2 Sam 8:6, Then David put garrisons among the Arameans of Damascus, and the Arameans became servants to David, bringing tribute. And the Lord helped David wherever he went. 
	In this morning’s reading we have a great reality in place that we know in our minds, but sometimes lost in the manifold events of our lives. We need to continually hold the reality of how God proves Himself mighty and victorious in the lives of those who belong to Him and honor Him as Lord. This Lordship is not just a nominal placement of Yahweh as Lord of all creation, yet not so much Lord of our lives. We have this tendency to hold back that placement of God as absolute Monarch in our every day dealings with others.
	There is a despicable tendency in humanity to try to control everything on our own. We set up theoretical pictures of how we behave as Christians, how we gather in our religious groupings as segregated from our friendship groups and our hobby groups and our work groups and our neighbor groups. Even in terms of our family groups, there can be that separation from Who God really is in our thoughts and actions. There is a place for God in the terminology of our religious behavior, but we try to keep Him out of many of our other relationships. This is either out of selfishness or embarrassment or deliberate disobedient activities of our rebellious nature. 
	All of this is to point out that The Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth, is not always recognized as The Lord of every moment of every day of our lives here on this earth. He is shamefully relegated to just when we need Him and not always when He needs us. He may become some type of Divine Butler Who provides what we want when we want it. Or, He may be seen only as our rescue when we have made a mess of things, saving us from our depths of self-made problems, or from those elements of life over which we have no control. With any of this, there is that setting of God into a category of only when we need the help, not every moment of our walk on this earth.
	However, in the growing reality of Who God is, we are becoming, hopefully, ever more aware of the fact that we are here for His plans and His purposes to be fulfilled, not our limited human theoretical thoughts. He is not just Lord at some times of our day, He is The Lord God Almighty Who reigns completely and eternally now and evermore. His will is done on earth as it is in Heaven, and always will be! 
Accordingly, like David, we need to learn what it means to have our hearts so after Jehovah, that the every step we take is only in harmony with that which He so sets before us. When that is the case, and only in that reality, we will discover the inherent truth of the walk that David had in his obedient relationship with Yahweh …And the Lord helped David wherever he went.
	This was splendidly and specifically detailed by the Lord to David in 2 Sam 7:8-11, as we read last week. The Lord knew the heart of this man, and God had brought up this servant from the pasturing of his father’s flocks to the shepherding of the Nation of Jehovah. Every day of that journey had been guarded and ordained by Yahweh in the development of this heart to heart rapport.
2 Sam 7:8-11, "Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts," I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over My people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. 	In the every moment of David’s life, because he was a man whose heart was after the Lord, God had gone before him and protected and provided and guarded and sustained and developed the course of His great salvation through the house of David that The Lord would establish forever and forever. This was the foreordained royal heritage from which the Messiah, the Christ would be born and then seated eternally upon the throne of the whole of God’s creation.
	Therefore, God would go before David, and before the heritage of David unto the manifested glorification and coronation of the One Who was to come, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout the history of the lineage of David, there was that fulfilled promise of God to maintain and to bring to pass all that was necessary for the Messiah to come forth triumphantly by the power and the wisdom and the majestic working of God and God, Alone. That necessitated the continual going before those people whose hearts sought for the glory of God to be seen in the manner of their earthly sojourn before God and before mankind.
	This heart was once again proclaimed as the earthly life of King David was coming to an end. We hear the desire of David expressed to his son, the next heir of the throne as it is recorded in 1 Kings 2:1-4.
1 Kings 2:1-4, As David's time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son, saying, "I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me, saying,' If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.' 
	The key to this whole discussion is the fact that the heart of his descendents needed to maintain that singleness of desire to live by the word and the testimony and the holiness of Jehovah. The heart to heart relationship needed to be established and maintained as God would go before each of His people in the course of the walk that was honoring and established in the truth of the Sovereignty and the preeminence of Yahweh above and before all else. 
Everything is to be set in the way of the Lord and not in the way of humanities’ fickle and stubborn and deceitful manipulation of power and prestige and fame and wealth. All that is necessary is to honor and obey and trust God to go before each step of the path to His glory and His glory alone. 
	We know, from the sad history of the nation of Israel, how this was not the case with the majority of those kings who came after David. Even Solomon was caught up in the apostasy of seeking after the things of this world rather than the living and vital relationship with Jehovah. However, despite the many failures, there was that remnant, that core of the heart of David after God that was in evidence. This was witnessed in several of the lineage of David. 
It is especially as recorded in the account of King Hezekiah. Scripture details how that love and honor for Jehovah was manifested through this sovereign over the nation of Judah. Please open to 2 Kings 18:1-7, as we will share in this tremendous testimony together.
2 Kings 18:1-7, Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 
	Once again, we have that statement of the working power of God going before this king … And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he prospered. Because Hezekiah’s heart was after The Lord and he was careful to honor God in the entire manner in which he led the nation of Judah, only doing those things which were right in the sight of Jehovah, God went before him and made it very evident that He had His hand upon this regent. 
This is even in the manner in which the Word of God proclaims how The Lord was honored by Hezekiah and thereby Hezekiah so obeyed Jehovah. As we are told, so marvelously …He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
	This fact of the Lord going before those who honor and obey and reverence Him is not just for the line of David. It is true for all those people whom God has called unto Himself through His divine Omniscience and grace and mercy and loving kindness. All those whose hearts are after Him and desirous of this living relationship with Him will know the truth that He goes before us in all that we do.
	Let us consider the encouragement unto this great reality of Jehovah as detailed throughout the Psalms, one of the manifold blessings of God contained in His Living Word of truth. We will begin with Psalm 5, verses 11 and 12, wherein the Psalmist details exactly the fact that God surrounds His people with all His working mercy and favor as we exult in Him.
	Ps 5:11+12, But let all who take refuge in Thee be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And mayest Thou shelter them, That those who love Thy name may exult in Thee. For it is Thou who dost bless the righteous man, O Lord, Thou dost surround him with favor as with a shield. 
	The Psalmist carries forward this tremendous promised life with the Lord in so many of the accountings of the working grace and mercy and power of Jehovah caring for those who belong wholeheartedly to Him. He goes before His people to hold them in the safety of His victory and His mighty Sovereignty. 
	Consider what we are told in Ps 121:7+8. Ps 121:7+8, The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever. 
	God, Himself …will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever. We are protected from all the ravages of our societal onslaughts through the might and the power and the majesty of Yahweh as He goes before us and behind us, our vanguard and our rear guard, no matter where He may lead us. He goes before us and He surrounds us with His protection and His guidance.
	Then, in Ps 140:7, we are covered by the Lord in the midst of every fray and fracas. Ps 140:7, "O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. 
	The Psalmist, in Ps 144:1+2 brings this all to the fact that God is our armor in the midst of the day to day conflicts of our walk before Him. Because we are so attuned to His guidance, because we are learning to be instantly obedient, because we are having our trust in Him forged through the fiery trials and tribulations, we know the surety of our being covered by Jehovah in the course of where He guides and directs us. 
Ps 144:1+2, Blessed be the Lord, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle; My lovingkindness and my fortress, My stronghold and my deliverer; My shield and He in whom I take refuge; Who subdues my people under me. 
	This consideration of the goodness and the loving kindness of God to go before His people continues with the declaration of Prov 21:30+31. This is the reality of our trust in God. He has already overcome all the enemies of His placement as the Divine Lord God Almighty, Creator of everything. His victory, through the death and resurrection of the Only Begotten of the Father, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Lord of Heaven and earth is now fully established. He is on the throne, now and evermore. Therefore we do not have any reason to fear or tremble at the toothless taunts and malevolence of this age. 
Prov 21:30+31, There is no wisdom and no understanding And no counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But victory belongs to the Lord. 
	He is the Lord. As we are brought into this living relationship with Yahweh through the faith that He provides to those whom He has chosen from before the eternal ages were ever put into place, so do we confidently stand upon His victory over all the forces of the powers of this age. His triumphant glory and majesty go before us in our sojourn of obedient trust in Him, wherever He leads and in whatever task He sets before us. So be it.
…And the Lord helped David wherever he went. Amen. 

	
	
This morning’s benediction is Prov 16:16. How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver. Amen.