When I read 1 Chronicles 17, I was touched by God’s heart for David and His people Israel. David’s thanksgiving prayer also served as a model of how I can pray to God because God has made the same promises to me.
This event happened after David successfully moved the Ark of the Covenant from Kiriath Jearim to Jerusalem where he had set up a tent for it. Amos called it the tent of David in Amos 9:11-12
In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this.
Amos 9:11-12 WEB
Note that The Tabernacle of Moses or Tent of Meeting was still at Gibeon at that time. Everything was there except the Ark of the Covenant. What happened to the Ark and why it was separated from the Tent of Meeting are the story for another post.
David looked at his own splendid palace and thought of God. David has a grateful heart.
God Promise to Build the House of David (1 Chronicles 17:7-14)
God’s reaction to David’s offer to build Him a house was what touched me. He rejected David’s offer not because He thought David unworthy. David was probably the first man who cared about the Ark of the Covenant. Others either ignore, neglect or fear it.
I believed God was touched by David’s gesture. His response was to counter-offer to build David’s house. God first recounted his blessings over David:
- I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel (1 Chronicles 17:7).
- I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you (1 Chronicles 17:8).
He then promised David the following:
- I will make you a name like the name of the great ones who are in the earth (1 Chronicles 17:8).
- I will subdue all your enemies (1 Chronicles 17:8).
- I will build you a house. I will set up your offspring after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you; but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne will be established forever (1 Chronicles 17:12-14).
David’s Response (1 Chronicles 17:17-27)
I am pretty sure David was overwhelmed by love and awe. Not only had God protected him and gave him a leadership position, He is also promising him legacy.
David acknowledged God’s blessing over him:
- You have respected me according to the standard of a man of high degree (1 Chronicles 17:17)
- You know your servant (1 Chronicles 17:18)
- You have done all this greatness according to Your heart (1 Chronicles 17:19)
David was a young shepherd and would probably continue to be a shepherd if God hadn’t chosen him. From shepherd to king. David knew God had not treated him according to his humble beginning.
David accepted and made a confirmation or thanksgiving prayer of God’s promise to bless his house:
- Let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken. (1 Chronicles 17:23)
- For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Now, Yahweh, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant. Now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Yahweh, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.” (1 Chronicles 17:25-27)
David had also highly esteemed God’s words over his life. That is, he believed God. How many of us had questioned God’s goodness in our lives, especially when things didn’t go our way.
God reminded David of His promise to Israel (1 Chronicles 17:9-10)
- I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more (1 Chronicles 17:9).
- The children of wickedness will not waste them any more, as at the first, and from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel (1 Chronicles 17:10).
I believe this was God commissioning David to the work of establishing a place for Israel.
David’s Response (1 Chronicles 17:21-24)
David’s response to God regarding Israel:
- What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeemed out of Egypt? (1 Chronicles 17:21)
- For you made your people Israel your own people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God (1 Chronicles 17:22).
- Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel (1 Chronicles 17:24).
The same event / conversation was also recorded in 2 Samuel 7.
What a “conversation” between God and David
David wanted to do something for God and he thought of building a house for God. But God had something else in mind. Instead of a house, God had told David to be involved in the work of establishing the land He had given to His people.
David told God that He knew him. God knew that David is perhaps best at leading people in battle rather than building houses.
We have the same blessings and promises from God
My initial reaction to this chapter was covetousness. I covet this kind of relationship. Then, the Holy Spirit reminded me that I already have it.
But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: 13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12-13 WEB
Through Jesus Christ, I have been added to God’s House. I am His child and His beloved. I have access to God and His power.
Let me take time to recount God’s blessings over my life and how His hand had guided me. I ask God to involve me in His purpose and plan knowing my gifts and abilities.
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For God so loved you, He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for you. You are precious to Him.
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