Faithfulness & Restoration in Marriage (1 Chronicles 3:9)

All these were David’s sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.
—1 Chronicles 3:9

So 1 Chronicles 3 is this list of a bunch of names of sons of David, then sons of Solomon, and basically their line. But this verse, verse 9, talks about how David had multiple wives and concubines, and it’s just one of those places in the Old Testament where we can almost read over this kind of casually, but we need to stop and realize this was not God’s will. God had said very clearly in his Word not to marry multiple wives and to be faithful to one spouse.

This is a picture we see all throughout the Bible: God’s command, and we see a lot of unfaithfulness to that command, even among people like David who are leaders. And I just, as we read this verse, I just want to lead us to pray for every single one of us who is a spouse. Then even for those who are single, who may be a spouse one day.

And even right now, you can still pray for others who are spouses, just to pray for faithfulness in marriages, that husbands and wives would be faithful to one another. I just think of all the different marriages who I’m sure even represented among those who are listening right now are struggling in different ways. I just want to pray over every marriage we know or we’re a part of right now.

1 Chronicles 3:9 reminds us to pursue marital faithfulness.

God, help us. In a world where, throughout history, there have been so many attacks on marriage and marital faithfulness, and this beautiful covenant that you established from the second chapter in the Bible between a husband and a wife to commit their lives to one another and to be one flesh. So God, we pray for every one of us who is a husband or a wife.

God, help us to be faithful to our spouse in every way: our thoughts, our desires, our words, our actions. God, help us to be faithful in ways that reflect your good design for marriage. Husbands, reflecting Christ’s love for the church, and the way we love and lay down our lives for our wives, God, help us to faithfully sacrifice for their good. And God, for wives to love their husbands as the church loves Christ. Oh, God, please bless marriages that we’re a part of, other marriages we’re thinking about right now, or marriages we may be a part of one day.

1 Chronicles 3:9 shows the mercy of God in the midst of sin.

God, we pray for faithfulness in marriage. And God, even as we pray that, I know that there are many who are listening right now who have experienced unfaithfulness in marriage, who have been unfaithful in marriage. And God, much like we see your grace in David’s life, we praise you for your grace in our lives. We praise you that our unfaithfulness does not disqualify us from your grace and your mercy. So I just—I pray, even as we pray for marriages, I pray for fresh healing over those who have been hurt in marriage, or those who sinned in marriage, or those who’ve been affected by broken marriages.

And God, we all pray together for struggling marriages right now that maybe we’re in or maybe we know of. God, we pray for your redeeming power in those marriages. We pray for humility in husbands and wives to do the work to repair that which is broken, looking to you, trusting in you and your power to restore and redeem.

A Prayer for the Chaungtha People

And God, as we pray for unreached people around the world, for the Chaungtha people today of Myanmar, almost 200,000 of them, God, we pray for husbands and wives and kids and the Chaungtha people, that they would all be reached with the gospel, the good news of your grace in Jesus, Jesus laying down his life for us, our salvation, their salvation, so that they might be saved and that they might then experience your good design for marriage as a reflection of the gospel. We pray that over the Chaungtha people. We pray for that in our own lives and marriages, and marriages around us and marriages to come. May it be so. Help us to be faithful in ways that reflect your good design for marriage. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.