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F I R S T C H R O N I C L E S
CHAP. XVII.
This excellent chapter is the same with
It will be worth while to look back upon what was there said upon it.
Two things in general we have in it:–
I. God’s gracious acceptance of David’s purpose to build him a house,
and the promise he made thereupon,
II. David’s gracious acceptance of God’s good promise to build him a
house, and the prayer he made thereupon,
| God’s Promise to David. | B. C. 1042. |
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1 Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David
said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in a house of cedars,
but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remaineth under
curtains.
2 Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart;
for God is with thee.
3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came
to Nathan, saying,
4 Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt
not build me a house to dwell in:
5 For I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought
up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and
from one tabernacle to another.
6 Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to
any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people,
saying, Why have ye not built me a house of cedars?
7 Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus
saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even
from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my
people Israel:
8 And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and
have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made
thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the
earth.
9 Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will
plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be
moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste
them any more, as at the beginning,
10 And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my
people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies.
Furthermore I tell thee that the LORD will build thee a house.
11 And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that
thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy
seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish
his kingdom.
12 He shall build me a house, and I will stablish his throne
for ever.
13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not
take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was
before thee:
14 But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for
ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.
15 According to all these words, and according to all this
vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Let us observe here,
I. How desirous and solicitous good people should be to serve the
interests of God’s kingdom in the world, to the utmost of their
capacity. David could not be easy in a house of cedar while the ark was
lodged within curtains,
v. 1.
The concerns of the public should always be near our hearts. What
pleasure can we take in our own prosperity if we see not the good of
Jerusalem? When David is advanced to wealth and power see what his
cares and projects are. Not, “What shall I do for my children to get
portions for them? What shall I do to fill my coffers and enlarge my
dominions?” But, “What shall I do for God, to serve and honour him?”
Those that are contriving where to bestow their fruits and their good
would do well to enquire what condition the ark is in, and whether some
may not be well bestowed upon it.
II. How ready God’s prophets should be to encourage every good purpose.
Nathan was no sooner aware of David’s good design than he bade him
go and do all that was within his heart
(v. 2),
for he had no reason to doubt but that God was with him in it.
Ministers should stir up the gifts and graces that are in others as
well as in themselves.
III. How little God affects external pomp and splendour in his service.
His ark was content with a tabernacle
(v. 5)
and he never so much as mentioned the building of a house for it; no,
not when he had fixed his people in great and goodly cities which they
builded not,
He commanded the judges to feed his people, but never bade them
build him a house,
v. 6.
We may well be content awhile with mean accommodations; God’s ark was
so.
IV. How graciously God accepts his people’s good purposes, yea, though
he himself prevents the performance of them. David must not build
this house,
v. 4.
He must prepare for it, but not do it; as Moses must bring Israel
within sight of Canaan, but must them leave it to Joshua to put them in
possession of it. It is the prerogative of Christ to be both the author
and finisher of his work. Yet David must not think that, because he was
not permitted to build the temple,
1. His preferment was in vain; no, “I took thee from the
sheep-cote, though not to be a builder of the temple, yet to be
ruler over my people Israel; that is honour enough for thee;
leave the other to one that shall come after thee,”
v. 7.
Why should one man think to engross all the business and to bring every
good work to perfection? Let something be left for those that succeed.
God had given him victories, and made him a name
(v. 8),
and, further, intended by him to establish his people Israel and secure
them against their enemies,
v. 9.
That must be his work, who is a man of war and fit for it, and
he must let the building of churches be left to one that was never cut
out for a soldier. Nor,
2. Must he think that his good purpose was in vain, and that he should
lose the reward of it; no, it being God’s act to prevent the execution
of it, he shall be as fully recompensed as if he had done it; “The
Lord will build thee a house, and annex the crown of Israel to it,”
If there be a willing mind, it shall not only be accepted, but thus
rewarded. Nor,
3. Must he think that because he might not do this good work
therefore it would never be done, and that it was in vain to think of
it; no, I will raise up thy seed, and he shall build me a house,
v. 11, 12.
God’s temple shall be built in the time appointed, though we may not
have the honour of helping to build it or the satisfaction of seeing it
built. Nor,
4. Must he confine his thoughts to the temporal prosperity of his
family, but must entertain himself with the prospect of the kingdom of
the Messiah, who should descend from his loins, and whose throne should
be established for evermore,
v. 14.
Solomon was not himself so settled in God’s house as he should have
been, nor was his family settled in the kingdom: “But there shall one
descend from thee whom I will settle in my house and in my kingdom,”
which intimates that he should be both a high priest over the house of
God and should have the sole administration of the affairs of God’s
kingdom among men, all power both in heaven and in earth, in the house
and in the kingdom, in the church and in the world. He shall be a
priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be
between them both, and he shall build the temple of the
Lord,
Zech. vi. 12, 13.
| David’s Grateful Acknowledgment. | B. C. 1042. |
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16 And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said,
Who am I, O LORD God, and what is mine house, that thou hast
brought me hitherto?
17 And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for
thou hast also spoken of thy servant’s house for a great while
to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of
high degree, O LORD God.
18 What can David speak more to thee for the honour of thy
servant? for thou knowest thy servant.
19 O LORD, for thy servant’s sake, and according to thine own
heart, hast thou done all this greatness, in making known all
these great things.
20 O LORD, there is none like thee, neither is there any
God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our
ears.
21 And what one nation in the earth is like thy people
Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make
thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations
from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?
22 For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people for
ever; and thou, LORD, becamest their God.
23 Therefore now, LORD, let the thing that thou hast spoken
concerning thy servant and concerning his house be established
for ever, and do as thou hast said.
24 Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified
for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel,
even a God to Israel: and let the house of David thy servant
be established before thee.
25 For thou, O my God, hast told thy servant that thou wilt
build him a house: therefore thy servant hath found in his
heart to pray before thee.
26 And now, LORD, thou art God, and hast promised this goodness
unto thy servant:
27 Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy
servant, that it may be before thee for ever: for thou blessest,
O LORD, and it shall be blessed for ever.
We have here David’s solemn address to God, in answer to the gracious
message he had now received from him. By faith he receives the
promises, embraces them, and is persuaded of them, as the patriarchs,
How humbly does he here abase himself, and acknowledge his own
unworthiness! How highly does he advance the name of God and admire his
condescending grace and favour! With what devout affections does he
magnify the God of Israel and what a value has he for the Israel of
God! With what assurance does he build upon the promise, and with what
a lively faith does he put it in suit! What an example is this to us of
humble, believing, fervent prayer! The Lord enable us all thus to seek
him! These things were largely observed,
We shall therefore here observe only those few expressions in which the
prayer, as we find it here, differs from the record of it there, and
has something added to it.
I. That which is there expressed by way of question (Is this the
manner of men, O Lord God?) is here an acknowledgment: “Thou
hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree.
Thou hast made me a great man, and then treated me accordingly.” God,
by the covenant-relations into which he admits believers, the titles he
gives them, the favours he bestows on them, and the preparations he has
made for them, regards them according to the estate of men of high
degree, though they are mean and vile. Having himself distinguished
them, he treats them as persons of distinction, according to the
quality he has been pleased to put upon them. Some give these words
here another reading: “Thou hast looked upon me in the form of a man
who art in the highest, the Lord God; or, Thou hast made me to
see according to the form of a man the majesty of the Lord God.”
And so it points at the Messiah; for, as Abraham, so David, saw his day
and was glad, saw it by faith, saw it in fashion as a man, the Word
made flesh, and yet saw his glory as that of the
only-begotten of the Father. And this was that which God spoke
concerning his house for a great while to come, the foresight of which
affected him more than any thing. And let it not be thought strange
that David should speak so plainly of the two natures of Christ who in
spirit called him Lord, though he knew he was to be his
Son
(Ps. cx. 1),
and foresaw him lower than the angels for a little while, but
afterwards crowned with glory and honour,
Heb. ii. 6, 7.
II. After the words What can David say more unto thee, it is
here added, for the honour of they servant?
v. 18.
Note, The honour God puts upon his servants, by taking them into
covenant and communion with himself, is so great that they need not,
they cannot, desire to be more highly honoured. Were they to sit down
and wish, they could not speak more for their own honour than the word
of God has spoken.
III. It is very observable that what in Samuel is said to be for thy
word’s sake is here said to be for thy servant’s sake,
v. 19.
Jesus Christ is both the Word of God
and the servant of God
(Isa. xlii. 1),
and it is for his sake, upon the score of his meditation, that the
promises are both made and made good to all believers; it is in him
that they are yea and amen. For his sake is all kindness done,
for his sake it is made known; to him we owe all this greatness and
from him we are to expect all these great things; they are the
unsearchable riches of Christ, which, if by faith we see in
themselves and see in the hand of the Lord Jesus, we cannot but magnify
as great things, the only true greatness, and speak honourably of
accordingly.
IV. In Samuel, the Lord of hosts is said to be the God over
Israel; here he is said to be the God of Israel, even a God to
Israel,
v. 24.
His being the God of Israel bespeaks his having the name of
their God and so calling himself; his being a God to
Israel bespeaks his answering to the name, his filling up the relation,
and doing all that to them which might be expected from him. There were
those that were called gods of such and such nations, gods of
Assyria and Egypt, gods of Hamad and Arpad; but they were no gods to
them, for they stood them in no stead at all, were mere ciphers,
nothing but a name. But the God of Israel is a God to
Israel; all his attributes and perfections redound to their real
benefit and advantage. Happy therefore, thrice happy, is the people
whose God is Jehovah; for he will be a God to them, a God
all-sufficient.
V. The closing words in Samuel are, With thy blessing let the house
of thy servant be blessed forever. That is the language of a holy
desire. But the closing words here are the language of a most holy
faith: For thou blessest, O Lord! and it shall be blessed for
ever,
v. 27.
1. He was encouraged to beg a blessing because God had intimated to him
that he had blessings in store for him and his family: “Thou
blessest, O Lord! and therefore unto thee shall all flesh come for
a blessing; unto thee do I come for the blessing promised to me.”
Promises are intended to direct and excite prayer. Has God said, I
will bless? Let our hearts answer, Lord, bless me,
2. He was earnest for the blessing because he believed that those whom
God blesses are truly and eternally blessed: Thou blessest, and it
shall be blessed. Men can but beg the blessing; it is God
that commands it. What he designs he effects; what he promises
he performs; saying and doing are not two things with him. Nay, it
shall be blessed for ever. His blessings shall not be revoked,
cannot be opposed, and the benefits conferred by them are such as will
survive time and days. David’s prayer concludes as God’s promise did
(v. 14)
with that which is for ever. God’s word looks at things eternal,
and so should our desires and hopes.
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