1 Chronicles 17:16

DAVID'S PRAYER OF RESPONSE

"Then David the king went in, and sat before Jehovah; and said, Who am I, O Jehovah God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me thus far? And this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; but thou hast spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O Jehovah God. What can David say yet more unto thee concerning the honor which is done to thy servant? for thou knowest thy servant. O Jehovah, for thy servant's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou wrought all this greatness, to make known all these great things. O Jehovah, there is none like thee, neither is there any god besides thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears, and what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem unto himself for a people, to make thee a name by great and terrible things, in driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou redeemedst out of Egypt? For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people forever; and thou Jehovah becamest their God. And now, O Jehovah, let the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as thou hast spoken. And let thy name be established and magnified forever, saying, Jehovah of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and the house of David thy servant is established before thee. For thou, O my God, hast revealed to thy servant that thou wilt build him a house: therefore hast thy servant found in his heart to pray before thee. And now, O Jehovah, thou art God, and hast promised this good thing unto thy servant: and now it hath pleased thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee: for thou, O Jehovah, hast blessed, and it is blessed for ever."

These verses are parallel to 2 Samuel 7:18-29; and, "The Chronicler followed his source quite closely, with insignificant variations."[2]

We have written three pages of comments on these verses in our Commentary on 2Samuel, pp. 85-97.

There is a strong likelihood that David, at first, understood that "house" which the Lord said would be built as a reference to the physical temple later erected by Solomon; but there is every reason to believe that David later realized that the promise included the coming of one much Greater than Solomon, that the true temple of God was in heaven, and that God's Israel was in no manner whatever limited to any race of men.

The Messianic promises of the Psalms, especially in many of them that were written by David, abundantly prove this ultimate understanding on David's part.

The critical notion that this text teaches that Solomon would be the builder of that promised "house" is effectively refuted by 1 Chronicles 17:25, above, in which David made it crystal clear that he understood the builder of that house to be, not Solomon, or any other mortal, but God Himself.