“Let Your name be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel; and the house of David Your servant is established before You.’” (1 Chronicles 17:24)

David has it in his heart to build a house for the Lord to dwell in the midst of Israel. But God turns down his plan and instead promises instead to build a house for David (1 Chron 17:10). David’s son Solomon was to be the one who would build the house of God, the temple. Why was this such a significant thing, the building of a house for God?

David had led Israel in recovering from the spiritually impoverished reign of King Saul, the king whom the people wanted so they could be like the other nations. His (Saul’s) duplicity was evident and showed in disobeying God at a number of junctures. But, God desired a godly leader who would lead the nation into holiness, that is, to be separated from the practices of the surrounding nations and their false gods. While worship of deity is nearly universal in the world, there are innumerable perspectives of just what that deity or deities are like. They share many similar characteristics, which that makes sense since they are constructs of the imagination of human beings. But, after Saul’s weak leadership, David needed to shore up the worship of the true Deity, and it was important to establish beyond all doubt that the true Deity was the God of Israel.

The Deity whom David worshipped was unique. First and foremost, his Deity is the “LORD of Hosts,” namely Yahweh Sabbaoth. He is the God of Moses, who was also the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is “the God of Israel” and the “God to Israel.” Let there be no doubt. This was Israel’s God. This might sound repetitive, but the descendants of Abraham, especially from the time of Joshua, struggled for a consistent faith, lapsing frequently into idolatry during the time of the judges. Saul was not much help in refining their understanding of the true God. With David, there would be no ambiguity.

Under David’s leadership and influence, Israel attained its highest level of holiness or separateness from the surrounding nations. Indeed, the kings who followed David (in the dynasty of David that continued on down to King Jesus Christ) were often compared to David and his faithfulness to God (see for example 1 Chron 11:33, 38, 1 Kings 15:3-4). Even the Lord Jesus was identified with and compared to David when He was called “the Son of David.”

We join with David in exalting and praising the Lord, lifting up our voices to the one and only true God, the God of Israel, Yahweh of Hosts, saying …

“Let Your name be established and magnified forever!”