The Sure Mercies of David (Isaiah 55:3; Acts 13:34)

2024-05-13

And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. (Acts 13:34)

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. (Isaiah 55:3-5)

The apostle Paul quoted Isaiah 55:3 in his sermon in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13:34. Jesus would rise from the dead, never to die again. The audience (“you” being plural) would receive the “sure mercies of David.”

The prophet Isaiah said, “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live.” See how the Word of God brings life to hearer. “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth” (James 1:18). “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23). “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

Moreover, this hearing of faith was a new, everlasting covenant, when he said, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” This “sure mercies of David” is the new covenant, for it is a restatement of the phrase before it.

This was something superior to the covenants that came before it. All covenants point to this new covenant, and this new covenant is a Person, Jesus Christ. We know this because then the Spirit says through the prophet, “Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.” The antecedent of the pronoun “him” is David, which is being used typologically for Christ. David had long been buried; Jesus is alive from the dead. Jesus is the Witness, the Leader, and the Commander to all of us people.

He not only rose from the dead; the LORD glorified Christ. “...the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.” The Lord Jesus is glorified in the heavens, waiting to return at His appointed time to rule the nations from Jerusalem.

Thereafter we see that the nations shall flock to this glorified Commander (Isaiah 55:5). The last two millennia are testament to that.

This Jesus, risen from the dead, now calls on everyone to heed the words of this covenant. He is the Savior from death. There is no other. “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live.”