1 Chronicles 17.
1910 97 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 Jehovah remaineth under curtains. Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee" (1 Chron. 17:1-2).
It is natural that the soul that has been the subject of a great and wonderful deliverance, or that has emerged from a protracted trial into light and liberty, should wish to do, or bring, something to God in return. But its expression, if always imperfect, may even be offensive to Him whose glory is ostensibly the object of desire, as, for instance, in the case of Jephthah (Judges 11:30-31), where the importance and advancement of self seem rather the motive spring of his vow.
Nevertheless, the gratitude of a thankful heart is always acceptable to God, and on this occasion of our chapter the desire of David was in part the result of that which the Spirit of God had produced within him, for his unaffected piety and devotion was intensified by the thought of what God had wrought for him; and this is divine order. To be worshipped, God must be known according to the revelation He has vouchsafed. The Israelite was entitled dispensationally to approach God as a worshipper, for in Judah was God known, and His name was great in Israel; but since the nation's rejection of Christ, "Praise waiteth (or is silent) for thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come" (Ps. 65:1-2). For the present, iniquities prevail against them, but when they shall be purged away, it will not be Israel alone, but "unto thee shall all flesh come." Now, however, it is "worship in spirit and in truth," which God now demands since the revelation of Himself, through the Lord Jesus, as our God and Father, to whom also, through Him, we have access by one Spirit (John 4:21-24; Eph. 2:18).
The purposes of God for the blessing of Israel and the exaltation of David were as yet unfulfilled. David himself might be satisfied, but God was not. It was not David alone, but all Israel, who had occasion to rejoice, in the establishment of the kingdom and the installation of the ark in Zion; for the nation had deeply compromised itself with Jehovah by turning the ark of His strength out of its resting place at Shiloh to which it never returned (1 Sam. 4). The tabernacle itself without the ark was valueless, and they who, for private ends, thus lightly profaned His sanctuary were themselves rejected, and had to endure the awful experience of being without any visible link with Jehovah for a period of nearly 100 years.
From Ps. 78, which gives the divine history of this dreary period, we may quote verses 56 to 64: — "Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation."
How literally were the solemn words of judgment upon Eli's house fulfilled (1 Sam. 2:31-33; 1 Sam. 22:17-19; 1 Kings 2:27). Yet Jehovah Himself would bring about their deliverance in the accomplishment of His purposes of royalty in David, and of worship in the temple built by David's son. "Then the Lord waked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts; he put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever" (Ps. 78:65-69). Now David had been made to pass through similar experience to that of the nation, as many Psalms plainly testify. So too was it with Him of whom David was, in a remarkable way, a type. For the rendering of acceptable worship to God, blessing must be realised, and the Blesser known. God has been pleased to reveal Himself as a Saviour God, and in this way must He be known if the spirit of worship is to be evoked. "If thou knewest the gift of God" — nothing else appeals to the convicted sinner, and nothing so well suits the justified believer.
When the soul is established in this foundation truth of Christianity, the desire to do something for God may be rightly carried out, in accordance with the revelation of His will as revealed in the scriptures of truth. When Israel, as a nation, first experienced the power of God put forth on their behalf for deliverance and blessing, an exactly similar result was produced as will again be the case at the close of all God's dealings with them. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto Jehovah, and spake, saying, I will sing unto Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Jehovah is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my fathers' God, and I will exalt him" (Ex. 15:1-2). "I saw as it were a sea of glass, mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou king of the nations. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all the nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony of heaven was opened" (Rev. 15:1-5). This latter scripture presents not Israel as a whole saved and blessed and established on earth, but the martyred remnant, victorious over the beast, received up into heaven, into the most intimate association with the temple of God there.
The bringing up of the ark to the city of David had stimulated the religious fervour, of which it was the expression, but only, in part, did it realise a long cherished desire. "O Jehovah, remember David, and all his afflictions. How he sware unto Jehovah, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; surely I will not come unto the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob" (Ps. 132:1-5). Jacob at Bethel had likewise a similar experience. "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall Jehovah be my God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee" (Gen. 28:16-22). The spirit of worship, however, in Jacob was restrained, and qualified by the worldliness which he allowed in his heart, proposing terms and conditions for God and himself to observe, occasioning long and severe discipline. But God preserved him even through this, and then called upon him to fulfil his forgotten vow. "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. … So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the place El-Bethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother" (Gen. 35:1, 6, 7).
The ark of God dwelling under curtains was to David's soul even as the altar of Bethel to Jacob. Has not the Spirit of God established such a connection in recalling "the mighty God of Jacob"? So, too, in Stephen's defence, "David who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob" (Acts 7:46). All this points to the purpose of God for man's blessing to be consummated by the man of God's own right hand. That purpose of blessing had advanced considerably in David's time, but it was still in the future. In promise, David himself, blessed saint and servant of God as he was, could be only a type of the coming One, and could best serve his own generation by the will of God, by directing the hearts of the people to Christ the Messiah — the true and proper hope of Israel. How sweetly and graciously did God dissuade David from his purpose by setting His own thoughts and purpose before him. If it is a question of building God a house, God must be the builder (Eph. 2:20-22; Heb. 3:3-6); otherwise what ruin as the result of man's building!
We see in the history of David how disappointing is man in his best estate; but we see also how in times of man's deepest failure God delights in His purpose of bringing in the Second man, the man Christ Jesus. And faith delights in this revealed purpose and way of God by which is secured the glory of God and true and lasting blessing for the creature. "So I answered and spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, said Jehovah of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this house; his hands also shall finish it; and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? … for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of Jehovah which run to and fro through the whole earth" (Zech. 4:4-10).
"And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow" (2 Sam. 23:4-5). The heart of David was thus instructed, and made to rest in the presence of God. Then went king David in, and sat before Jehovah the only safe place from which to regard the ruin and judgment of all that is founded upon the first man, and the stability, permanence, and brightness of all that Christ the King will establish in millennial days. We see, then, that if God has to disappoint the soul of a long cherished project, or to take away something upon which one has counted, He more than compensates for it by that which He reveals. Disappointments and trials suffered in faith and patience are but divine preparations for the most exalted order of blessing. The known character and piety of David might have been deemed a guarantee of stability in the days of the kingdom as then established, yet almost his last public act was the bringing of the judgment of God upon them (1 Chron. 21). Here again God in mercy interposed, taking occasion of man's sin and its consequent judgment, to give a still further revelation of His purposes for the future government and blessing of His people. "Then David said, This is the house of Jehovah God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel." G.S.B.