1 Chronicles 22:6

1 Chronicles DAVID’S PROHIBITED DESIRE AND PERMITTED SERVICE1 Chronicles 22:6 - 1 Chronicles 22:16 . This passage falls into three parts. In 1 Chronicles 22:6 - 1 Chronicles 22:10 the old king tells of the divine prohibition which checked his longing to build the Temple; in 1 Chronicles 22:11 - 1 Chronicles 22:13 he encourages his more fortunate successor, and points him to the only source of strength for his happy task; in 1 Chronicles 22:14 - 1 Chronicles 22:16 he enumerates the preparations which he had made, the possession of which laid stringent obligations on Solomon. I. There is a tone of wistfulness in David’s voice as he tells how his heart’s desire had been prohibited. The account is substantially the same as we have in 2 Samuel 7:4 - 2 Samuel 7:16 , but it adds as the reason for the prohibition David’s warlike career. We may note the earnestness and the motive of the king’s desire to build the Temple. ‘It was in my heart’; that implies earnest longing and fixed purpose. He had brooded over the wish till it filled his mind, and was consolidated into a settled resolve. Many a musing, solitary moment had fed the fire before it burned its way out in the words addressed to Nathan. So should our whole souls be occupied with our parts in God’s service, and so should our desires be strongly set towards carrying out what in solitary meditation we have felt borne in on us as our duty.

The moving spring of David’s design is beautifully suggested in the simple words ‘unto the name of the Lord my God.’ David’s religion was eminently a personal bond between him and God. We may almost say that he was the first to give utterance to that cry of the devout heart, ‘My God,’ and to translate the generalities of the name ‘the God of Israel’ into the individual appropriation expressed by the former designation. It occurs in many of the psalms attributed to him, and may fairly be regarded as a characteristic of his ardent and individualising devotion. The sense of a close, personal relation to God naturally prompted the impulse to build His house. We must claim our own portion in the universal blessings shrined in His name before we are moved to deeds of loving sacrifice. We must feel that Christ ‘loved me, and gave Himself for me,’ before we are melted into answering surrender. The reason for the frustrating of David’s desire, as here given, is his career as a warrior king. Not only was it incongruous that hands which had been reddened with blood should rear the Temple, but the fact that his reign had been largely occupied with fighting for the existence of the kingdom showed that the time for engaging in such a work, which would task the national resources, had not yet come. We may draw two valuable lessons from the prohibition.

(6-16) David gives formal charge to Solomon to build the Temple. (6) Then he called.—And he called Solomon. When? After completing his preparations, and shortly before his death (1Chronicles 22:5). (Comp. 1Kings 2:1-9, especially 1Chronicles 22:3-4, of which we seem to hear echoes in the present speech.) Upon grounds of internal evidence we may pronounce this dying address of David to be an ideal composition, put into the king’s mouth by the unknown author whose work the chronicler follows: or rather, perhaps, by the chronicler himself, whose style is evident throughout. (Comp. the addresses attributed to David in 1 Chronicles 28) For the Lord God of Israel.—There ought to be a comma after “Lord.” Literally the phrase would run, For Jehovah, the God of Israel. Thus the stress lies on the national aspect of the Deity, for whom Solomon was to undertake this national work.

1Ch 22:6-19. He Instructs Solomon. 6. Then he called for Solomon … and charged him—The earnestness and solemnity of this address creates an impression that it was given a little before the old king's decease. He unfolded his great and long cherished plan, enjoined the building of God's house as a sacred duty on him as his son and successor, and described the resources that were at command for carrying on the work. The vast amount of personal property he had accumulated in the precious metals [1Ch 22:14] must have been spoil taken from the people he had conquered, and the cities he had sacked.