‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.’
At the dedication of the temple, Solomon stands before the whole assembly and blesses God. He retells a history of choices: for centuries God chose no city, yet He did choose a man. Why did God wait so long for a house? And why did His first choice fall on a person, not a place?
God keeps His word to David
Solomon blesses the people, then gives the praise to God for keeping a promise. Leslie M. Grant traces the order of the speech:
Leslie M. GrantAt the dedication of the temple, Solomon spoke a short word to the people, and then prayed at length to God in front of them all. He blessed the people (v.14). He praised God for keeping His word to David: God had given David's son the wisdom and the ability to do the work of building the temple (v.15). Solomon saw that it was God who put the desire to build the temple into David's heart. God approved of David's desire, but He did not let David do it (vs.15-19). He told him that his son would do the building.
A man chosen before a place
The verse sets a long no beside a single yes: no city, but one man. George Davison finds the same pair in Psalm 78:
George DavisonPut this beside the end of Psalm 78. There we read that God chose the place and chose the man, for Zion did not come to light until David's day. This reminds us that God's purpose rules all. His choosing is the fruit of His own counsel. He chose David while David was following the flocks. That is where the whole thing began, and it ran on to the glorious end this Psalm celebrates.
Everything rests on God's choice
Solomon's repeated "I chose" is the ground the whole day stands on. William Kelly follows those same words as Chronicles tells them, and takes them to the believer:
William KellyHe tells how God had chosen from the beginning. God chose Jerusalem, and no other city, to be the capital. In the same way He chose David's house and no other family, and out of David's family He chose Solomon himself. Everything depends on the election of God. There is nothing good that is not founded on God's choice — nothing. The believer's whole blessing and strength depend on it, and that is what delivers a person from self.
In Kings, Solomon names only the choice of David; the retelling in Chronicles adds the city and the house. One commentator observes that the second account presses the point harder:
Henri L. RossierGod's free choice in grace is also emphasized more in our chapters: God chose Jerusalem, chose David, chose the house (2 Chron. 6:6; 2 Chron. 7:12).
"That My name might be there"
God does not live in the house; His dwelling place is heaven. What the house was to hold is His name:
H. L. RossierKnowing this, Solomon asks God that His name might be there — the name that to faith stands for His very person. He asks that God, from His dwelling place in heaven, would hear the king, His servant, and His people Israel when they turn toward His house.
God chose the place. Worship anywhere else was not a lesser choice; it was revolt:
R. EvansIf an Israelite had chosen another place to keep the feasts of the Lord and to bring his offerings, it would have been apostasy, the sin of presumption, and there was no forgiveness for it. But the Lord Jesus is the One who had chosen Jerusalem. He puts the fallen city on the same ground as Mount Gerizim. At the same time He shows that God is spiritual, and that only spiritual worship could please Him. So it is plain that the earthly system is set aside — the system with the city and the house at its centre.
The rejected king and the king of glory
David was more than the founder of a royal line. Solomon's glory pays out a promise God made to a rejected, suffering king:
H. L. RossierHe recalls that the sure mercies promised to David are where the glory of his kingdom begins, even though this glory depends on a covenant of law. God had done for the king of glory all that He had promised to the rejected, suffering king. Here in Solomon, as in Christ, we find all the promises fulfilled. That is because David, the rejected king and the object of God's special favour, had walked here with one aim and one thought only: to find a place of rest for the glorious throne of the Lord.
Summary
- Chosen, not chanced. For generations God named no city. The temple rests on His own free choice, not on Israel's plan.
- The man first. God chose the man before He chose the place. Zion came to light only in David's day.
- Election is everything. Nothing good stands on any other ground, William Kelly says, and knowing this delivers a person from self.
- His name, His person. The house was to hold God's name, and to faith that name stands for God Himself. Israel turned toward that one place. To choose another was revolt against God.
- Promise paid in glory. God kept in the king of glory what He promised to the rejected, suffering David. The same pattern appears in Christ.