He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.  Psalm 103:10

David wrote that from a point of view of experience and gratitude. Grace is so amazing is it not? Please don’t take grace for granted but make sure your response is appropriate to the grace extended to you.

At this point in the life of David we are introduced to Mephibosheth. He was the grandson of Saul. I guess he was keeping himself out of the way as Saul had tried for many years to kill David. What I am going to try and do is parallel the story of Mephibosheth with your own salvation.

And David said, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Samuel 9:1

Mephibosheth did not take the initiative David did. David looks for him so that he can show him kindness. Paul talks about us being dead in our trespasses and says, but God who is rich in mercy. It was God who took the initiative to save us, in love He predestined us. Paul wrote to Titus saying, the kindness we have received is unmeasurable.

David takes the trouble to send someone to find Mephibosheth and bring him to the palace.

The king said to him, “Where is he?” And Ziba said to the king, “He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar.” Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. 2 Samuel 9:4-5

In verse 3 we are told that he was lame in both feet. There was nothing in Mephibosheth to attract David to this grandson of Saul. He has nothing to offer, in fact to bring him into court life would be an embarrassment, any other king would hide him away. He was not at all worthy of such privileges. In the same way, why should God bother with us when we have nothing to attract us to Him?

It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?  Hebrews 2:6

Other translations say, what are human beings that you remember them, what are members of the human race that you care for them?

So, Mephibosheth arrived at the palace of David and shows signs of great fear. Maybe the thought had crossed his mind that David wanted to kill him. (Verses 6-7) David says to him “do not fear for I will show you kindness.” We are not saved because we bring something or are something, we are saved by receiving something, God’s kindness and God’s kindness is in part a deliverance from fear. He has removed the obstacles that we set up in our minds that we are not worthy to be in his presence.

But David goes further. He promises Mephibosheth that the kindness he is to receive is for Jonathan’s sake (vs7). If David’s kindness only had Mephibosheth in view then it potentially could wane or fade away. After a while he could maybe move him out of view, out of the way only to eventually forget him completely. After all what was Mephibosheth going to bring to this grand court of great generals, great philosophers, and great advisors? But since it was for Jonathan’s sake it was permanent as David had sworn an oath to Jonathan. God does not and cannot regret his saving of us, we are not an annoyance, His love for us does not fade.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

David restores to Mephibosheth the land lost because of the sin of his grandfather Saul (vs 7). Similarly, the human race was made in the image of God but lost its relationship with God. In Jesus we get back what we lost ‘in Adam’, the abundance of God’s kindness restores what was lost (See Romans 5:19-21).

David makes provision for Mephibosheth’s future. In the past he was a ‘dead dog’ (vs 8) but now his future is secured and safe (vs 8-9). This is an extension of David’s kindness.

Now Ephesians 2:7 is one of the most amazing promises in this regard. Paul says that God raised us up with Christ, “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Do you see what this means? It means that eternal life is what it will take for God to exhaust the riches of his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. The gifts he has for us in himself are infinite in number and perfection. Therefore, it will take eternity to give them to us for our enjoyment. There will be a never-ending display of new and wonderful things about God and from God for us to enjoy. Phew…..

Lastly Mephibosheth is treated as a son of the king.

Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table, like one of the king’s sons. 2 Samuel 9:11

We also eat at God’s table as one of his sons. This is taken from J I Packers book “Knowing God”:

“Sonship to God is not, therefore, a universal status into which everyone enters by natural birth, but a supernatural gift which one receives through Jesus Christ…the gift of sonship to God becomes ours not through being born, but through being born again.

“The revelation to the believer that God is his Father is in a sense the climax of the Bible, just as it was in the final step in the revelatory process which the Bible records. In Old Testament times, as we have seen, God gave his people a covenant name by which to speak of him and call upon him: the name was Yahweh (“Jehovah,” “the Lord”). By this name, God announced himself as the “great I AM” – the One who is completely and consistently himself. He is: and it is because he is what he is that everything else is as it is.

“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”