1 Chronicles 22

David’s role had been to overcome Israel’s enemies and to establish peace and security in the land. His son Solomon’s role would be to maintain that peace and build God’s temple. God promised David that He would grant Israel peace and quiet during Solomon’s reign¹⁵ (verse 9). Then David repeated to Solomon the promise God had given him earlier: namely, that God would be Solomon’s Father and that He would establish the throne of Solomon’s kingdom forever (see 2 Samuel 7:12–17; 1 Chronicles 17:11–15 and comment).

11–13 David then gave a general exhortation to Solomon; he called upon the Lord to be with his son and to give him discretion and understanding, so that he might keep the law of the LORD (verse 12). Later on, when David was near death,he would repeat similar words to Solomon, urging him to walk in the Lord’s ways (see 1 Kings 2:1–4 and comment); only then would Solomon have success (verse 13).

14–19 For the temple construction, David provided nearly four thousand tons of gold and forty thousand tons of silver, not to mention other metals, wood, and stone. And he provided the necessary workmen and craftsmen. He then ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon in building the temple. Here minded them that there was now rest on every side (verse 18), and that therefore they should concentrate on spiritual matters and seek the Lord with all their heart and soul (verse 19).

Many godly people get a vision, a burden for carrying out some particular project, just as David had a vision for building the temple. But then God says, “No, you are not the one.” When this happens, our natural reaction is to be discouraged, maybe even angry; and so we walk away and try to forget about our vision. But it wasn’t so with David. He knew the vision was right, and so he put his heart and soul into helping the one who had been chosen to carry it out. May God help us to follow David’s example.