I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever;
    with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known
    through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
    that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.
You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
    I have sworn to David my servant,
‘I will establish your line forever
    and make your throne firm through all generations.’”

Once you spoke in a vision,
    to your faithful people you said:
“I have bestowed strength on a warrior;
    I have raised up a young man from among the people.”

This psalm, written long before the birth of Jesus, repeats a promise that was very important to the Jewish people: that the throne of David would last forever.

The common understanding was that there would be a new warrior king who would rule from a palace in Jerusalem…they weren’t looking for an infant born to an unimportant young couple in a small town.

Yet there’s a parallel to David himself. He, too, was not what was expected in a leader or in a great man of God.

When David first came on the scene, he was a young shepherd with older brothers who seemed far more capable than he was. His defeat of Goliath was never seen as the action of a great warrior or strategist, but as an audacious act of faith that showed that the victory belonged to God, not to David.

Even in his life as a king, he had his times of brilliance and faithfulness, but he also had his times of failure. This, the greatest king of Israel and a man who God deeply loved, was also an adulterer and a murderer.

Yes, Jesus was in the line of David in terms of heredity, but he was also in the line of David as being a ruler who was unexpected, and who depended wholly on God for victory.