IV. The confession which David makes. (J. Wolfendale.)
The testimony of a noble life
I. In his choice to the throne God displays His sovereignty.
II. In his acquisition of the kingdom God manifests His providence.
III. In his son’s succession to the throne God fulfils His promise. (J. Wolfendale.)
He shall build My house.--
The material and the spiritual temple
I. The jewish dispensation mainly external.
1. Sacrifices.
2. Types.
3. Observances.
4. Priestly caste.
5. Sacred buildings.
II. Reasons for this.
1. Early age of the world, revelation, and human thought.
2. Necessity of strong stamps to impress the nation in its youth, and keep it separate from heathendom.
3. Consequent necessity of indulging it in manifold visible symbols.
4. The repetition and induration of signs prepared the way for the purely mental reign of the Messiah.
III. Hence the function of the tabernacle and the temple.
1. As the place where God had demonstrably set His name.
2. Where the visible glory had been and could be seen at a due crisis.
3. Where the embodied signs of the covenant were stored.
4. As the house of sacrifice (2Ch_7:12).
5. As the house of prayer (Isa_56:7).
6. As the symbol of unity in worship (2Ch_32:12).
7. As God’s own dwelling-place (1Ki_6:12; 1Ki_6:18).
IV. After its pollution and pillage.
1. By Shishak (1Ki_14:25-26).
2. Under Jehoash (2Ki_12:17).
3. Under Ahaz (2Ki_16:14).
4. Under Hezekiah (2Ki_18:13).
Its sanctity had been impaired through the defections of the people. Spiritual religion began afterwards to grow, so that Isaiah was able to proclaim before the captivity (Isa_66:1-2). “Heaven is My throne . . . what house will ye build Me? saith the Lord”; Malachi was able decisively to prophesy (Mal_1:11), “In every place incense shall be offered to My name.” The old worship was gradually ceasing to fulfil its function; the new dispensation of the law of the Spirit and of liberty was coming in; and at last the Messiah declared irrevocably that old things were passed away, and that the hour was coming when neither in Gerizim nor in Jerusalem the Father should be worshipped, no more for ever, locally or visibly, but only truly with the inner worship of spirit and of truth. This was a great point with St. Stephen (Act_7:48) and St. Paul (Act_17:24).
V. What is the spiritual temple by which Christ replaced the old honoured visible sign?
1. The whole invisible company of those who are righteous through faith (1Pe_2:4; Isa_57:15; 1Co_3:16).
2. The body of every true son of God (1Co_6:19; Joh_14:13).
3. In heaven, the special pervading presence of the Almighty (Rev_21:22; Act_17:28).
VI. What, then, are Christian places of worship?
1. Not representatives of the temple, but of the synagogue.
2. In all places where Christians meet for meditation and prayer Christ is equally present (Mat_18:20).
3. Venerable and solemn merely from association, intention, and consent.
4. All adornment of them a question of edification for the congregation.
5. No one part of them more holy than another except by association.
VII. Moral reasons of this in the Christian economy.
1. Danger of putting trust in anything short of God Himself in His own immediate moral relations to the soul.
2. Temptation to set our affection on things below instead of things above, and making our worship one of act instead of disposition and the intelligence.
3. Tendency of all religious bodies to idolatrise their symbols.
VIII. Lesson: to avoid superstition. (W M. Sinclair,M. A.)
And leave it for an inheritance.
The Christian inheritance
Good and great men have always been jealous for the cause of God in the world, and when about to die, that feeling has sometimes been intensified. Moses, Eli, etc.
I. The estate of Christ’s Church is an inheritance. It consists of the knowledge of the triune God, our relations to Him and our obligations as revealed to us in His Word.
II. This inheritance is yours.
III. The forces which would bring wreck and ruin to this inheritance. Sacerdotalism on the one hand, rationalism on the other. (Bp. Baker.)
