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David Forbidden to Build God a House
v. 1. Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, after his victories had given him a period of comparative, quiet, that David said to Nathan, the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, the fine royal palace which the friendly bounty of King Hiram had made possible, but the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains. The thought that he was more comfortably and splendidly housed than the ark seemed unnatural, contradictory, to him; his idea and purpose was to erect a temple to the true God.
v. 2. Then Nathan, giving merely his own opinion, not the revealed will of the Lord, said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee. To his merely human judgment the plan of David seemed very good.
v. 3. And it came to pass the same night that the word of God came to Nathan, in a direct Revelation saying,
v. 4. Go and tell David, My servant, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build Me an house to dwell in;
v. 5. for I have not dwelt in an house, in a building of solid construction, since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day, but have gone from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another; for the Tabernacle had been put up in a great number of places since it had first been constructed, and its curtains and coverings had undoubtedly been replaced several times, due to ravages of time and ordinary wear and tear.
v. 6. Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the Judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed, to take care of and rule, My people, saying, Why have ye not built Me an house of cedars?
v. 7. Now, therefore, thus shalt thou say unto My servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the great Jehovah Sabaoth, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, from the lowly life of a humble shepherd, that thou shouldest be ruler over My people Israel;
v. 8. and I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, a God not confined to a single habitation, but with His children at all times and in all places, 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, His unmerited blessings had attended David's entire career.
v. 9. Also, I will ordain a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, give them a sure and abiding place of habitation, 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,
v. 10. and since the time that I commanded Judges to be over My people Israel, including the whole period from Joshua to Saul. Moreover, I will subdue all thine enemies. All that David and Israel had they owed to the mercy of the Lord. Even so God, in the Gospel, gives all spiritual gifts to men without any merit and worthiness in them, expecting, in return, only that men will use His blessings with proper thanksgiving.