happen, it involves saturation and submission Saturation to all that God says, so that you can submit yourself To all that he designs for you You must be strong spiritually You must know your God You must be able to have spiritual strength Over and over again, the Bible speaks about being strengthened in the Inner man

The Bible talks about those who know their God, display strength Take action Strength is associated with knowing who God is, Daniel 11:3 And those who know their God, they display that strength, they are able to take action What kind of action? Whatever action is necessary to accomplish the will of God Whatever action is necessary to make sure that God is glorified Whatever action is necessary to make sure that God is put on But only the people who know God can display that kind of strength Solomon needs to be able to display that to the people of Israel

He is leading a nation, right? He's just not leading his family He's leading the entire nation He must be strong physically, mentally, emotionally, but most of all, he must be strong. spiritually He must know his God He must understand his God. 1 Chronicles 28, verse number 9, David says, Know the God of your Father Know him Why? Because if you don't know God, you can't be strong spiritually It's life's most important pursuit It's life's most impassioned pursuit It's life's most impressionable pursuit You must know your God You must be strong, Solomon What a word of exhortation

And David doesn't elaborate on it He just simply says, Solomon, you got to be strong You must be And strength includes showing yourself a man You got to be a man, Solomon Yes, you're a king Yes, you're going to be a father Yes, you're going to be a husband But you need to show yourself. A man Well, you know, I wish that we could get that across in the church today of Jesus Christ That men need to be men But we have more men wearing skirts and more women wearing pants than ever before in the history of our nation And we have more men feminized than ever before And that's unfortunate

Show yourself a man You know, it's interesting to note that, you know These are words similar to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:13 He says, act like men and be strong Paul would echo the words of David in the church at Corinth The church at Corinth needed to act like grown-ups Needed to act mature, act like men At the same time, they needed to be strong And that strength would include their spiritual sustenance, their ability to discern between what is right and wrong and good and evil

But is it not true that that's the way we need to be? And, you know, a number of years ago, we did a series entitled Act Like Men Remember that? That men act purposefully They have a purpose in life They know where they're going They know what they're about And they act proactively That is, they are always the aggressor in a good way They don't act reactively, they act pro But isn it interesting that men today are becoming more and more passive than ever before? Do you know that passivity happ because we're soft on sin? Proactivity happens when you're strong against sin You mark that down

You show me a passive man, and I'll show you a man who's soft on sin You show me a proactive man, and I'll show you a man who's strong against sin But that's usually the trend That's usually the way it goes The reason we're passive is because uh, you know, some might sin, might not sin, it might not be so bad, it's okay, you know, not so big a deal But a strong man is strong against sin, he's proactive, he confronts it The passive man Kind of lets it ride because he's soft And unfortunately, we got a lot more soft men than we have strong men We have a lot more passive men than proactive men

And that's unfortunate We need to be strong We need to be manly men Remember? Growing up, there was that Irish Spring commercial, Irish Spring Soap Gotta be a manly man Remember that? I'm probably dating myself here. I'm not sure you remember that, do you, babe? But I'm cannot deal with myself But you know, you to be a manly man Whatever happened to the manly man in the church, where has he gone? See? But David echoed the same sentiments over three thousand years ago You got to show yourself a man You got to be strong, son You can't be weak After all, you're the king You're the king

And you got to show yourself a man because you've got people following you You have soldiers who follow you You have people in the palace who follow you You have sons and daughters that follow you They need to know what manhood looks like Don't you want your sons to be men, strong men? Proactive men, men that stand on convictions, men that don't bow to every whim that comes their way. I know that those of you who are fathers, who have sons, you want them to grow up, I would trust, to be strong men because they are the gener of the church They're your legacy that is to continue on your name

And you want them to be able to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might If you do anything, gentlemen, produce, reproduce str young men Don't reproduce weak, passive men That does the church no good No good We need to be strong spiritually We need to know our God We need to live for our God And David is concerned about his kingdom He's concerned about the future of his kingdom He knows his son is going to carry on his legacy David was known as a man after God's own heart In spite of all of his sin, he was a repentant man He never sought revenge

That's what characterizes a man after God's own heart He never seeks revenge, and he always repents when he sins And that's what David did And David was a man of God He wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and be a man of God Be manly Live the life that honors God Remember what Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:11? But you, O man of God Flee these things Be a running man, Timothy And by the way, Timothy is the only person in the New Testament specifically called a man of God Not that Paul wasn't a man of God, he was Not that Peter wasn't a man of God, he was

But Timothy was actually called a man of God by the Apostle Paul But you, O man of God, Timothy, you need to show yourself a man How do you do that? You flee from these things You flee the love of money You flee idolatry You flee impurity You flee adultery You flee all kinds of iniquity You fle And you pursue righteousness, you pursue faith, you pursue love, you pursue those things that are godly virtues, and you will show yourself a man You keep the commandments without spot, without blemish, without wrinkle, and you will show yourself a man Timothy, you are a man of God Act like a man of God

That should be the exhortation across the board in the church of Jesus Christ The men of our church, not just Christ Community Church, but any church, need to be strong men of God Paul would say that 2 Timothy 3:1 and 17 to young Timothy that the word of God, because it's inspired and it's profitable for all things, for instruction Righteousness, so that the man of God will be complete and thoroughly furnished You want to be a man of God? Then you look at God's Word as the sole sustenance of your being

That it will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go, so that you, as a man, will be thoroughly furnished for every work that God gives to you, whether it's being a father Being a husband, being a leader, being an employer, being an employee, being a coach, being a teacher, being a doctor, being whatever it is you want to be or whatever God's called you to be God's Word will equip you to do that for the glory of His kingdom

He says in verse number three Keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to what is written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do, and wherever you turn Wow! Imagine that Listen, son, I want you to be successful. I want you to succeed in whatever you do and wherever you turn He's not giving that exhortation to a pastor He's giving an exhortation to the king of Israel He's saying, Look, you want to be successful in whatever you do

And wherever you turn, you keep the testimonies, you keep the statutes, you keep the commandments, pers, persistency, persistency You keep, you keep, you keep, and you keep on keeping those Isn't it interest? We read this on Sunday morning, referring back to Deuteronomy 17, verse number 18 It shall come about when he sits on the throne that is of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of his law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priest It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God

Be carefully, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes That his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel In other words, God gave a rule for the kings to write down the law The Pentateuch, and then to observe it, and to keep it, and to read it all the days of his life David now is reiterating

What Moses said in the book of Deuteronomy to a son to keep the statutes, to make sure you're in the word of the Lord, make sure you're doing what God's word says all the time Because this is what's going to make you a success, Timothy, Solomon It's going to make you successful Solomon knew that He knew, for he wrote in Proverbs 24, 3, and 4: By wisdom a house is built, by understanding it's established And by knowledge, all the rooms are filled with precious riches, precious and pleasant riches He knew success in the home

Was determined by the truth of God's word being lived out by those who occupy that home He knew that He also knew that when later in life his life was turned away from God He knew that the opportunity for success began to diminish because the women, the foreign women that he married, turned his heart away from God He knew that And so, David, who wrote so many different Psalms, the sweet singer of Israel Would know the importance of the Word of God in a Son's life You know He wanted to prepare his son for his future You know, we quoted earlier in the book of Amos: Prepare to meet your God

You know, we prepare our children To live We prepare them for their education We prepare them for becoming husbands and wives. fathers, mothers, we prepare our children that way But do we prepare them to meet their God? Do we prepare them for eternity? And do we prepare them for this life to live for the glory and honor of God? David, in just a few short words, wants his son to know he needs to be the king God wants him to be To be that king, he must be strong He must show himself a man

He must continue to be in and under the authority of God's word, reading, following, obeying, that he might understand what true success is True success is living out what God has already said Living out what God says without compromise That's success That honors God It lifts God And that's exactly, ex what David wants for his son Solomon He speaks to his character His exit was imminent His exhortation supremely important Because it dealt, first of all, with Solomon's character, that he would show himself a man, that he would be strong in the Lord

But he moved from his character to the citizens, three particular citizens that he needed to deal with as king This is what he says Oh, by the way, verse 4 says So that the Lord may carry out his promises which he spoke concerning me, saying, If your sons are careful of their way to walk before me in truth With all their heart, with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel Pers according to the precepts of God always Promotes prosperity, and prosperity always promotes perpetuity, the continuance of what God had established But Solomon didn't do that

Solomon did not continue to walk in his ways He did not continue to walk in his truth And when Solomon's reign was done, the kingdom was divided And remember, we told you a few weeks ago? When we first started our study about Jeconiah or Conia, a descendant of David through Solomon When God said these words about him, he said, Write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days. for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah Now he had seven sons But none of them sat on the throne

Why? Because way back earlier, Solomon did not continue to walk in truth and follow that truth And so the succeeding kings, upon the dividing of the kingdom, continued not to walk in truth So much so that Konia was cursed And so therefore, there could not be a descendant of David through Solomon that would sit on the throne And yet the Messiah was to come And that Messiah, of course, would come from David, through Nathan Through Bathsheba, through Nathan, through Mary And that's how the bloodline came To Christ

But notice what it says in chapter 23 of Jeremiah: there won't be a son of Conias that will sit on that throne But he does say this: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, the Messiah He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely And this is his name by which he will be called the Lord our right So, God, in the midst of the curse, gave a prophet

That the Lord, our righteousness, the branch, the Messiah, it was still going to come, even though the line of Konia had been cursed The line of David through Solomon had been cursed There was still the promise of a descendant of David that would still sit on the throne, the Messiah of Israel That's why the virgin birth is so important in the whole story of the coming Messiah Because the Lord, our righteousness, will reign But if you trace it back to Solomon in his unwillingness To walk in truth, his unwillingness to live by the standards of God's word, his will

To marry foreign wives and to gather around him many wives, which God said in Deuteronomy 17: the king is not to do He disobeyed the word of the Lord Well, because of that, there was no son that would sit on the throne until the Lord Jesus, King Jesus, the Messiah He will come He will act wisely He will act justly because he is a righteous king and he will judge righteously And that was the promise of Israel That was a promise that they cling to That's what every Jewish woman clung to as she would pray for a boy that would be that Messiah that would come and rule and reign in righteousness

For the King Messiah is Jesus would come, and he will reign as K overall So David now moves to three citizens of the kingdom that Solomon must deal with Joab, the son of Zer, okay, he was David's comm Of his armies But Joab had sinned greatly again the Lord Joab The chief evil were his murders of Amaz and Abner He was a man of supreme bloodshed Joab was also the nephew of David He was an accomplice in David's sin against Uri And Joab also protected David when he numbered the people in 2 Samuel 23 when he wasn't supposed to

And so maybe David, because of his own guilt, did not do anything to Joab But what turned David against Joab supremely was that Joab sided with Adon in the last chapter At the coronation of Adon, trying to make him king over his son Solomon And that, I think, was the straw that broke the campbell's back That said to him, You must deal with him, and Solomon will He will deal with Joab He will make sure that Joab does not go down to She in peace, but that he does die by the sword And then there was Bar Bar-zilli good to David when he fled Absalom

And because Barzilli had taken care of him, he wanted to make sure that his descendants were able to eat at the king's table That doesn't mean they have food there necessarily, but it means that they're taken care of by the king So Barzilli, even though he had passed, he had lived a life That needed to be commended And it was commended by the king And so his sons were the recipients of his father's protection of David During his reign as king over Israel, when he had to flee Jerusalem because Absalom wanted to kill him

And so David wanted to make sure that his sons, Barzilli's sons, were taken care of And so he wanted to make sure that Solomon understood that And then there was Shema, Shema, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite Remember he cast stones at David He cursed David He was the one who called David names in 2 Samuel chapter 16 He also condemned David For in his own mind, stealing Saul's thr But David did nothing to Shem He took care of him, watched over him, protected him He promised to protect him as long as he was the k But he didn't promise to protect him if he wasn't the king

So he let his son Solomon be wise and deal with Shem the way he saw fit based on his wisdom And he would continue to protect Shema until he lied to the king, and then the king would k him So, put it this way: David dies Solomon becomes king David's a man of bloodshed Solomon's a man of peace, but Solomon's reign begins with three successive executions But he's the man of peace But James 3: tells us That wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable There is no peace without purity, and so the kingdom must become pure

And so as Solomon begins his reign, he will begin with three continuous executions Executions that will set the table for how he will reign in peace over the land of Israel David's days are done And the Bible tells us in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 23 the characteristic of David's life It says these words Now, these are the last words of David David, the son of Jesse, declares, the man who was raised on high declares the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalm of Israel The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue

These are the inspired words of God through the pen of David The God of Israel said, The rock of Israel spoke to me He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, or in other words, rules reverently, Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth through sunshine after rain There's something about the radiant beauty of one who rules righteously and reverently And David concludes his life with words given to his son to help him to understand: this is my charge to you

As you begin your kingship, as you begin to rule over Israel, you are taking the legacy that God gave to me You're passing it down Do it well Be strong Show yourself a man Keep the commandments Keep the ordinances Keep the testimonies Keep the precepts of God Walk in the truth of God Don't turn to the left, don't turn to the right, because if you follow what God says, you will find success, my son David knew that David knew that when he disobeyed God, he was unsuccessful When he obeyed God, he was supremely successful Same is true for you and me We need to follow what God's Word says

And as fathers, as mothers, as parents To our children, challenging them, charging them to live for the glory and honor of God To make sure we prepare them not just to meet their God, but to live for their God Make sure we prepare the inner man more so than the outer man Make sure we develop the character of the individual, the character of the young person, so that when they grow, they grow strong in the Lord, they grow as strong men and women Women of God, not passive men and women of God, but strong in the Lord in the power of his might

May God give us the grace to accomplish His will for our families as we seek to honor Him Let's pray together Father, we thank you for today We thank you for the opportunity you give us to read the Word of God Oh, there's so much in the life of Solomon that, Lord, you will teach us It begins with his charge from his father The charge to live for the glory and honor of the king and his kingdom And our prayer, Father, is that as we look at Solomon's life, we would learn We would learn what David said, and we would learn from what Sol did

And that knowing the writings of that man, whether it's a Proverbs or the Song of Solomon or Ecclesiastes, Or the two Psalms that he wrote, there's so much that we see that he learned He said at the end of his life, The end of man is summed up this way: Fear God and keep His commandments May we be those kind of people May we be God-fearers by keeping your commandments every single day In Jesus' name, amen.