Jottings

by John Millar | Category: Jottings | Nov 1968

David had known in his experiences with his enemies, and with Saul in particular, the shelter and the deliverances that God had shown to him, and he never forgot to love and to thank Him for all the kindnesses that He had dealt out to him day by day. Indeed, he it was, with the assistance of the prophets Nathan and Gad, and various psalm-writers, that instituted the service of song, both before the LORD in Zion, and before the Tabernacle at the high place at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16.37-43). But David knew well that the service of G6d, divided between Zion and Gibeon, was never the mind of God. It is not an easy thing when departure from God has taken place to get back on to scriptural lines. This is true with the individual, but it is more especially true with God's people collectively. We still suffer from the departure from God which took place in the first century of the Christian era. The effects of the prophecy of the apostle Paul to the elders of the church of God are still with us: "I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20.29,30). Anyone with even a slight knowledge of the Scriptures, and who measures by the Scriptures the present religious confusion, cannot fail to see the vast discrepancy between the word of God and what exists in these days. So thus it was in David's days; he never lived to see the service of God being conducted under one roof. He sang much about Zion, but nothing about Gibeon, though at the latter place the service of God went on with the priests and certain of the singers. David wanted to build a house for God and to bring all together, but he was not allowed by God so to do because he had shed much blood. Solomon, his son, would build the house, the temple. David provided most of the materials, the gold and silver, the copper and the iron, the stones, and the wood from Lebanon. He also got the pattern in writing from the hand of the LORD which he passed on to Solomon with words of encouragement, that he was to be strong and of good courage, and not to fear or be dismayed. The words of 1 Chronicles chapters 28 and 29 are well worthy of being carefully read as to David's words both to Solomon and to chief men of Israel, and also to the congregation of Israel relative to the building of the temple and the condition of the people in relation thereto. Position and condition are married by God, and they should never be divorced. The closing chapter of 1 Chronicles shows Israel rising to great heights, both in their condition and also in the great enterprise that they were undertaking of building what David calls "the palace":

"The work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God"

(29.1).

How different is the last chapter of 1 Chronicles from the last chapter of 2 Chronicles! In the latter, condition is divorced from position, and the house is brought to destruction by the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldean hosts. The temple for which David had collected so much material, and which Solomon with great labour built, was burned by the Chaldeans and remained a ruin for seventy years and more. The temple of God which is a desire in the heart of God must find a response in the hearts of men, if such a thing is to be today. I speak not of a material one but one that is spiritual:

"Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2.4,5).

John Millar | Nov 1968
Jottings