Your seed here refers, literally, to Solomon, David’s son, who built the temple as God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament (1 Kings 5:5; 8:15-20; 1 Chron. 22:9-10; 28:6). However, according to Heb. 1:5b, which quotes v. 14a of this chapter, David’s seed is actually Christ as God’s firstborn Son (Heb. 1:5-6), who has both divinity and humanity and is typified here by Solomon (see note Matt. 1:1^3c). The Son of God became David’s seed by being constituted (built) into David’s family, i.e., into David’s being. Here God was actually telling David that instead of building something for God, David needed God to build His Son into him. God did not want David to build Him a house of cedar (vv. 5-7), nor was God satisfied that David would be merely a man according to His heart (1 Sam. 13:14). God’s desire was to work Himself in Christ into David’s humanity to be his life, nature, and constitution. In this way Christ, the Son of God, would become everything to David, including his house (dwelling place) and his seed.

Second Samuel 7 is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us that there is no need for us to build something for God. We cannot build God’s house, the church (1 Tim. 3:15), by using ourselves or anything of ourselves as the material. The church as the house of God, the mutual abode of God and His redeemed (John 14:2-3, 20, 23; 15:4), is built with Christ as the unique element (see note Gen. 2:22^1a). Thus, we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ. The building of the church is by Christ’s making His home in our hearts, i.e., by His building Himself into us, making our heart, our intrinsic constitution, His home (Eph. 3:17). The very Christ who is constituted (built) into us is God’s house and our house, and He also becomes our seed as our heritage and our treasure.

In His response to David’s desire to build Him a house, God in a sense came in to stop David by indicating that before David could do something for God, he needed God to do something for him. God prophesied to David that He would build him a house and that from this house He would give him a seed (vv. 11-12). David’s house is, literally, David’s household, David’s family, which eventually issued in Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:1, 6-16).

The prophecy in this chapter is related to the prophecy in Isa. 11:1 concerning Christ as the sprout from the stump of Jesse and the branch from his roots. At the time of Solomon the house of David was a flourishing tree, but a short time later it began to be cut down. Eventually, it became a stump consisting mainly of two persons, Joseph and Mary. At that juncture God came in to constitute His Son, Christ, into David’s family (Matt. 1:18-20). As a result, the child Jesus was born as a God-man, as both a divine Son and a human seed (Luke 1:31-32, 35). That was God’s building a house for David, through which He gave David a seed. Ultimately, David’s house and David’s seed in this chapter are types revealing that in His eternal economy the Triune God desires to build Himself in Christ into His chosen people to make them a house (Christ with the church) and to produce a seed (the all-inclusive Christ).

David’s house refers to Christ, David’s kingdom refers to Christ’s kingdom, and David’s throne refers to Christ’s throne. The kingdom of David is Christ’s kingdom, and David and Christ have one throne (Isa. 9:7; 16:5; Luke 1:32; Acts 2:29-31). The prophets spoke of David and Christ as one (Jer. 30:9; Ezek. 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Hosea 3:5; Amos 9:11). Christ is the real David (Matt. 12:3-4 and note Matt. 12:3^2b). Hence, God’s response to David made Christ one with David and with David’s seed (v. 12). This implies that God’s intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Him and His people one. God’s intention from eternity to eternity is to make Himself us that we may become Him in life, in nature, and in constitution but not in the Godhead. Eventually, through God’s building work the all-inclusive and all-extensive Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, becomes every member in the Body of Christ and every person in the new man (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11). In the church, in the Body, and in the new man, Christ is all, and He is in all.

The word from this point to the end of v. 15 refers only to Solomon, David’s son, and not to Christ.

The word concerning “your seed” in v. 12 and “My son” in v. 14 implies that the seed of David would become the Son of God, i.e., that a human seed would become a divine Son. This word corresponds with Paul’s word in Rom. 1:3-4 concerning Christ as the seed of David being designated the Son of God in His humanity in resurrection (see note Rom. 1:4¹). It also relates to the Lord’s question in Matt. 22:41-45 concerning how the Christ could be both the son of David and the Son of God as David’s Lord — a wonderful person, a God-man with two natures, divinity and humanity. These verses clearly unveil that a seed of man, i.e., a son of man, can become the Son of God. God Himself, the divine One, became a human seed, the seed of a man, David. This seed was Jesus, the God-man, Jehovah the Savior (Matt. 1:18-21; 2 Tim. 2:8), who was the Son of God by virtue of His divinity alone (Luke 1:35). Through His resurrection He as the human seed became the Son of God in His humanity as well. Thus, in Christ God was constituted into man, man was constituted into God, and God and man were mingled together to be one entity, the God-man. This implies that God’s intention in His economy is to make Himself man in order to make man God in life and in nature.

In and through resurrection Christ, the firstborn Son of God, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As such a Spirit He enters into God’s chosen people to dispense, to build, Himself as life into their being to be their inner constitution. In this way He makes them God-men, the many sons of God (Heb. 2:10), the mass reproduction of Himself as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2). Thus, they, the human seeds, become the sons of God with divinity through the metabolic process of transformation (see note Rom. 12:2^3c and note Rom. 12:2^4d). This metabolic process is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and the house of God (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:20-22) by the building of God into man and man into God, i.e., by the constituting of the divine element into the human element and the human element into the divine element. This building will consummate in the New Jerusalem as a great, corporate God-man, the aggregate, the totality, of all the sons of God (Rev. 21:7).

Christ is the One who actually builds the church as God’s house, God’s temple (Matt. 16:18; 1 Tim. 3:15; Eph. 2:21), in reality. Christ is also the element in which and with which the church is built. Hence, Christ is the house, His Body (John 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 12:12), and Christ is also the seed, the Builder. Christ builds the church by building Himself into us, i.e., by entering into our spirit and spreading Himself from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to occupy our entire soul (Eph. 3:17). This building, a mingling of God’s divinity with our redeemed, resurrected, and uplifted humanity, becomes God’s habitation and our habitation — a mutual abode (John 14:23; 15:4). Eventually, this building will consummate in the New Jerusalem for eternity, in which God’s redeemed are the tabernacle for God to dwell in and God Himself is the temple for His redeemed to dwell in (Rev. 21:3, 22).

His kingdom in this verse refers to Christ’s kingdom (Luke 1:32-33). In the beginning of the New Testament Christ is introduced first as the son of David and then as the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). Christ is the son of David to fulfill God’s covenant with David introduced in this chapter, that God’s elect may be brought into the kingdom of the heavens and participate in the divine authority. Christ is the son of Abraham to fulfill God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:3; 15:1-21; 22:18) so that the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit could become the blessing of God’s elect as their divine inheritance (Gal. 3:14; Acts 26:18). In order to be the blessing to His people, God must have a kingdom on earth in which to exercise His administration under His full, divine authority. Hence, the preaching of the gospel in the New Testament charges us to first repent of our rebellion (Matt. 3:2; 4:17) and receive Christ as the son of David, as our King, that He may rule in us and over us in God’s kingdom. Under the Lord’s ruling in the kingdom, Christ as the son of Abraham brings us into the enjoyment of the Triune God as our blessing.