4 Go and say to David my servant, The Lord says, You are not to make me a house for my living-place:
Then David the king got up and said, Give ear to me, my brothers and my people; it was my desire to put up a house, a resting-place for the ark of the Lord's agreement, and for the foot-rest of our God; and I had got material ready for the building of it. But God said to me, You are not to be the builder of a house for my name, because you are a man of war and have taken life;
Now that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, Go and say to my servant David, The Lord says, Are you to be the builder of a house, a living-place for me?
And David said to Solomon, My son, it was my desire to put up a house for the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me saying, You have taken lives without number and made great wars; I will not let you be the builder of a house for my name, because of the lives you have taken on the earth before my eyes.
But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name: But you yourself will not be the builder of the house; but your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up a house for my name.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, or your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Chronicles 17
Commentary on 1 Chronicles 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
This excellent chapter is the same with 2 Sa. 7. It will be worth while to look back upon what was there said upon it. Two things in general we have in it:-
1Ch 17:1-15
Let us observe here,
1Ch 17:16-27
We have here David's solemn address to God, in answer to the gracious message he had now received from him. By faith he receives the promises, embraces them, and is persuaded of them, as the patriarchs, Heb. 11:13. How humbly does he here abase himself, and acknowledge his own unworthiness! How highly does he advance the name of God and admire his condescending grace and favour! With what devout affections does he magnify the God of Israel and what a value has he for the Israel of God! With what assurance does he build upon the promise, and with what a lively faith does he put it in suit! What an example is this to us of humble, believing, fervent prayer! The Lord enable us all thus to seek him! These things were largely observed, 2 Sa. 7. We shall therefore here observe only those few expressions in which the prayer, as we find it here, differs from the record of it there, and has something added to it.