In this message I have the burden to give a further word on 2 Samuel 7.
In 2 Samuel 7:12-14a Jehovah said to David, "When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. It is he who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he will be My son." The word concerning "your seed" and "My son" indicates that the seed of David would become the Son of God, that the seed of a man would become God's Son.
This thought is continued very strongly in the New Testament, particularly in Romans 1:3 and 4. Here Paul says, "Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." Here we have the same thought as in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a—that the seed of David becomes the Son of God. These verses reveal, on the one hand, that Christ is the seed of David and, on the other hand, that He, the seed of David, has been designated the Son of God. When we compare these two portions of the Word, we see that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament we have the matter of the seed of David becoming the Son of God.
In 2 Samuel 7 we see that David had a good heart toward God and wanted to build a house for God. However, God intervened and did not permit David to do this, because David did not have an adequate and thorough view of God's economy. After stopping David from building Him a house, God went on to reveal something further concerning His economy. In this chapter, therefore, the divine revelation took a great step forward.
The Bible tells us that David was a man according to God's heart (1 Sam. 13:14). Under the influence of this word, many Bible students have estimated David too highly. Yes, David was a man according to the heart of God, but, as the remainder of 2 Samuel and the book of Psalms show us, he was still a man in life, in nature, and in constitution. He was a man according to God, but he was not God in life and in nature. David could not say, "To me, to live is Christ" or "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Phil. 1:21a; Gal. 2:20). At the most, David was a "photograph" of God's heart, but he was not God in life and in nature.