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1Ch_17:1
We may easily imagine how the excitement, though not the deeper interest, attending the removal of the ark and the festival on occasion of its safe establishment on Zion had now subsided. David's thoughts respecting the honour due to God and to the ark of the covenant had time to grow into convictions, and they were greatly and rightly stimulated by reflection on his own surroundings of comfort, of safety, of stability and splendour. He revolves the possible methods and the right methods of showing that honour due. The completion of his own house, one presumably fit for the permanent abode of the King of Israel (1Ch_14:1), is the clear demonstration to him that the ark should not dwell in a mere tent. It is a true touch of life, when it is written that as David sat in his house these thoughts possessed him, and so strongly. The exact time, however, here designed, and the exact occasion of his revealing the thoughts that burned within him, to Nathan, do not appear either here or in the parallel place. In the opinion of some, an indication of some interval having elapsed is found in the words (2Sa_7:1), "The Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies;" while others consider those words to refer to the victories gained over the Philistines, as recorded in 1Ch_14:1-17. Nathan the prophet. This name suddenly breaks upon us, without any introduction, here for the first time. Nathan is emphatically entitled "the prophet," but perhaps merely to distinguish him from Nathan, David's eighth son. Amid many other important references to Nathan, and which speak for themselves, must be specially noted 1Ch_29:29; 2Ch_9:29. And it will be noticed from the former of these references, in particular how Nathan is the prophet ( äÇâÈÌáÄéà ); not (like Samuel and Gad) seer ( äÈøÉàÆä or äÇúÉåÆä ). Possibly he is intended in 1Ki_4:5. An house of cedars. The cedar here spoken of does, of course, not answer to our red, odorous cedar. The word employed is àÆøÆæ , in the plural number. The first Biblical use of this word is found in Le 1Ki_14:4, 1Ki_14:6, 49-52. It is derived by Gesenius from an obsolete word àÈøÇæ , from the grip and the firmness of its roots. It is probably the derived signification, therefore, that should be adhered to (as in the Authorized Version), and not the original, where in Eze_27:24, the plural of the passive participial is found, "made of cedar," not with A. Schultens, "made fast." The cedar genus belonging to the order Coniferae, is odoriferous, very lasting, and without knots. The numerous good qualities which it possesses are spoken to in the variety of uses, and good kind of uses, to which it was put—these all crowned by the almost solitary spiritualized appropriation of the tree, found in Psa_92:12. From a comparison of 1Ki_5:6, 1Ki_5:8 (in the Hebrew, 20, 22) with 2Ch_2:3, 2Ch_2:8, and some other passages, we may be led to believe that the cedar as the name of timber was used occasionally very generically. Nevertheless, the very passages in question instance by name the other specific kinds of wood. Two of the chief kinds of cedar were the Lebanon and the Deodara, which is said not to have grown in Syria, but abounds in the Himalayas. And as the use of the Lebanon cedar for some purposes (e.g. for the masts of ships) is almost out of the question, it is exceedingly probable that this Deodars and some other varieties of pines are comprehended under the eh-rez. Dean Stanley points out what may be described as very interesting moral landmark uses of the celebrated cedars of Lebanon, in those passages which speak of Solomon's sweep of knowledge, commencing in the dewing direction from them (1Ki_4:33), of the devouring fire that should begin with the bramble and reach high up to those cedars (in Jotham's parable, Jdg_9:15), and (in the parable of Joash, King of Israel, to Amaziah, King of Judah, 2Ch_25:18) of the contempt with which the family of the cedars of Lebanon is supposed to hear of the matrimonial overtures of the family of the thistles of Lebanon. Stanley's pages are full of interest on the subject of the cedars of Lebanon. Cedar was the choice wood for pillars and beams, boarding and ceiling of the finest houses; and alike the first and second temples (Ezr_3:7) depended upon the supply of it. Under curtains. Here rightly in the plural, though our parallel (2Sa_7:2) shows the singular (Exo_26:1-13; Exo_36:8-19).
1Ch_17:2
This verse gives Nathan's response on the spur of the moment. And that it was not radically wrong from a prophet may be inferred from the stress afterwards laid upon the acceptableness to God of what had been in the heart of David to do. Even with God, silence would sometimes be understood by a prophet to be equivalent to assent.
1Ch_17:3
The express word of God came, however, that same night. It proved to be an overruling word. But it brought with it the point of a fresh and most welcome new departure for David. We might glean here by the way a suggestion of the beneficent operation of express revelation, superseding the thought, the method, the reason of man.
1Ch_17:4-15
These verses are the unfolding to David of the magnificent and far-stretching purposes of God's grace towards him in his son Solomon and his descendants for ever. The revelation is made by the mouth of Nathan.
1Ch_17:4
Thou shalt not build. The Hebrew marks the personal pronoun here as emphatic, "Not thou shalt build," i.e. but some one else. In the parallel this prohibition is conveyed by that interrogative particle which expects the answer No, and may be thus translated: "Is it thou shalt build for me," etc.?
1Ch_17:5
This verse contains the three terms—house, tent, tabernacle (see notes on 1Ch_16:1). Gesenius observes that when the Hebrew of the last two words is used distinctively, the tent describes the outer coverings of the twelve curtains; and the tabernacle, the ten inner curtains and framework as well, in other words, the whole equipment of the well-known tabernacle. As compared with the version we have here, the parallel place speaks an almost pathetic condescension, "I was a shifting traveller in tent and tabernacle." God meant to remind David how surely and faithfully he had shared the pilgrim lot and unsettledness of his people. What most holy the tabernacle contained was herein a type of the bodily tabernacle of Jesus Christ in later times.
1Ch_17:6
The judges of Israel. The substitution of the Hebrew character beth for pe, in the word "judges," would make it "tribes," and bring it into harmony with the parallel place. But the succeeding clause, Whom I commanded to feed my people, would rather suggest that the parallel place, which adds the same clause, should be brought into harmony with this (see again 1Ch_17:10 of this chapter). The general meaning and the gracious spirit underlying it is evident enough. God had never made a suggestion to tribe, or leader of tribe, nor to judge, who had been temporarily raised up to lead, and so to feed, all his people Israel, to build him an house. He had shared their lot, and had shared it unmurmuringly. He also "had not opened his mouth" (1Ki_8:12-16; 1Ch_28:3, 1Ch_28:4; Psa_78:67-71). Note also the expression, "I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel" (1Ki_8:16). It is to be remarked that we learn from 1Ch_22:8 and 1Ch_28:3 the fuller causes why David was not to be permitted to be the builder of the house. It is not apparent why those causes are not recited here. The same remark applies to the parallel place.
1Ch_17:7
I took thee. (So 1Sa_16:11, 1Sa_16:12; 2Sa_7:8; Psa_78:1-72 :80.) The sheepcote. The Hebrew ðÈæÆä strictly signifies a resting or place of resting. Hence the habitation of men or of animals, and in particular the pasture in which flocks lie down and rest (Psa_23:2, plural construction; Job_5:24; Hos_9:13; Jer_23:3; Jer_49:20). The sheepcote was sometimes a tower, with roughly built high wall, exposed to the sky at the top, used for protection from wild beasts at night; sometimes the sheepfold was a larger low building of different shape, to which a fenced courtyard was adjacent, where the peril of cold or of wild beast was less imminent. The word of our present passage, however, cannot be compared with these places; comp. rather Exo_15:13; 2Sa_15:25; Isa_33:20; Isa_65:10; Hos_9:13, as above.
1Ch_17:8
And have made thee. This may be rendered and will make thee; in which ease the promise to David commences with this rather than the following clause.
1Ch_17:9
All the verbs of this verse are in the same tense as those of the foregoing verse, which are correctly translated. For an expression similar to the last clause of the verse, Neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, may be found in Psa_89:22.
1Ch_17:10
This verse should read on continuously with the preceding, as far as to the word "enemies." The time here denoted will stretch from the people's occupation of the laud to the death of Saul, as the expression, "at the beginning," in 1Ch_17:9, will point to the experience of Egyptian oppression. Will build thee an house; i.e. will guarantee thee an unfailing line of descendants.
1Ch_17:11
The promise is now, not to "David and his seed," but to David personally. The verse contains, no doubt, the original of the Apostle Peter's quotation (Act_2:29, Act_2:30; see also Act_13:34; Luk_1:32, Luk_1:33). The last clause of this verse has Solomon, for the object of its pronoun "his."
1Ch_17:12-14
The reference of these promises was also to Solomon, and to him they were faithfully fulfilled. They were early perceived to be prophecies also, and of the highest significance and application (Psa_89:26-37; Isa_9:7; Isa_55:3, Isa_55:4; Jer_23:5, Jer_23:6; Jer_33:17-21; Zec_6:12, Zec_6:13; Heb_1:5; Heb_3:6). The alternative of the "son who commits iniquity" (2Sa_7:14) is omitted from the middle of our thirteenth verse. The latter half of 1Ch_17:13 manifestly purports to say, "I will not take my mercy away from Solomon, as I did take it away from Saul." The close of our fourteenth verse is in the parallel place (2Sa_7:16) distinctly referred to David, with the use of the second person possessive pronoun.
1Ch_17:16-27
These verses contain David's response to the gracious communication which had been made to him, and thanksgivings for the promise made to him as regards his seed. His appreciation of the contents of that promise is expressed in a manner which would seem to indicate that he was not altogether untaught, even then, by the Spirit of some of the deeper significance of the far-reaching promise.
1Ch_17:16
Sat before the Lord; i.e. before the ark. It has surprised many that it should be said that David sat before the Lord, in the act of prayer or devotion. But this was not altogether unusual (1Ki_19:4) in the first place; and then, secondly, it is not quite clear that this is said. Possibly he sat awaiting first some such token as he might know how to construe into the presence of Jehovah, and into his gracious vouchsafing to give him audience, and thereupon he may have altered his attitude. Confessedly, however, the other is the morn natural reading.
1Ch_17:17
David here makes a clear sad very just difference between all that had been done for him, and the very great prospect now in addition put before him: Thou… hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree; i.e. thou hast treated me, or dealt with me, in this promise as though [ had been of high rank indeed. The parallel reading is very concise (2Sa_7:19), and perhaps somewhat obscure, "And is this the manner [or, 'law'] of man?" or, "And this is to be a law of man," i.e. this continuity of a great while to come. Elliptical as this reading may seem, there is no real difficulty in feeling its essential harmony with the passage before us. David's unfeigned surprise and joy in the "great while to come" nature of the promises made to him and his house overpower all else in his estimation. It is, indeed, a most opportune emphasis that he lays upon this element of the full promise, and accords exceptionally well with our later knowledge and brighter light. Our Authorized Version rendering throws out sufficiently this surprise, and gives not inadequately the drift of the passage. The continuity and exaltedness of the promise, which was only fully realized in the greater Son of David, the Christ, might well astonish David.
1Ch_17:18
Thy servant. The Septuagint Version has not got these words on their first occurrence. They may have found their way in wrongfully out of the next clause. They are not found in the parallel place. If they remain, they can mean nothing else than "How can David further acknowledge the honour conferred on thy servant,"—a sense by no means far-fetched.
1Ch_17:19
For thy servant's sake. The parallel place reads, "For thy word's sake." This reading is superior, and well suits the connection, suggesting also whether the first occurrence of the word "servant" in the previous verse might not be similarly explained. The similarity of the characters of the words in the Hebrew would render easy the exchange of the one word for the other.
1Ch_17:21
In the parallel verse (2Sa_7:23), our Authorized Version, following the Hebrew text ( ìÀëÆí ), reads, "To do for you great things and terrible." The transition is awkward, no way in harmony with the other short clauses of the passage, and it would be inexplicable except for the alternative open to us, of regarding it as a quotation from Deu_4:34, brought in regardless of the context into which it was introduced. The difficulty does not meet us in our present passage, being obviated by the other sentences of our compiler. Both places, however, manifestly quote from the Book of Deuteronomy, with the grand passages and grand verbiage of which we may well imagine David familiar. A similar familiarity is also betokened in the following verses, as regard other Pentateuchal passages.
1Ch_17:22
Didst thou make. This appears in Samuel, "Thou didst confirm."
1Ch_17:24
The Hebrew text reads here naturally enough, And let be established and magnified for ever thy Name. The "established" in the last clause of the verse is not the same word with that used here.
1Ch_17:27
The marginal, It hath pleased thee, is the correcter rendering of the Hebrew here, though the parallel place exhibits the imperative mood. That it may be before thee for ever. The fulfilment of these words can be found in the Messiah alone (comp. Psa_2:6-12).
The contents of this chapter afford general aspects of great interest and of great importance. It is not often that we can do more than surmise the real use and intent of the life of a fellow-creature, or indeed even of one's self. Certain it is that from the beginning none can see to the end, and the lip that presumes to prophesy of the child or of the young man, prophesies at least as often vainly as correctly. Nor in the midst of life, its heyday of joy and vigour, or its day of enforced reflection and calmer retrospect, is the power very materially added to that would enable to gauge the life at all adequately, its genius, its measure of usefulness or success, or the place it should be justly counted to win in the universal race. While, lastly, the biographer's verdict—whatever the increased and enlarged opportunity of his horoscope—is among those things that are notorious for the suspicion they arouse. But here we have very much of a Divine pronouncement on the work of a life. And that this should occur in the case of David, harmonizes well with what Paul remarked (Act_13:36) respecting him: "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption." His life is not yet closed, his work not yet finished; but on a remarkable occasion a voice from heaven speaks of it, at the same time that it also speaks to it. David is taught his place; it is his own fault if he is not greatly assisted to learn his own character, and to see, plain as a sunbeam, his life's duty, or what remains of it. The chapter exhibits a parable true in large part of it of many a life, yet in a very great proportion of those lives true still only like a parable, unknown, unacknowledged, while life's best part is being lived. It shows —
I. A LIFE LONG SPENT IN SOME OBEDIENCE TO DIVINE MONITIONS AND PRINCIPLE SUDDENLY SEEMING TO LIFT ITSELF UP FOR ITS HIGHEST EFFORTS GOD-WARD. It cannot be said nor thought that the life of David, when a boy, had been an irreligious life—a life thoughtless of God, his ways and works, or defiant towards him. All the indications are to the contrary. From very earliest manhood, we know as fact that David's life had been remarkably answerable to Divine interposition, reverently received, gratefully and modestly acknowledged. Further, through the best and proudest of life's days that life had been so baulked, so endangered, so keenly exercised, that it were not too much to say that even nature would have taught it some religion, and that it was glad to keep near to the mighty Friend. Yet had it known many a lapse, many a weariness, many an hour of faint faith, many an impure or very mixed motive. There can be no doubt, however, that hitherto the victory had always been of the good. Its greatest temptations were now upon it, when ease, peace, grandeur, luxury, were its lot. It bears the strain, and at the very time seems gathering together its strength for its supreme religious effort. Heart and conscience approve. Nay, a nation's heart and conscience join to approve. Conscious human purpose and love offer themselves volunteers for Divine work. Can there be a doubt of their acceptableness? At all events there proves to be a refusal of some sort to their acceptance.
II. A LIFE LONG AND BRAVELY SPENT IN THE EXERCISE OF ALL ITS OWN ACTIVE ENERGIES SUDDENLY DISCOVERED STRICTLY BOUND BY DIVINE CONTROL. David had been no passive recipient of Divine favour and protection. He had been constrained to employ all his own best judgment, talents, effort, and to add thereto many a loud and hearty and impassioned prayer for help, mercy, deliverance. Judging from what we know of human nature, of our own nature, we should not have wondered if the latter exercises of the soul had often seemed lost in comparison of the former energies of the mind and body. But again it turns out that it was not really so. In this character we do not have to do with the restless, brooding, defiant soul, of one who feels so pressed by circumstance that he cannot wait for priest, or prophet, or his God, but must act for himself and by himself. No; a blank refusal evokes from David the testimony that. he holds himself practically and intelligently to the distinct order of a master. He knows control, submits to control, promptly and gracefully answers to it.
III. A LIFE THAT THROUGH A LONG TIME HAD BEEN UNABLE TO SEE THE REASON OF ITSELF, AND TO WHAT IT WAS TO LEAD, AND WHERE THE STRANGE VICISSITUDE SHOULD END, SUDDENLY AUTHORITATIVELY INFORMED THAT IT WAS AND ALL THE WHILE HAD BEEN TRIBUTARY TO HIGHEST ENDS. God tells David that from "the sheepcote" to his present "house of cedars" he had been with him, he had been training him, he had been evoking good out of all evil, for him personally and for all his people Israel. He had not been living, working, suffering, rejoicing, anguished with fear and cruelty, buoyant with hope and victory, for nothing, nor for a spasmodic, theatric, sensational display, nor for a mockery of collapse at last. No; it was to make him a name, and a great name, and a name divinely and historically through all time worth having—a model ruler, a model king, and a blessing to his people Israel. All the while, from the first breathing of David's name to this present, David had been drawn through a career which, all appearances notwithstanding, had been tributary to Divine results. What firmness, what confidence, what glory, is it to any life that can embrace this creed, and that believes it with the heart!
IV. A LIFE THAT HAD BEEN CONDUCTED THROUGH EXTREMES OF EXPERIENCE, AND MANY AN HUMILIATING VARIETY AMONG THEM, IS NOW APPRISED THAT IT IS ADMITTED TO PARTICIPATION IN FULFILLING THE VERY HIGHEST OF DIVINE COUNSEL. It is what astounds David beyond all else. It is what rejoices him above all else. It is what more than compensates for all the past. It pours streams of enraptured joy and corresponding vigour through all his nature. What thanks come from his lip! What adoring praise wells up from his heart! What prayer—a veritable "making request with joy"—he has strength and confidence to pour forth! HIS gladness for himself (whoso purpose was just denied) and for his people is indistinguishably mingled—one with his gladness in his God, the incomparable God of Israel, Lord of hosts, to whom there is none like for "greatness," for "terribleness," for "goodness," and for the "eternal blessedness" of his "blessing." Such was the course, such the fulfilment, such the final "manifestation," in that early "day of revelation," of one human life under heavenly guidance and Divine benediction. And it utters forth a parable for every true servant of God which little needs an interpretation.
1Ch_17:1.-A lust consideration of one's own position in life an incentive to works of practical piety.
Up to this point the life of David had been, to a remarkable degree, one of action. From childhood upward it is likely that he had passed little enough time which could be called idle time. The first employment, however, in which he had been engaged, that of the shepherd, may be safely presumed to have fostered the power of contemplation as well as of action, and to have been distinctly favourable to meditation. There can be little doubt that the very germs of the moral reflection which the psalms of later life manifest in such rich abundance took their origin thence. The grandeur of the aspects of external nature were thence suggested to him many a time, in strange contrast to many of the aspects of human life and the individual character. And again, from the same source of personal knowledge, at a glance, and quick as the twinkling of an eye, he saw the analogy that obtained between the works of nature and those of providence. Most noticeable, likewise, is it, that David rarely enough speaks in the slightest approach to the temper of the censorious critic of others, or of men in general. When his meditation is most comprehensive, and his deliverance universal in its application, it is perhaps even too plain, rather than not plain enough, that they come forth strongly marked with the impress of personal conviction, personal struggle of thought, personal experience. Nor is it likely that the months and years of his fearing and persecuted life had passed without much and deep thought. These are the realities of life that make to think those who have a mind to think. Amazed, pathetic, melancholy, and anon all strong in faith and buoyant with confidence, were the thoughts that paced what none would deny, were the ample spaces of the large mind of David. Yet perhaps, what with personal fear and danger, wars and rumours of wars, and an ever-increasing load of responsibility, succeeded now, and somewhat suddenly, by greatness and prosperity, his care of late had been somewhat too self-regarding. He has made his position—at all events, his position is made. His home is no longer the den and cave of the earth; he has builded himself a mansion of mansions—at all events, such a mansion is builded for him. We wait with interest and anxiety to know how he will use these great gifts, with what sort of heart and hand he will address himself to them. We do not wait very long, nor to be disappointed in the event. David shows that he is moved by a right principle himself, and he exhibits that principle in a very simple manner, the convenient example for all others. Let us observe —
I. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE, THAT IN WHAT A MAN HAS, OR IN WHAT HE IS HIMSELF, HE FINDS THE SUGGESTION THAT BEARS UPON OTHERS. This principle is the prohibition of selfishness, absolute and pure. It is one of the most elementary, most radical, most significant of the distinctions of the nature of man, as containing a moral element, and the nature of the brute presumably devoid of any such element, Resident as it is almost within the sphere of the mere mental qualities of human nature, unless destroyed or impaired first by causes of a moral complexion, it is nature's own simplest assertion and easiest illustration of the outrage it must be on all creation's design in man, when any one "liveth to himself" to such a degree as to disown it practically. To exemplify this principle both consciously and unconsciously, alike instinctively and intelligently, is to remain one of the brotherhood of humanity; to disacknowledge it, or to fail in practice to acknowledge it, is to exclude one's self, an impoverished and miserable outcast, from the comity of the family as such.
II. THE PRINCIPLE THAT IN WHAT A MAN HAS HIMSELF OF GOOD, HE FINDS THE SUGGESTION WAKENED IN HIM TO SEEK THE ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS. There are not a few who, thinking they have nothing or little, will think of others quickly, but only to compare themselves disparagingly to God's providence with them. There are not a few who, knowing that they have much, will promptly think of others, but it is to feed the ill nature within them, on envy of those who have more than they. And there are those who, having all that heart could wish and hands can hold, think that it is all absolutely so their own, that to think of others is only to think that they are without part or lot in the matter. They owe none of it to God's gift. They owe none of it to man's help. They have gained and they have risen, all thanks and all credit only to themselves. And all that they have and all that they are is to and for themselves. But there are in human nature different dictates from these. There are those who compare themselves with others, to wonder unfeignedly why God has made them to differ, and in deepest humility to acknowledge their indebtedness to him. There are these who from the heart believe that "it is more blessed to give than to receive," and whose first dictate is to give of all which they gain. They know and heed well the word that reminded them once," Freely ye have received, freely give," and they have found for themselves that there is no life they so really have as that they give. Alike those who long to have but think they have not, and those who beyond question have, and have much, need most to be reminded what things possession, and large possession, has proved its power to effect. It is very apt to kill sympathy, to chill charity, to ingrain selfishness, and to create the overweening and haughty temper. Happy indeed when the contrary holds good, and that which should be in the nature God once created, exists and is still manifest. This was the case now with David, in spite of the peril in which he was placed. He had already abundantly shown that in all his own good he wished others to take a share.
III. THE PRINCIPLE OF BEING STIMULATED BY THE EXPERIENCE AND ENJOYMENT OF ONE'S OWN GOOD TO SEEK THE GOOD OF OTHERS, PRESENTED NOW IN ONE OF THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE OF ITS APPLICATIONS. The visible object of David's loving and sympathetic anxiety is now no longer human; it is the ark of God. Everything helps favour and set forth happily the example here given to us. Though the words are so few, the description so brief, it is a very living impression which they combine to produce upon us. It is not so often that the imagery of the East, the life of three thousand years ago, and the very language of the Old Testament, so accord for a moment with our own modern habits and feeling. We are invited to see David at ease in his own new house. He sits in that house. A friend and sacred friend, a prophet, is with him. He has been thinking many a time of that which he now resolves to put upon his lip, and confide to his prophet-friend. He has a house now for the first time, it may be said, in all his life. It is his own, and in every way his own, built for him and built by him. He knows every piece of cedar in it, and every block of stone. This means comfort for a man who has had a very driven, anxious, wearying life. It means stability for a man who was ordered about at first, hunted about secondly, and more lately in his own responsibility has been compelled to strain every nerve to meet the urgencies of his position. It means also safety, for David is now undisputed and sole king of all the land. And it means splendour exceeding all that his nation had ever known, and all that surrounding nations had known. That grand new house, however, would never have been the joy and satisfaction it is but that other work of his hand had been blessed, and the ark is in Zion. Yes, but the ark is not housed so worthily as David is himself, whereas he feels justly that it should be entertained far more worthily. It appears that it is not human sympathy merely which warms the heart of David. The principle is great and sacred, but there is for all that something which is higher, more sacred still. David would do honour to the God of the ark in finding a worthy temple-canopy for the ark of God. He believes in the Church of the living God, and in the living God of the Church. The "invisible appears in sight;" his gaze, his thought, his heart, are all held by it. He would spend untold labour, lavish unmeasured wealth, summon the pick of all the earth's wisdom and art and skill, in the service of him, who nevertheless needs no richest gifts of man, because all the wealth of all the universe is his. And David's thought is acceptable, and his purpose is right. There is the unwonted nobility of a spiritual purview about it. The homage of the heart is indisputably there. Practical faith is there. The merit of a grand national, ay, and universal, example is there. Here is no covert showing of sympathy, and giving of gift, and rendering of honour due, with indirect calculations and sidelong glances of how much shall come back in kind from admiring and surrounding and obsequious courtiers and friend. No, the servant is in the presence of the Master. The subject before the King of kings. The creature before the great Creator. The blessed dependent before the sole Giver of all good. And this fills him with shame, with humility, with impassioned desire, and the worship of practical piety. I, who have received all, and am but what God has given and God made me, dwell in a house of cedar, while the ark of his covenant remaineth under curtains!
LESSONS.
1. There is doubtless no position in human life but has sufficient cause of thankfulness to stir up men of grateful heart to the exercise of compassion toward their fellow-creatures, and to the service and devotion of God.
2. But there is a law going further. It should be observed that for all increase of worldly good, strength, comfort, wealth, splendour, more sympathy with others, more compassion and charity toward them, should be yielded by the heart, and likewise more service and devotedness to God.
3. The highest and the surest forms of sympathy are those that obtain between man, and the Invisible, Spiritual, Eternal.
1Ch_17:2-5.-God's obstructions of the good purposes of men, and the uses of such obstructions.
The greatest trials of man's faith lie in the working of the sovereignty of God. Yet there is not an individual attribute of the Creator to be yielded to him more unreservedly than this same sovereignty, which may be said to include in it the rights of many an attribute. The Divine frustration of our purposes, disappointment of our hopes, and summary determination of many a life that we thought made for the highest service, often enough elude all the acumen of our reason, and bring to nought in one moment the pride of creature-wisdom. But so soon as ever we are recovered from the first severity of the blow and from the deep prostration which it has inferred, it is always left to us to search for, gather, and compare the relative uses that may attend cases of this description of suffering. We may vainly seek the reason, as vainly as try to search the immortal mind itself; but far from vainly shall we attempt to observe attendant uses and lessons. Human wisdom is, indeed, never in so fair a way for increase and improvement as when thus engaged. The present narrative contains little or nothing of difficulty, however, either in respect of finding the reasons of God's prohibition, in the instance before us, or in respect of gathering the lessons and uses suggested by that prohibition. Let us notice —
I. THE REASONS, SO FAR AS HERE GIVEN, OF GOD'S DENIAL OF DAVID IN THE GOOD PURPOSE OF HIS HEART. It is remarkable that neither this passage nor the parallel to it states the one of these reasons on which the real stress would have been supposed to fall. We will notice this, therefore, in its place (1Ch_22:8), inasmuch as the silence about it here is entire. We must not pass unnoticed, however, one and perhaps the only sign of an explanation of this silence which we can find. In both this and the parallel place the historian speaks. In 1Ch_22:8, 1Ch_28:3, where all the facts are boldly stated, it is the noble-hearted David himself who speaks; and in 1Ki_5:3, where we have what may be called an intermediate account as regards fulness, the son Solomon speaks. Equally honourable to the historian and to David himself are these circumstances, to whatever further use they lend themselves. And no distant analogies will the New Testament yield, as e.g. when it is not the Evangelist John who will record some shortcoming of Peter, where Peter himself would have made clean breast of it all, with noble spirit of confession and self-surrender. Confining ourselves, then, to the reasons recorded in our present passage, they must stand confessed as of the most condescending and touching description. We must notice, first, that the reasons assigned for the refusal of permission to David to build do not carry the slightest reflection on him or his character, or the character of his foregoing life—the matter is viewed now not from the "standpoint" of David at all, but, if that may be reverently said by human lip which is so graciously done by Divine act, from the "standpoint" of the Divine Personage himself; and secondly, that those reasons do not exclude from consideration the fulfilment of the purpose of David's heart, but only his own fulfilment of that purpose. "Praying breath," sings one, "is never spent in vain." And holy purpose and noble religious ambition are not learn and nourished in vain. They often fulfil more purpose in the subject of them, than their realization by himself would fulfil for the object of them, or for others generally. Personal disappointment, times without number, shall signify personal improvement, and not signify any loss to the general community, nor to the course of the world. Those reasons are delicately put, but will have been fully appreciated by David; and they are full of tenderest suggestion. They are:
1. That the Divine Friend, Leader, Captain, has for ages and generations shared the pilgrim lot of his people. If they have not had a fixed home, so has it been with him also. If they have travelled from place to place, so has he also.
2. That he has shared this pilgrim lot of the people without a murmur, without a reproach, a request, or even a suggestion addressed to them. How often had they murmured, but he never! How often had they done worse than murmur! They had rebelled against the Holy One of Israel; but he had forgiven their backslidings, had not forsaken them, and to the last ripe hour would carry on his own wise, consistent, gracious purpose. They for whose sake all the journey, all the discipline, all the teaching, all the promise were, had wearied, and been impatient; but he had borne all the sorrow, and stood the mark of all the ingratitude, and gives up no jot nor. tittle of the good purpose of his great decrees. He suffers with them, for them; he hears and still forbears.
3. That he will not even now anticipate by an hour, as it were, the established peace, happiness, and home of his people. Not till they are where he designs to place them, and have all that he purposes to give them, will he permit his own house to be builded, his own throne to be set, or himself to "arise and enter into his rest." Great every way is the moral sublimity of this position, when brought into comparison with that so often assumed by men. Each thinks for himself, each snatches for himself, each hastens to make secure above all his own position first. And in the very instance before us, whether more or less rightly, David has built his own house first—has set the example, and established himself first, a representative of the people, and of how it should be with them also. But the Divine Leader and Lord of the people all, both nation and king, observes this different order. He fixes the time, the place, the peace and rest of all, before he will allow that the hour has come for himself. It is a little type and a suggestive analogy of what is ever going on throughout nature and the entire world. All the forces of these are at work, and intensely active; their push and strife and tumult are wonderful. They are beneath all appearances finding their own place and fulfilling their legitimate mission, till when they all are satisfied, the Lord shall enter in an emphatic sense his holy temple. A moment all the earth shall keep silence before him, but the next moment the vast theatre shall resound again with his praise. Whatever fitness of time there may have seemed to David to be present now, we may understand God to say that he knows all that shall he yet, and is biding the moment of supreme occasion. Nor is there a lesson that more needs, in all our impatience and short-sighted eagerness, to be made familiar with us, and to be accepted with the sacredness of a principle.
II. THE USES OF GOD'S DENIAL OF HUMAN PURPOSES, EVEN WHEN AS WELL MEANT AS THAT OF DAVID. Such uses may have been very many, and a large proportion of them very indirect, in the present instance. But if not so in any one particular case—if, on the contrary, very few and definite in their character—the other alternative will prove the rule. The apparent slight which God puts on our purposes and our higher aspirations, we may rest assured, is but an apparent slight. It is not real, and is compensated for by what vastly outweighs the pain and disappointment and sorrow of it. Those Divine contradictions:
1. Save us from self-dependence and spiritual pride. These are two of the most noxious weeds, and most baneful their shade, which grow in a nature spiritually inclined.
2. They exert a direct tendency to increase the wisdom and circumspection and adaptedness of our human purposes. If our aspirations are not still continued, they were not deep, and are not entitled to any sympathy if blown away like chaff by the wind. But if they were deep and genuine, then we take them back again, nurse them in our hearts, and even improve upon them. The poor thing called our wisdom then grows ¯ perhaps only then.
3. They increase the deep, calm purity of our heart's purpose. Amazing is the proportion of ecclesiastical zeal, priestly zeal, zeal to have dominion over other men's souls, and to usurp domination over their whole life thereby, compared with the zeal for God's glory, simple and pure, and man's soul in its infinite value, infinite danger. If any spiritual purpose were fed by the inflammable fuel of success, a fire would be lighted which would know no suppression, but which would inevitably, in a vast majority of cases, fatally envelop first of all them that lit it.
4. They will increase the reverence and deep religious fear of our noblest human purposes. Easy usefulness, uniform success, rapidly engenders perfunctory service, and perfunctory service bespeaks prompt disaster, wherever it touches the temple, the Church, the altar.
5. They will, in fact, increase force. No loss will in the event be sustained. That which can best be spared will have disappeared. The good will be left. And though that good may not show the same bulk, nor utter the larger volume of sound, it will be irresistible. It will work its way, steal its way, penetrate its way; it will thaw the ice, break the stone, melt the iron of human hearts; it will be mighty with the breath of God's own spirit. When, therefore, God holds back awhile our good purpose, it is to make good better. And the better good will always make in the long run the mightier good.
1Ch_17:17.-The last glory of God's goodness to his servants found in the distant horizon he offers to their vision.
This verse contains a part of David's response to the communication which had been made to him. That communication had contained a refusal, and one which under most circumstances would have been felt to be charged with a disappointment sufficient to overspread all the scene with gloom, and to require some little time to recover from. But there was much in the communication to heal at once that disappointment, and to prevent the rankling of offended feeling and affection. It was all couched in gracious language, spoken in a gentle tone though firm, accompanied with reasoning and some individual reasons, softened by tender memories, and memories very suggestive and instructive; and above all, if it wanted in the present, the present want was abundantly compensated for by a sure promise of the future; if it lacked anything directly to himself, it were easy to bear it, when that lack was to be turned into glorious abundance in the person of his own best-loved Son. Accordingly, this response of David is found to be one of very prompt, very dutiful submission. David bows to the Divine fiat and kisses the rod which smites. The response goes beyond meek surrender and unhesitating acquiescence. David cordially accepts the representations made, and every turn and illustration and enforcement of them drawn from his own fast life. He knows every word to be true. He knows what he owes to special favour, special promotion, special deliverance, and continued faithful protection. The "sheep-cotes" of old, and his "palace of cedars" of to-day, proclaim facts and tell a tale that melt his heart not to submission only, but to grateful love. And his response is filled with grateful thanksgiving, trustful prayer, adoring praise. In all this response of David, nothing, perhaps, is more effective, nothing meant more than the touch contained in this verse, "Thou hast spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come." Let us notice here —
I. THE FIRST FORM OF A VERY GREAT PRINCIPLE, AS IT PRESENTED ITSELF TO THE VIEW OF DAVID. Something, it is abundantly evident, took very firm hold of David's fancy in the continuity of the promise made to him, in his son Solomon and the line of his succession. But it is a little thing to say it took hold of his fancy. It took hold of much that was deepest in him—far deeper than fancy is generally held to go. The light of David, we often say, and probably not incorrectly, was dim. But something else was not very dim, it would appear. Nature and instinct, feeling and affection, aspiration and its silent pertinacious testimony, looking ever to the upward and the onward,—these were not so very dim. All, however, that appears on the surface now was this. David has been reminded, in language very plain, of the rock whence he was hewn, and the pit whence he was digged; of the low estate of his onetime life, and of how he owes an unwonted much to the goodness, unmerited, sovereign, of his almighty Patron and Defender. His early life is summarized. All his past life to this throbbing hour is exhibited, brought well into the foreground. Not a feature of it does David dispute. No wounded vanity, nor vanity unwounded, strives to draw a veil on his humble origin. To the full he accepts and proceeds upon the description given him of himself, and acknowledges, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? And yet" (one might have thought David knew the modern adage, though reverently, "Gratitude a lively sense of favours to come") "this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God" (it evidently was now, comparatively speaking, a small thing in his own eyes); "for thou hast also spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come." The continuity of the goodness and favour of God, and the continuity of them to a future a great distance off, evidently riveted and fascinated the thought of David. And was there not something great, something good, something of a high type in this? Let us track —
II. THE ESSENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE, THE RADICAL ELEMENTS PRESENT IN THE PRINCIPLE WHICH APPEARS TO TAKE NOW SUCH A HOLD ON DAVID. Very true it is that the indications are many, and scarcely mistakable, of sense pressing heavy on patriarch and priest, king and prophet, of Old Testament history. Some striking exceptions, however, there are to the contrary. And perhaps, in almost all cases, there are to be found traces of exception in a direction least to have been reckoned upon a priori, viz. in the matter of the admirable distribution of attention and love, which marked their regard for both body and soul after death. For the pious Israelite great was the fascination of the future—that future that began where sense ended. His reverent provision for the body then meant something altogether different from the ostentation of funeral obsequies. It was thought and imaginings upborne on strong pinions of faith, and impelled by the temperate and obedient force of a far-enduring patience. Pride of pedigree and of the traceable genealogies of a dozen centuries forepast, how this dwarfs before the excursions of a taught faith, a trained imagination, an inspired hope, that peer into that "great while to come" called the eternal future! It is evident that this lies at the root of David's deep satisfaction and adoring gratitude now. He had been reared of nothing, and was but of yesterday, but the revealed word that is spoken to him gives him to 'scry a far future. And for him to feel joy in this, two elements must have been present.
1. A very vital faith took hold of the idea that was contained in assurance and promise for his son and his people.
2. And the idea becomes at once welcome fact; the earnest is possession. His heart transports him into the future, and converts that future into so much good bona fide present. These are among the greatest triumphs of a taught, a receptive, a willing spiritual nature. It is the diametrical opposite of the disposition of those who must have all now, and to whom the future is less than shadow, nothing more than utter fiction. There are not a few who want to have things irreconcilable. They want to have the pleasures of sin, which are essentially "for a season," and not forfeit those advantages which as essentially come of present abstinence and a patient waiting. The faith that really apprehends the unseen, the patient waiting that willingly defers fruition, are the two guarantees, so far as human quality and human conditions are involved, that qualify the human to transmute itself into the Divine, and the mortal to merge into immortality. And David testifies to these imperial possessions now. He acquiesces in one moment in everything that is evidenced derogatory to claim, merit, dignity, in his own past, in order to seize with passionate eagerness, with grateful acknowledgment, on that which is spoken concerning him and his, for the "great while to come." In these essential facts, then, David is a religious model for even Christian times, for all times. To be able to lose sight in favour of gaining faith, to part with sense to apprehend spirit, to quit the present in order to dwell in the future and occupy it with the objects of affection beforehand,—these are the distinguishing characteristics of the spiritual anti the newborn. And the best part of these David had, when he pleaded guilty to any and all disparagement of the past; didn't stop to look a second time at the personal disappointment of the present, but did "embrace" eagerly and with all his heart the proffered possession of the "great while to come."
Some time had elapsed since David had brought up the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem. Although the king had lodged the sacred chest in a handsome tabernacle, he was not satisfied; for he did not consider that he had rendered to the symbol of the Divine presence and authority the honour that was due. Himself dwelling in a palace of cedar-wood, he desired to see a house of stately magnificence built for the service of his God.
I. A KING'S PROPOSAL. It was in David's heart to adorn and sanctify his metropolis by a temple which should serve as the emblem of the nation's consecration to Jehovah.
1. We observe in this desire of the king how respect for God and the ordinances of his worship may lead to purposes of labour and self-sacrifice. It is possible that vanity and ostentation may lead to some enterprises of magnitude which may pass for evidences of religious fervour. Yet oftentimes an affectionate and grateful heart has found expression in costly and at the same time useful undertakings.
2. We observe also that generosity is never better employed than in advancing the glory of God. This may be done not merely by what are distinctively termed religious acts, but by deeds of benevolence and philanthropy, animated by the love of Christ.
II. A PROPHET'S ENCOURAGEMENT. David unfolded to his counsellor, Nathan the prophet, the generous intention of his heart. Sometimes those who in such circumstances are taken into confidence and counsel repress the liberal designs unfolded to them. But Nathan took another course. What wisdom and right feeling are apparent in the counsel, "Do all that is thine heart"! And it should be remarked that Nathan brought the truths and promises of religion to bear upon the royal heart. "God is with thee." That was as much as to say—God has put the desire in thy heart; God will assist thee in carrying out thy project; and God will accept what it is thy purpose to offer him.—T.
1Ch_17:7-11.-Assurance of favour.
The Lord acknowledged the goodness of David's wish to build him a house, even when refusing permission for that wish to be gratified. And the Lord made this occurrence an opportunity for expressing his regard for his servant. Reminding David of his past faithfulness, he assured him of continued favour. He who had been so distinguished by marks of Divine interest and approval in the past, could not fail to place confidence in the expression of an unchanging kindness. This passage is remarkable as representing the favour of God revealed in especial fulness and richness.
I. David was assured of God's favour, TO HIMSELF PERSONALLY. We are told that the poet-king was "a man after God's heart." Certainly, all his life through he was the object of singular kindness and forbearance. Elevation from a lowly to the loftiest station, assistance against all his enemies, an honourable reputation, an established throne,—such were the instances of Divine favour which David received at the Lord's hands. Prosperity and power, wealth and fame, followed a youth of romantic adventure and hardships and vicissitudes. That outward prosperity shall attend every one of the Lord's people is what no intelligent person can expect; but every true Christian may' rejoice in the assurance of that loving-kindness which is "better than life," of that faithfulness which never leaves, never forsakes, those who confide in it.
II. FAVOUR WAS PROMISED TO DAVID'S POSTERITY. All men, and especially nobles and kings, count the prosperity and advancement of their children as part of their own well-being. The reader of Aristotle's 'Ethics' is aware that the ancient Athenians were wont to consider a man's happiness as bound up with the good fortune of his children. David had won a throne by his ability and valour; it was natural that he should desire to have a successor upon that throne who should maintain the renown and the power of the founder of the royal house. Hence the assurance, "The Lord will build thee an house," was one peculiarly welcome to the son of Jesse. No true Christian can be indifferent as to the welfare of his children. Nothing gives such a one greater joy than to see his sons and daughters walking in the truth. He sins if he sets his heart upon their temporal advancement and prosperity. But he is right in seeking and in praying for their salvation. When God's favour brings them to fellowship with Christ, it seems to him that his "cup runneth over."
III. FAVOUR WAS PROMISED TO DAVID'S PEOPLE. When the Lord sent to his servant a message of mercy and a promise of peace and blessing, he perfected the grace by a large and liberal declaration of his intentions of favour toward Israel Monarch and subjects were to be alike blessed. Israel should be planted, should not be moved or wasted, and should be victorious over all enemies. When a nation is assured of Divine care and protection, "blessed is the people that is in such a case." For his is the blessing that maketh rich, and with it he addeth no sorrow. A true patriot will desire for his country, not only wealth and renown and power, but the righteousness which "exalteth a nation." Such prosperity as, in the ninth and eleventh verses, was promised to Israel, could not but be welcome. When we implore the Divine favour, let it not be for ourselves alone, but for "our kindred according to the flesh." The king, the statesman, the reformer, rejoices when his country's good is secured, when the smile of the Almighty rests upon the land "from the beginning unto the end of the year." The prayer of every true patriot should be, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us."—T.
1Ch_17:7, 1Ch_17:8.-God in individual history.
In what way the Lord communicated with Nathan we do not know; but the sacred history represents him as choosing the prophet as the means of making known to the king his holy will. On this occasion, Nathan was directed to preface his divinely given instructions by the remarkable declaration of the text; to remind David that God had been near him, had been with him, all his life through. General truths of the most vital interest are propounded in these simple words.
I. DIVINE PROVIDENCE HAS CARE OF EACH HUMAN LIFE. A very childish notion of providence is that God concerns himself with the affairs of nations and Churches, bat cannot condescend to interest himself in individuals. This misconception arises from too mean a view of the omnipresent and omniscient Supreme. Well may we exclaim, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"
II. DIVINE PROVIDENCE CAN SUMMON FROM THE LOWLIEST TO THE LOFTIEST STATION. David was raised from the sheepcote to the throne. And his is but one of many similar cases of marvellous exaltation. God's election of his servants for work which he has for them to do calls for our amazed admiration; he finds and fashions instruments for every service. And Scripture is full of examples of the exercise of his sovereign prerogative. He exalts the lowly and abases the proud. He proves his royalty by choosing those whom men would have passed by, and the event ever honours and attests his wisdom.
III. DIVINE PROVIDENCE CAN ACCOMPLISH ITS PURPOSES NOTWITHSTANDING ALL OBSTACLES. The Lord reminded David of his presence, of his protecting and delivering care and mercy, of the prosperity which he had vouchsafed to his servant. When God takes a work in hand, he suffers nothing to thwart him. Obstacles disappear; opposition is disarmed; enemies are defeated. When God designates a man for a special service, he imparts all needful qualifications; he removes every hindrance to efficiency; he gets himself glory in the glory of his servant.
PRACTICAL LESSONS.
1. Be content with your lot; high or low, it is what an all-wise Father has appointed.
2. Be grateful for the past, remembering the way by which he has led you.
3. Be trustful for the future.
"Father, I know that all my life
Is portioned out for me,
And the changes that will surely come
I do not fear to see:
But I ask thee for a present mind,
Intent on pleasing thee."
T.
1Ch_17:12.-A mutual covenant.
This prophetic declaration must be read in the light of subsequent events; for it was fulfilled in the annals of Solomon's peaceful and prosperous reign. The king did build God a house, a service and honour not permitted to his father. God did establish Solomon's throne, giving him victory, peace, wealth, wisdom, and fame. The connection between the two parts of this verse is very instructive, exhibiting as it does the relation between God and his people. He, in mercy, condescends to accept their services, and at the same time confers upon them the tokens of his favour, blessing and prosperity.
I. WHAT WE MAY DO FOR GOD. In using such language, we must bear in mind our entire dependence. It is only by employing the powers our Creator has given, the opportunities he has afforded us, that we can be enabled to accomplish any work for his glory. He gives the motive to all service in the love of Christ, the power for all service in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Still, just as So