1 Chronicles 22:17

These verses follow straight on from David’s charge to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 22:6–16. There David told his son that God had chosen him to build the house of the LORD, explained why he himself would leave the building to him, listed the great store of gold, silver, bronze, iron, timber and stone he had gathered, and urged him to be strong and obey God’s commands. Having laid that groundwork with his son in private, David now speaks to the whole leadership of the nation. The word “saying” at the end of verse 17 opens the speech that fills verses 18 and 19.

“Commanded” is tsâvâh, the ordinary word for giving a command or a charge, here spoken by a king to those under him. David is still on the throne, and he uses his authority to bind the leaders of Israel to his son’s task. The “princes” are sar (plural śārîm), a word for a chief, captain, ruler, official or prince, anyone who held a position of authority. In David’s kingdom that took in the heads of the tribes, the commanders of the army and the elders who spoke for Israel’s regions and families. “All” of them are named, so the whole leadership of the nation is drawn in, and the people each of them led come with them.

To “help” is ʻâzar, to help, assist or support. The princes are enlisted as partners, and their help would be practical: labour and materials for the building, backing for the young king, steady order in the land while the work went on, and encouragement for Solomon himself. The temple was the fulfilment of what God had promised in his covenant with David, that a son of his would build God a house and that God would establish his throne for ever (1 Chronicles 17:11–14). God had also told David that Solomon was the son he had chosen for this (1 Chronicles 22:7–10). So the help the princes give is help with God’s own work, and David asks the nation to stand united behind it.

David’s speech opens with two questions: “Is not the LORD your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side?” He asks them because the answer is plain to everyone. The princes had lived through David’s wars and seen God give the victories, so the questions call up what they already know. The word “for” then gives the evidence: “for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand.” Once the princes agree with what they have seen, the command in verse 19 rests on facts none of them can dispute.

The first question is about God’s presence. The LORD is “your God”, and he is “with you”. That presence was the strength of Israel’s leaders and the reason they could take on a task as great as the temple. David had already told Solomon to “be strong, and of good courage” (1 Chronicles 22:13), and now he gives the princes the same ground for courage.

“Now” turns the reminder into a charge, and the first thing David asks for is the inner life: “set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God.” The heart, lêbâb, is the inner person, the seat of thought and purpose, of will and conscience and feeling. To set the heart is to make a deliberate, settled decision. The soul, nephesh, comes from a root meaning to breathe, and it means a breathing creature, life, soul, self or person, and it can also mean appetite or desire. Put together, heart and soul mean the whole person, every part of a man given to one aim.

That aim is to seek the LORD, to go after his will, his presence and his favour with diligence. The words take up the great commandment: “thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). God later gave his people the promise that goes with such seeking: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). David himself sang of seeking the LORD and his house together: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life” (Psalm 27:4).

The order of the verse matters. Seeking comes first, and then “arise therefore, and build”. The word “therefore” ties the outward work to the inward devotion, so the building flows out of hearts set on God. Work done for God has its root in a heart that seeks him, and a heart set on God goes on to do his work.

“Arise” calls the princes to get up and act, and “build ye” makes the building their task as well as Solomon’s. What they build is “the sanctuary of the LORD God”. The word is miqdâsh, from qadash, to be holy or set apart, and it means a consecrated thing or place, a sanctuary. Scripture can use it of other shrines too, and here David names whose sanctuary this is: it belongs to “the LORD God”, set apart for his worship.

The verse ends by giving the purpose of the whole work: “to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house”. The ark was the most sacred object in Israel. It stood for God’s holy presence, his throne among his people and his covenant with them. When God gave Moses its pattern he said, “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat” (Exodus 25:22). The holy vessels were the instruments of worship that served at God’s house. So the temple was first of all a dwelling place for God among his people and the place where they came to meet him, which is what he had asked for at the start: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).

The house is built “to the name of the LORD”. It is for his glory and honour, and its grandeur points to him. It was never meant to be a monument to a king or a nation’s pride.

The temple was built by the whole people, as the tabernacle had been. When Moses called for that first dwelling of God, “The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring” (Exodus 35:29). Long after Solomon, Nehemiah stirred the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the city’s walls, and they answered, “Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work” (Nehemiah 2:18).

The same pattern holds in the church. Paul writes, “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:4–5). Jesus prayed for all who would believe in him “that they all may be one” (John 17:20–23). God’s great works are done by his people together, each with his own gift and place, and with leaders who stand behind those who carry the work on.

David’s words about God’s presence, his rest and his house all find their fullness in Christ. The question “Is not the LORD your God with you?” is answered in the child whose name is “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). John writes that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and Jesus spoke of his own body as the temple when he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The ark in the temple stood for God’s presence among his people, and in Jesus that presence came in person.

The rest on every side that Israel knew under David and Solomon points to the deeper rest believers find in Jesus, who finished the work of salvation on the cross. He gives the peace of God, “which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). The enemies God subdued before Israel point to Christ’s victory over sin, death and the powers of darkness, for “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (Matthew 27:51), and now believers have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19–22). To seek the LORD is to seek Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

The building goes on as well. Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), and Peter tells believers that they, “as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5). Paul says that the church is built on the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ as the chief corner stone, growing into a holy temple and a habitation of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:20–22), and that each believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). The princes were told to help Solomon with the work, and believers do this work with the help of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father sends in Jesus’ name (John 14:26).

David’s charge begins with what God has done. The LORD was with his people, he gave them rest, and he subdued their enemies before them, and every word of the command in verse 19 stands on that. The same God is with his people in Christ, and the peace he gives is a gift with a purpose. Seasons of quiet are times when God’s people can give themselves to his work.

The charge also puts the heart first. David asks the princes to set heart and soul to seek the LORD before he tells them to build, and the work that follows grows out of that seeking. The goal is God’s presence among his people and the honour of his name, and that is still why his people build.

And the work is shared. David gave one generation’s labour to a house the next would finish, and he gathered the whole nation behind his son. In the church every member has a part in the house God is building, with Christ as its corner stone.