David's purpose of building the Temple, and its Postponement -The "Sure Mercies" of David in the Divine

Promise - David's Thanksgiving. (2 SAMUEL 7; 1 CHRONICLES 17)

THOSE who, with devout attention, have followed the course of this history, and marked in it that of the

kingdom of God in its gradual unfolding, will feel that a point had now been reached when some

manifestation of the Divine purpose, fuller and clearer than ever before, might be expected. As we look back

upon it, not only the whole history, but every event in it, has been deeply significant, and fraught with

symbolical and typical meaning. Thus we have marked how as each event, so to speak, kindled a light,

which was reflected from the polished mirror of the Psalter, it seemed to throw its brightness far beyond its

own time into that future on which the day had not yet risen. But even to the men of that generation what

had taken place must have carried a meaning far beyond the present. The foundation of a firm kingdom in

Israel, its concentration in the house of David, and the establishment of a central worship in the capital of

the land as the place which God had chosen, must have taken them back to those ancient promises which

were now narrowing into special fulfillment, and have brought into greater prominence the points in these

predictions which, though still towering aloft, sprung out of what was already reached, and formed part of it.

A never-ending kingdom, a never-passing king; a sanctuary never to be abolished: such were the hopes still

before them in the world -wide application of the promises of which they already witnessed the national and

typical fulfillment. These hopes differed, not in character, but only in extent and application, from what they

already enjoyed. To use our former illustration, they were not other heights than those on which they stood,

but only peaks yet unclimbed. These considerations will help us properly to understand the narra tive of

David's purpose to build a temple, and the Divine communication consequent upon it. For clearness' sake

we first sketch the facts as stated in sacred history, and then indicate their deeper meaning.

To complete the history of the religious movement of that period, the sacred writers insert in this place the

account of David's purpose to build a temple. The introduction to the narrative (2 Samuel 7:1), and the

circumstance that at the time most if not all the wars mentioned in 2 Samuel 8 and 10 were past, sufficiently

indicate that in this, as in other instances, the history is not arranged according to strict chronological

succession. Still it must have taken place when David's power was at its zenith, and before his sin with Bath-

sheba. The king had been successful in all his undertakings. Victorious and world -famed, he inhabited his

splendid palace on Mount Zion. The contrast between his own dwelling and that in which His ark abode283

to Whom he owed all, and Who was Israel's real King, was painfully great.

However frequent and unheeded a similar contrast may be in our days between the things of God and of

man, David too vividly apprehended spiritual realities to remain contented under it. Without venturing to

express a wish which might have seemed presumptuous, he told his feelings on this subject to his trusted

friend and adviser, the prophet Nathan.284

As might have been expected, Nathan responded by a full approval of the king's unspoken purpose, which

seemed so accordant with the glory of God. But Nathan had spoken - as ancient writers note - from his own,

though pious, impulse, and not by direction of the Lord. Oftentimes our thoughts, although springing from

motives of real religion, are not God's thoughts; and the lesson here conveyed is most important of not

taking our own impressions, however earnestly and piously derived, as necessarily in accordance with the

will of God, but testing them by His revealed word, - in short, of making our test in each case not subjective

feeling, but objective revelation.

That night, as Nathan was busy with thoughts of the great future which the king's purpose seemed to open,

God spake to him in vision, forbidding the undertaking; or rather, while approving the motive, delaying its

execution. All this time, since He had brought them up out of Egypt, God's Presence had been really among

Israel; He had walked about with them in all their wanderings and state of unsettledness. Thus far, then, the

building of an house could not be essential to God's Presence, wh ile the "walking about in tent and