What Matters Most

The Bible records David’s rise through scenes of remarkable drama. Giants are felled, armies are routed, kingdoms are consolidated, and promises are made that shape the future of Israel and the world. Yet 2 Samuel 9 interrupts the sweep of national triumph with a quiet domestic episode that seems small beside the larger annals of conquest. A crippled man from a fallen dynasty is carried into the presence of a victorious king; he expects judgment and receives mercy. Four times in this chapter the narrator repeats that this man will eat at the king’s table. Against the loud boasts of power, 2 Samuel 9 whispers the melody that governs Davidic kingship at its best: covenant kindness expressed concretely and personally.

The theological question before us is not merely historical. What matters most in this chapter is what reveals what matters most in the life under God. Covenant loyalty embodied in humble generosity is not a decorative virtue; it is the internal architecture of Biblical kingship and a living witness to the Gospel. The chapter’s vocabulary, especially its deployment of key Hebrew terms, confirms that what occurs here is not random benevolence but an intentional enactment of the steadfast love God shows to His people. If the Church would gauge greatness according to the heart of God, 2 Samuel 9 supplies a canon within the canon for the practice of leadership, the ethos of spiritual authority, and the shape of Christian kindness.

What follows is an exegetical and theological exploration of the chapter’s central movements and keywords, aiming to show why this gracious table scene matters so very much. All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.

The Structure of Grace

The narrative divides naturally into five movements.

David’s question and intention. “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). The royal horizon narrows to the welfare of one survivor.

The identification of Mephibosheth. Through Ziba, David learns, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet” (2 Samuel 9:3).

The fearful approach and the king’s reassurance. “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always” (2 Samuel 9:7).

The practical arrangements of restoration. David assigns Ziba and his household to till the land, while Mephibosheth will eat at the royal table “like one of the king’s sons” (2 Samuel 9:11).

The summary note of continual table fellowship. “So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet” (2 Samuel 9:13).

The narrator’s final sentence intentionally keeps Mephibosheth’s disability in view. Grace does not erase creaturely limitation; grace dignifies it, shelters it, and enfolds it within a new identity. The movement is from hiding in Lo-debar to sitting in Jerusalem, from fear to fellowship, from deprivation to restoration, and yet the man remains the man. Theologically, this is not a defect in the story but a precious feature. God’s kindness does not require prior wholeness. It creates a home for weakness and marks it with the honor of belonging.

Exegeting ḥesed as Covenant Kindness

The axis on which the chapter turns is David’s intention “to show him kindness” for Jonathan’s sake (2 Samuel 9:1, 3, 7). The Hebrew noun behind “kindness” is ḥesed (חֶסֶד). This term is notoriously rich. In the ESV it often appears as “steadfast love,” especially in the Psalms; in narrative texts, translators sometimes render it as “kindness” to underscore its concrete, interpersonal character. Lexically, ḥesed denotes loyal love, covenant fidelity, and benevolence that is not merely affectionate but obligated by promise and identity. It is not sentiment alone; it is a love that keeps faith.

The force of ḥesed in 2 Samuel 9 is intensified by the explicit link to Jonathan. David does not merely feel compassion in a general way. He performs ḥesed “for Jonathan’s sake”; the phrase in Hebrew is ba‘ăbûr Yehônātān, a causal construction that grounds David’s act in a preexisting bond. In 1 Samuel 20:14–15 Jonathan implores David, “If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever.” The term “steadfast love” in both clauses is again ḥesed. David swore by the Lord to keep that covenant (1 Samuel 20:17). In 2 Samuel 9 he proves that oath a living reality. He seeks out Jonathan’s son precisely to show ḥesed.

Thus what matters most is not random generosity but covenant-shaped mercy. David’s kingship here reflects the character of the God who binds Himself to His people in love. The text itself makes that connection explicit when David speaks of “the kindness of God” (2 Samuel 9:3). The Hebrew phrase ḥesed ʾĕlōhîm can be read objectively or subjectively; it is either kindness that comes from God as its source or kindness that is like God’s kindness in quality. In either case, David intends his royal act to be a human echo of divine fidelity. He treats Mephibosheth as God has treated David. That is the heart of the matter.

Name and Place: Mephibosheth in Lo-debar

The details of identity and location deepen the theology.

Mephibosheth: A Name of Shame Transformed

“Mephibosheth” in Hebrew appears as Mĕpî-bōšet. The second element bōšet means shame. There is scholarly debate regarding the first element; one plausible line hears mĕpî, “from the mouth of.” The whole may signify “from the mouth of shame,” or the compound may preserve an older theophoric element substituted with bōšet to avoid pronouncing the name of Baal, a known practice in the Books of Samuel. Either way, the name keeps the theme of shame before us. Mephibosheth’s identity in the narrative is tethered to weakness and disgrace. He is the lame scion of a displaced house, dwelling far from court, bearing a name that remembers humiliation.

The Gospel movement of the chapter is therefore not denial but reversal. The king does not erase identity by pretending the past did not occur; David reinterprets identity within the orbit of covenant grace. Mephibosheth will henceforth be known as the man who eats at the king’s table. The table overnames the shame.

Lo-debar: A Landscape of Lack

The place name “Lo-debar” likely contains the negative particle lō’ and a noun related either to dābār meaning “thing” or “word,” or to a term for “pasture.” The result is a field of meanings that includes “no pasture,” “no word,” or simply “nothing.” The theological resonance is evident. Mephibosheth lives in a place of lack, silence, or nothingness. The king’s summons relocates him from nothing to communion. The story dramatizes Psalm 23’s movement from barren terrain to the table that the Lord prepares. In both the narrative logic and the lexical texture, grace finds the one who lived in “no thing” and gives him everything that matters.

Fear and Reassurance: “Do Not Fear”

When Mephibosheth is brought into the royal presence, “he fell on his face and paid homage” and David said, “Mephibosheth!” He answered, “Behold, I am your servant” (2 Samuel 9:6). The ESV keeps the narrative spare and formal; the gestures and addresses are typical of an ancient court scene. Yet the emotional register is intensified by David’s first sentence: “Do not fear” (2 Samuel 9:7). This imperative is a stock phrase of divine reassurance in the Old Testament. It marks moments when the Holy One addresses fearful humanity as He is about to show mercy and power on their behalf. The king’s words therefore function not merely as a human calming device; they participate in the speech pattern of God’s own consolation.

The reason that follows confirms this: “for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan.” The Hebrew fronting of the phrase captures emphasis; the cause of kindness is the covenant, not Mephibosheth’s worth or usefulness. Mephibosheth is the beneficiary; Jonathan is the ground; David is the agent; God is the model. That grammar is the grammar of salvation.

Restoration and Adoption: “I Will Restore” and “Like One of the King’s Sons”

David promises three gifts: restoration of land, perpetual table fellowship, and filial status.

Restoration: The Verb of Return

“I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father” (2 Samuel 9:7). The verb translated “restore” is a form of šûb in the Hiphil stem, which carries the causative nuance of bringing back, returning, or restoring. The king does not innovate a new estate; he returns an inheritance that has been lost. In the covenant economy of Israel, land is not mere property; it is the tangible form of belonging, legacy, and future. By using šûb, the narrator connects David’s act to the larger Biblical theme of return from loss. The promise is not abstract; it is legal, economic, and social. Mephibosheth will have concrete means to provide for his household. Grace does not bypass creaturely structures; grace reestablishes and rightly orders them.

Two minor but significant exegetical notes clarify this line. First, the ESV reads “Saul your father,” though Saul is in fact Mephibosheth’s grandfather. That construction reflects the Hebrew use of “father” to denote male ancestors generally. Second, the fact that David restores Saul’s lands rather than confiscating them for royal use underscores the countercultural nature of this act. In the ancient Near East, a new dynasty typically eliminated the prior royal line and absorbed its assets. David’s ḥesed resists that pattern.

Table Fellowship: shulḥān and tamîd

The promise then climaxes in a repeated refrain: Mephibosheth will eat at David’s table. The Hebrew noun is šulḥān, table. The adverb that accompanies it is tāmîd, meaning continually, regularly, without interruption. In verse 7 David says, “you shall eat at my table always.” In verse 10 David distinguishes between ordinary provision from the restored estate and the extraordinary honor of eating at the royal table. In verse 11 the narrator underscores the status change: “he shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.” In verse 13 the chapter concludes, “he ate always at the king’s table.” The repetition is not accidental; the šulḥān is the locus of grace.

In Israel’s Scriptures, table fellowship is not simply nutrition. It is communion, status, and peace. To sit at the king’s table is to share the king’s honor and enjoy his protection. The inclusion “like one of the king’s sons” is a simile of adoption. The royal word changes social identity. Ziba’s household will work the land; Mephibosheth will eat at the table. Grace transforms an enemy’s descendant into a family member.

The Church rightly hears here an echo of the Gospel’s own table. Jesus said to the Twelve, “that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Luke 22:30). Table is where covenant is remembered and renewed. Table is where the unworthy are received. Table is where shame is covered, not by denial but by hospitality. The language of tāmîd deepens the point; this is not an occasional courtesy but a new, enduring rhythm of life.

Adoption and Sonship: “Like One of the King’s Sons”

The phrase “like one of the king’s sons” signals an adoption motif. It does not erase Mephibosheth’s lineage; rather, it redefines his primary allegiance and honor. The New Testament provides the doctrinal grammar for what this narrative foreshadows. Believers “have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15). In Christ, God “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons” (Ephesians 1:5). David’s word to Mephibosheth is a royal analogy of that grace. The covenant extends beyond forgiveness to fellowship, beyond pardon to the privileges of family. Mephibosheth does not merely avoid execution; he belongs at the table.

The Language of Humility: “A Dead Dog”

Mephibosheth’s response to royal kindness is striking: “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I” (2 Samuel 9:8). The idiom “dead dog” renders Hebrew kelev mēt, a fixed phrase of self-abasement that appears elsewhere in the Books of Samuel. It conveys the speaker’s sense of unworthiness and insignificance. The rhetorical force is not to commend self-loathing as a virtue; rather, it gives voice to the shock of grace. The one who expected justice receives kindness; the one who assumed erasure is assigned a place of honor. The only adequate language he possesses for the moment is the language of astonished humility.

Theologically, this is fitting. Grace is received in humility, never as entitlement. The Church confesses with Mephibosheth, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” and “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:8, 10). Biblical humility is truthful self-assessment in the light of divine mercy. Mephibosheth’s posture is therefore not a psychological curiosity but a spiritual exemplar. Royal ḥesed produces reverent awe.

Ziba and the Administration of Grace

The narrative pays careful attention to Ziba, Saul’s former servant. Ziba introduces Mephibosheth in verse 3 and receives royal instructions in verses 9 to 11. The practical dimension of grace requires skilled administration. David gives Mephibosheth land; he also assigns labor and management so that the restored estate can function for the good of the beneficiary. The king’s decree creates a social structure consistent with mercy.

From a Biblical leadership perspective, this detail matters. Kindness is not vague. It is careful, concrete, and institutional. To show ḥesed in a royal capacity includes the wise distribution of labor, the maintenance of just relationships, and the provision of ongoing support that makes a new life possible. In later chapters, Ziba’s behavior grows morally complex; his statements about Mephibosheth during Absalom’s revolt are contested. Yet in chapter 9, the narrative simply records that David assigns resources and servants in accordance with his gracious intention.

The Pattern of God’s Kindness

The chapter’s language and structure together yield a thick theology of grace.

Grace is covenantal. David’s kindness is not random; it is rooted in oath and promise. The Church’s kindness should imitate this by grounding generosity in the covenant made in Christ, whose blood secures a new creation.

Grace seeks. David asks, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul” (2 Samuel 9:1). The initiative is the king’s. Likewise, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Grace restores concretely. Land is returned; labor is assigned; legal rights are reestablished. In Christ, God restores what sin has disordered, not in abstraction but in embodied, social ways.

Grace dignifies weakness. The narrator continues to note Mephibosheth’s lameness. The man’s disability is not hidden. Grace brings him near rather than demanding that he overcome his condition first.

Grace culminates in table fellowship. The repeated adverb “always” teaches the rhythm of communion. The end of grace is not merely improved circumstances; it is shared life with the king.

Grace produces humility and joy. Mephibosheth’s “dead dog” confession captures the drama of receiving what none could claim.

Grace creates family. The simile “like one of the king’s sons” anticipates the doctrine of adoption. Divine kindness knows no half measures.

These features cohere within David’s invocation of “the kindness of God” (2 Samuel 9:3). The king does not invent a new moral logic; he borrows God’s. What matters most is that royal power, when converted by the knowledge of the Lord, expresses itself as covenant faithfulness.

David’s Table and the Lord’s Table

Second Samuel 9 invites a Christological reading without forcing an allegory. David is the anointed king whose heart is after God. Mephibosheth is a beneficiary of a covenant he did not make, a son whose shame is covered by another’s fidelity. The table of David anticipates the table of Jesus.

At the Last Supper, Jesus gives His disciples the covenant word that completes David’s picture: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Then He promises, “that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (Luke 22:30). The movement from Lo-debar to the king’s table is fulfilled in the movement from alienation to communion with God through Christ. The social status change of Mephibosheth becomes the eschatological destiny of the saints. The Gospel does not only acquit; the Gospel invites to supper.

Furthermore, the New Testament’s teaching on adoption gives full theological voice to “like one of the king’s sons.” The Spirit brings believers into the filial intimacy of the Son with the Father, so that they cry, “Abba! Father!” and share in the Son’s inheritance (Romans 8:15–17). What occurred for one man in Jerusalem under David happens for a multitude in the heavenly Jerusalem under Christ. The ethics of the Church’s table are therefore drawn from this royal kindness. The Church does not assess worthiness according to ability, pedigree, or productivity. The Church knows that everyone who sits at Christ’s table was once spiritually lame, living in nothingness, until summoned by grace.

Exegetical Soundings: Additional Keywords and Phrases

“House” and Dynasty

“Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul” (2 Samuel 9:1). The noun bayit, house, functions in these narratives as a term for dynasty and household. The covenant word to David in 2 Samuel 7 promised him a house forever. Now David inquires after Saul’s house in order to do good to one representative member. Theologically, this meeting of houses demonstrates that David’s rule will not be built upon the extermination of rivals but upon the establishment of righteousness. The new house seeks to bless even the remnants of the old.

“Servant” and Posture

Mephibosheth’s “Behold, I am your servant” (2 Samuel 9:6) uses the term ‘eved, servant. In royal contexts, this is a standard self-designation. Yet theologically it is not insignificant that service and sonship coexist in this chapter. Mephibosheth will be “like one of the king’s sons,” yet he rightly speaks of himself as a servant. In the New Testament, the Church enjoys the paradox of freedom in sonship and joy in service. Paul rejoices to be “a servant of Christ Jesus” even as he revels in filial adoption. David’s covenant kindness does not abolish reverent service; it ennobles it.

“Prostrated” and Worshipful Homage

Mephibosheth “fell on his face and paid homage” (2 Samuel 9:6). The verb often translated “paid homage” is ḥāwâ, which can denote bowing in worship or paying reverence to a superior. In this narrative setting the act is a normal gesture of courtly respect. Yet the sequence of posture, word, and gift imitates the pattern of Biblical worship: the lesser bows, the greater speaks words of comfort, and a covenant gift is bestowed. The chapter thereby models the movement of liturgy. The Church prostrates itself; the King says, “Do not fear”; He restores and invites to the table.

“Always”: The Adverb of Stability

The repetition of tāmîd anchors the scene in permanence. This is not a trial invitation but an established place. Grace stabilizes the unstable. The man from Lo-debar is given a “forever in miniature,” a continual sign of the greater forever that Israel awaits. By narrating “always” three times, the writer insists that the reader hear the beat of covenant reliability.

What Kindness Does and How It Learns to Do It

If 2 Samuel 9 reveals what matters most, then the Church must ask how this text forms Christian character and practice.

Kindness must be covenantal and concrete. David’s goodness is not abstract. He asks for a name. He finds an address. He arranges generative structures. The Church’s kindness must seek specific persons, learn their stories, and place resources strategically so that restoration is sustainable.

Kindness must be courageous. In the ancient world, a new king protected himself by eliminating potential rivals. David’s policy is mercy; that choice entailed risk. Biblical kindness is brave because it trusts God to defend the future that kindness may complicate.

Kindness must be faithful over time. David acts because of an oath sworn years before. The Church must cultivate long memory. Commitments made in the presence of God carry forward even when public circumstances change.

Kindness must honor the weak. The chapter’s final clause keeps Mephibosheth’s lameness in view. The Church’s mercy must not be embarrassed by ongoing limitation. Christ’s table is meant exactly for those who cannot stand on their own.

Kindness must taste like family. To bring a person near but keep him in the vestibule is not ḥesed. The simile “like one of the king’s sons” presses the Church to embrace the costly intimacy of adoption. Hospitality is not an event but a new way of being together.

These features together are the ethical imprint of God’s own kindness. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). The direction of causality is nonnegotiable. The Church shows kindness because she has received it.

Power Without ḥesed and Power With ḥesed

One may imagine an alternative 2 Samuel 9, written according to the usual politics of succession. David could order a census of Saul’s descendants and eliminate them. He could absorb the family estates into the crown lands. He could treat Mephibosheth as an irritant to be removed or as a beggar to be managed. Such a chapter would be plausible and forgettable. The present chapter, however, endures because it reconfigures the meaning of power. Power without ḥesed secures itself by subtraction. Power with ḥesed secures a future by gift.

The difference is not merely moral; it is revelatory. David’s act reveals that the God who established his throne delights in mercy. The stone of stumbling for every human ruler is the temptation to imagine that justice can be served by eliminating liabilities. The king after God’s heart understands that justice is served by establishing the lowly and keeping faith with the covenant. The chapter invites Christian leaders in every sphere to imitate this pattern. After the large projects and the visible victories, what matters most is whether there are Mephibosheths at our tables.

Liturgy of the Table: From Lo-debar to Eucharist

The Church’s table, in its ordinary and sacramental forms, is where this text becomes a habit of life. At the Lord’s Table, the spiritually lame are not asked first to run. They are asked to come. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1). In ordinary meals in Christian households, an empty chair exists for the one who feels unworthy, out of place, or unknown. The memory of 2 Samuel 9 at the Church’s table will reshape pastoral imagination. The presence of those who cannot repay is not a drain on community energy; it is the proof that we remember the Gospel.

It is significant that the promise to Mephibosheth concerns eating. Food is life joined to fellowship. In Scripture, God’s covenant often culminates in a meal. Moses and the elders “saw God, and they ate and drank” on the mountain (Exodus 24:11). The Passover is a meal of deliverance. The Lord’s Supper is the meal of the New Covenant. The wedding supper of the Lamb is the eschatological feast. Table is how God tells His story. David understands this instinctively; he tells the truth about God’s kingdom by setting another place.

Seeing Mephibosheth, Becoming David

For many readers, the central identificational move is to see ourselves in Mephibosheth. We are the ones carried in from nothing, made to sit, astonished to be honored, still lame but now beloved. That is correct and necessary. Yet the chapter also trains the moral imagination to become David to others. To imitate David is not to play the sovereign; it is to practice covenant kindness in the sphere God has entrusted to us.

The steps are not mysterious. Ask the king’s question: “Is there still anyone left to whom I may show kindness for Jesus’ sake.” The addition “for Jesus’ sake” completes David’s phrase with the Name given to the Church. Search. Inquire. Ask the Spirit to put names in mind. Expect the person you find to be a person marked by some form of shame or limitation. Visit that person in his or her Lo-debar. Speak the Gospel’s first imperative, “Do not fear.” Give what restores the person to stability in ordinary life. Then extend table fellowship that signals honor, permanence, and joy. Do all this not as philanthropy but as covenant fidelity; you are keeping promises you have made in Baptism, at the Lord’s Table, in your marriage vows, and in your congregational membership. This is the ordinary majesty of Christian love.

What Matters Most

The opening claim of this essay is now ready for restatement. In 2 Samuel 9, after the big and flashy scenes that make the headlines of David’s reign, the Spirit has preserved for the Church a portrait of greatness as covenant kindness. What matters most is that power learns to bless, that victory learns to welcome, that the new house remembers the old precisely in acts of mercy. The king’s heart in this chapter is transparent to the heart of God. By exalting one man of shame to the table, David bears witness to the divine King who invites the shamed multitudes to His feast.

When the narrative closes, the last line holds two facts together: “he ate always at the king’s table” and “he was lame in both his feet” (2 Samuel 9:13). The Gospel refuses to sentimentalize grace. The scars remain; the limitations persist; the body tells the truth about the past. Yet the determining truth about Mephibosheth’s identity is no longer his disability or his lineage. The determining truth is his seat. He belongs at the table, and he will be there tomorrow.

To say that this is what matters most is not to despise the major achievements of David’s reign. It is to remember what end those achievements were meant to serve. The glory of a Biblical king is most clearly seen not in the accumulation of territory but at a table where enemies become sons.

Concluding Exhortation

Let the Church then learn to measure greatness by the presence of Mephibosheth-like guests at our tables. Let Christian leaders search out those living in the shadow-lands of nothing, whose names carry the weight of shame, whose bodies bear reminders of loss. Let us say the words that belong to the Gospel’s first address, “Do not fear,” and let us say the words that belong to Gospel generosity, “You shall eat at my table always.” Let every congregation become a place where adoption is not theory but touchable welcome, where the restored land is matched by daily bread, where the liturgy of kindness is the ordinary rhythm of community life.

Key Texts Cited (ESV)

• 2 Samuel 9:1. “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 9:3. “And the king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him. Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.”
  
  

• 2 Samuel 9:6–8. “And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold, I am your servant. And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and said, What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I.”
  
  

• 2 Samuel 9:10–11. “But Mephibosheth your master’s grandson shall always eat at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 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 9:13. “So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.”
  
  

• 1 Samuel 20:14–17. “If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, May the Lord take vengeance on David’s enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.”
  
  

• Romans 5:8, 10. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
  
  

• Luke 22:20, 30. “And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. … that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
  
  

• Ephesians 1:5. “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”
  
  

• Ephesians 4:32. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
  
  

• Romans 8:15–17. “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father! The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

In the end, 2 Samuel 9 teaches the Church to prize what God prizes. The king’s greatest victory is not over an external enemy but over the gravitational pull of self-protecting power. The achievement that abides is a seat kept open for the one from nothing, the one of shame, the one who cannot walk to the table on his own. The king who sets that chair and keeps it filled is a king who has learned the kindness of God. That is what matters most.