https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Samuel+7%3A8-16&version=NRSVCE (2 Samuel 7:8-16) King David was a man who pursued God’s heart. God anointed him from being a shepherd to becoming the king of God’s people. David fought Goliath the giant and gained tremendous victory for God. He brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem and made it the spiritual capital of God’s people. As king, David gained victory over all the enemies around them. David also showed his great humanity by a tremendous moral failure with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, and then had him murdered. But he repented of his sins and asked the Lord to have mercy upon him. From this time forward, his house was filled with chaos. Yet David is still remembered as a wonderful, powerful king in the history of God’s people. Today I want us to understand the connection between King David and God’s promise of a Messiah, a future King who would establish God’s Kingdom forever. That was Israel’s hope. The words of II Samuel 7 are the seedbed of the messianic expectation. Hope is a precious commodity. Hal Lindsay once wrote, “Men can live forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but not one second without hope.” We need hope as we live our lives. We use the word hope differently though. We might say I hope our favorite baseball team wins the game. Or I hope I catch fish when I go to the lake. We might say, I hope it stops raining, or I hope for good weather for my crops that are growing. I hope the price of corn goes up. I might look at my body and say, I hope I lose 20 lbs. I hope we have pie for dessert with supper or I hope the stock market goes up. We may move from mundane hope to more profound things like, I hope North Korea denuclearizes, I hope the political leaders of the world find a way to make peace. I hope we can alleviate hunger. I hope we can break systemic poverty. The trouble is, when we use hope – either in the mundane or profound – we really have no direct control to our wishful thinking. Biblical hope is different. It is based on the character, the historic faithfulness, and the promises of God Himself. Here is what Jeremiah said in Lamentations 3: “This I recall to mind. Therefore, I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindness has never run out. God’s mercy never fails. Great is God’s faithfulness.” The character of God, the promise of God, the historic faithfulness of God is the reason we, as God’s people, have hope. Talking about hope with this backdrop, let’s dig out the precious nuggets of promise God made to King David and his people in II Samuel 7. The Messiah literally was the Anointed One, the Deliverer, the Ruler, the Son of God who would come into the world to rescue God’s people. The Savior. First, God promised that David and God’s people, Israel, would be His people forever. They would belong to Him as His chosen people. It gave them their identity. Yahweh was their Father, and they were His people. They had security in the promise. Second, God promised His power would give them victory over all their enemies. They would dominate, reign over all the other nations, and God would be a mighty warrior fighting on their behalf. Third, God promises to usher in an age of peace, of shalom, rest from their enemies and beautiful harmony for God’s people. Fourth, God promised to provide them a place for their own. They would receive a land where they would be planted and rooted to live their lives. This is why Israel to this day remembers God’s promise that the land of Israel will be theirs. Fifth, God promised prosperity and great blessings would flow to them. Sixth, the kingdom God promised will be forever. They’ll be living the high life. ♪Happy days are here again♬ This is the stuff dreams are made of! Seventh, God’s promise was unconditional as a covenant. His power would fulfill the promise. All of this was tied to