In chapter 7, after David finally gets a time of rest from war, he looks at the beautiful palace he has, and it dawns on him that the Lord should have something better than the tent in which the Ark of the Covenant has been housed. God has blessed him. The Lord picked him to be the king of God’s chosen people when he was just a boy, tending his father’s sheep, and He kept David safe when King Saul wanted to kill him, and He gave David victory over all his enemies. David wanted to build a temple for God out of gratitude and love.
When someone is good to you, when they do something special for you, isn’t it natural to want to do something for them to show your gratitude? It is for most of us, I think.
Now, we’re not told here in 2 Samuel why God did not allow David to build a temple for him, but we are told in 1 Chronicles 28. The important thing for us today, though, is that God was pleased with David’s intensions. He looked at David’s heart and saw that David loved God and sincerely desired to honor Him with providing Him a suitable temple. And so God made a promise to David that reverberate to this very day.
God promised that He would make David’s name great, and that He would make a dynasty for David, and that his throne would be established forever. Note that when God makes a promise, he always delivers, although it is not always the way in which we might think. From a merely human perspective, we might look at the history of Israel and say that David’s family was overthrown and Israel ceased to be for centuries. And there is not a descendent of David now ruling present-day Israel.
But the truth is that there is One on David’s throne even today, and He will be there for eternity.
When we look at the genealogy of Jesus, we see that He is a descendent of David, just as was prophesied that the Messiah would be, and He is definitely and eternally on the throne at the right hand of God.
When we offer to do something for God with the heart of gratitude and love, God is most definitely pleased. When we don’t do it to get something from God, but just out of love, there is no telling what He will do in response.
In my case, He gave me a platform to speak to you today. Way back in 2004, before I had ever heard of podcasting, and before the word was even coined, I was having a time a prayer, telling God how grateful I was for the blessings in my life. And I asked Him what more I could do for Him. I don’t have time to tell the whole story, but suffice it to say that a few weeks later, the first Christian podcast not based on repurposed church sermons was pushed out to my church’s website. If you want to read the whole story or listen to my telling of the story, just go to lifespringmedia.com/about-steve-webb. I only bring this up to let you see that it is impossible to anticipate how God will respond when you offer yourself to Him with a pure and open heart. Podcasting was barely a gleam in anyone’s eye when made that prayer, and since then, my shows have been downloaded from nearly every country on the planet. I will probably never know how God has used this vehicle to touch lives, but I have received enough email from people that I do know that lives have been changed. It’s not me. It’s the grace and goodness and love of God.
Open yourself to God and see what He does.