David was often found on the battlefield leading the army against the Philistines, but today’s reading begins with him sitting in his house, enjoying a time of peace. It is a mark of his spirituality that his heart turned to the ark of God and the building of a house for God. The fact that it was not God’s desire to have a permanent house on earth at that time, or that David should build it, should not detract from the commendable nature of his exercise. Solomon reminded the people of the Lord’s acknowledgement of David’s desire, ‘And the Lord said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart’, 1 Kgs. 8. 18. God graciously allowed him to participate in the very necessary work of preparing for the building of the house. He understood the principles on which God works in relation to His house. Although we are not concerned today with one building in one place, David can still teach us how we ought to behave ourselves in ‘the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth’, 1 Tim. 3. 15.
Principles of the house of God (1 Chr. 29):
(i) It belongs to God. ‘… for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God’. Anything we give to it is what He has given to us; ‘… for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee’, vv. 1, 14.
(ii) It is holy. ‘I have prepared for the holy house’, v. 3.
(iii) It is a place of great spiritual wealth. David referred to the ‘treasure of the house of the Lord’, v. 8.
(iv) It is a place of godly order. Nothing was left to human interpretation. ‘Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern … and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit’, 1 Chr. 28. 11, 12.
The character of the house of God (1 Chr. 29):
It calls for: preparation, vv. 2, 3; total commitment, v. 2; affection, v. 3; personal sacrifice, v. 3; uprightness of heart, v. 17; willingness, vv. 6, 17; praise and worship, v. 13.
The attraction of the house of God:
David wrote, ‘… that I may dwell in the house of the Lord … to behold the beauty of the Lord’, Ps. 27. 4.
