Bible Commentaries
1 Chronicles 29

Verses 1-30

Chapter 29

Furthermore David the king said unto the congregation, Solomon my son, whom God had chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God. Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of many colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper wealth, placed the gold and the silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that which I have prepared for the holy house, even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and the seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses: the gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver. And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the LORD? ( 1 Chronicles 29:1-5 )

So David is, has told of his own commitment and now he's challenging them for a commitment of giving to God. "This is what I have done. This is what I propose to do. Now who of you are willing to offer your service unto the Lord?"

And the chief of the fathers, the princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers of the king's work, offered willingly, and they gave for the service of the house of God, of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. And they all with whom precious stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of the LORD, by the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. And the people rejoiced, for they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also received with great joy ( 1 Chronicles 29:6-9 ).

So how are we to give to God? Just this way. We are to give with a willing heart, with a complete heart. And we are to give with rejoicing. Give what you can. Give with a free rejoicing heart. Now God doesn't want you to give to Him out of pressure. God doesn't want you to give to Him because you're being forced or constrained to do it. Because God never wants you to gripe over what you gave to Him. What an insult to God for a person to turn around and gripe over what they gave. Complain over what they gave. That would be horrible. God never wants that to happen. Therefore, He always wants your gift to come from your own heart. That which you purposed in your own heart to give to God willingly. That which you can give cheerfully, give. That which you can't give cheerfully, don't give. If you can't do it with a cheerful, willing heart, then don't do it at all. It's of no value. God isn't interested in it.

And so these men gave complete heart willingly unto the Lord. And there was great rejoicing. There's real joy in giving to God.

Wherefore David blessed the LORD before the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all ( 1 Chronicles 29:10-11 ).

Now verse eleven here sounds much like the final phrase of the Lord's prayer. "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever" ( Matthew 6:13 ). Look at it again. "Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all." David was so great with words and so able to praise the Lord. I love the way David is just able to express himself to the Lord so freely, so. And really with such great expression. "Lord, Yours is the kingdom. The whole earth is Yours and the whole universe."

Both riches and honor come of thee, you reign over all; and in your hand is power and might; and in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come from thee, and of thine own we have given to thee ( 1 Chronicles 29:12-14 ).

Now David said, "Hey, Lord, it's all yours. You're the One that's given riches. You're the One that gives power. You're the One that gives abilities and everything else. It all belongs to You. And so actually all we've done is give You that which is really Yours anyhow."

Now we need to see ourselves as just stewards over God's things. God set man upon the earth to sort of tend the garden. Man sought to rule over the garden. Man sought to rule over the earth. God just placed us here to take care of it. We've done a very poor job. Greed got in the way. I want more than what I need. I don't need more than that, but I want more than that. And so I'm always striving to get more than I really need myself. And thus, we get deeper into the resources of the earth. And rather than just keeping them and preserving them, we use them up for our own greed. And thus, we have destroyed so many of the ecological balances in nature because of our greed.

"Lord, it all belongs to You. We were just taking care of it. We have done a bad job. We're only giving You back, Lord, that which is really Yours to begin with." You'd never really give God anything. "Who am I that I'm able to do this for You, Lord? Who am I, Lord, that I could give to You?" To me, giving is one of the most tremendous privileges that God has allowed us. That I could give to God. Really, God doesn't need anything I have. But He allows me to give to Him anyhow. And He blesses me for giving to Him. Not because He needs it, but because I need the blessings. So He allows me the privilege of giving to Him. And then He pays me dividends. God is so good.

For we are strangers before thee, sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none that is abiding ( 1 Chronicles 29:15 ).

"None that is abiding." There are some today who are so much into positive confession they're beginning to claim now they're not going to die. David said, "There are none that are abiding." We're all sojourners. Our life is like a shadow.

O LORD our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee a house for thy holy name comes from Your hand, it is all Your own. I know also, my God, that You try the heart, and You have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now I have seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee ( 1 Chronicles 29:16-17 ).

"Lord, You know that what I gave. You know my heart. You know, Lord, I gave it to You out of the uprightness of my heart willingly: and now I have the joy of seeing all these people do the same thing."

O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee: and give unto Solomon my son a complete heart, to keep thy commandments, and thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision. And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the LORD your God. And all the congregation blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the LORD, and the king with them. And they sacrificed sacrifices unto the LORD, they offered burnt offerings unto the LORD, and on the morrow the day after, even a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, a thousand lambs, with their drink offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for all of Israel: they did eat and drink before the LORD on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and anointed him unto the LORD to be the chief governor, and Zadok to be priest ( 1 Chronicles 29:18-22 ).

So great celebration and worship of God and the feasting that was associated with the worship. Now these sacrifices, thousand rams, thousand lambs, thousand oxen and so forth, they all were barbecued really and eaten by the people. They had a giant barbecue, and you just go around and grab the meat that you desire and just an abundance. Everybody just before the Lord worshipping God. You see, only the sin offering couldn't be eaten. But these were peace offerings and unto the Lord which were offerings of fellowship. And so the great feast that they had company it. And the days, they were called the feasts, the times of their national holidays, the Passover and Pentecost and Trumpets. They were the feasts of the Passover. The feast of Pentecost. The feast of Trumpets because they would always be times of great feasting together. And the idea was eating together with the Lord. "Lord, we offer this as a sacrifice unto You, and You're going to have this portion of it and we'll eat the rest, as we worship You and thank You for all of Your blessings and all of Your goodness and all."

And so the times of worshipping God were great times of fellowship and rejoicing and eating. So your potlucks and everything are all in order, really. God enjoys you just eating and enjoying it and fellowshipping with Him. As you are feasting together, and it should be a time of just thanksgiving and worship unto God.

And so Solomon sat on the throne as the king instead of David his father, and he prospered; and all of Israel obeyed him. And all the princes, and the mighty men, likewise the sons of David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king. And the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years in Hebron, thirty-three in Jerusalem. And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor: and Solomon his son reigned in his stead. Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel, the book of Nathan, the book of Gad ( 1 Chronicles 29:23-29 ),

These three men were prophets. They each wrote books, and of course, we have the books of Samuel, First and Second Samuel, the seer. But we do not have, and of course, even Samuel, Second Samuel wasn't written by him completely. We have the books. We do not have the book of Nathan and the book of Gad. They are lost books.

All of his reign, his might, the times that he went over, and over Israel, the time of his reigning over all of the kingdoms of the countries ( 1 Chronicles 29:30 ).

So we come to the end of a good friend, David.

May the Lord be with you and bless you and watch over you during the week. May your love and commitment to God grow day by day. And may we each one consider what we are giving to God and how we give it. That we might render unto God that which is pleasing and acceptable in His sight, of our time, of our service, of our abilities, of our substance. God bless you. In Jesus' name. "