Y<\/span>ahweh promises David an enduring house. David doesn\u2019t take it for granted, but immediately asks the Lord to keep His word (1 Chronicles 17:23). Given a promise of God, David doesn\u2019t merely wait for it to be fulfilled. He turns the promise to prayer. <\/p>\n The prayer has a neat chiastic structure, framed by references to the Lord\u2019s word:<\/p>\n A. Now Yahweh, the word (dabar<\/em>) which you spoke (dabar<\/em>) to Your servant and his house<\/p>\n B. establish (aman<\/em>) forever <\/p>\n B\u2019. and do<\/p>\n A\u2019. according to what you spoke (dabar<\/em>).<\/p>\n References to \u201cword\u201d and speech surround the prayer, but the heart of the prayer, the actual request, is that the Lord \u201cestablish\u201d and \u201cdo.\u201d David isn\u2019t satisfied with words. He wants Yahweh to back up what He has promised with action.<\/p>\n Sections B\/B\u2019 bring the verbs \u201cestablish\u201d and \u201cdo\u201d into parallel. If Yahweh does<\/em> what He has said, then the word He has spoken will be established<\/em>. If he fails to do what He\u2019s promised, the word will not be established. <\/p>\n \u201cEstablish\u201d is the Hebrew word aman<\/em>, the root of \u201cAmen.\u201d David asks Yahweh to pronounce an Amen to His promise. Amen is a confirmation, nearly an oath-term, a \u201cthis is most certainly true.\u201d But here the Amen that establishes and confirms the truth of Yahweh\u2019s word is doing<\/em>. He pronounces the Amen to His promise by doing what He said. We think of Paul\u2019s claim that in Jesus all the promises of God are Yes and Amen: God\u2019s promises to David are Amen in Jesus as deed<\/em>; Jesus doesn\u2019t pronounce the Amen to His Father\u2019s word by making additional commitments but by being and doing the Father\u2019s promises in action<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n aman<\/em> is also the root of one of the common Hebrew words for \u201ctruth.\u201d According to David\u2019s prayer, the truth of God\u2019s word isn\u2019t known when the word is spoken. We might even say that the word is not yet true<\/em> until He acts, until He actively<\/em> fulfills His commitment to David. Truth is not only revealed<\/em> eschatologically; truth in this sense doesn\u2019t exist until words of promise are realized in the future.<\/p>\n In some contexts, a \u201ctrue\u201d word or proposition is one that corresponds to what is the case. The truth of a commitment isn\u2019t of that sort. Unkept promises are not<\/em> true. Promises are true only when the promiser adds to his words the Amen of action. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yahweh promises David an enduring house. David doesn\u2019t take it for granted, but immediately asks the Lord to keep His word (1 Chronicles 17:23). Given a promise of God, David doesn\u2019t merely wait for it to be fulfilled. He turns the promise to prayer. The prayer has a neat chiastic structure, framed by references to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,1581],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-chronicles","category-truth"],"yoast_head":"\n