Albert Barnes Commentary Haggai 2:8

"The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith Jehovah of hosts." — Haggai 2:8 (ASV)

The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine - These words, which have caused some to think that God, in speaking of the glory with which He would fill the house, meant material riches, suggest the contrary. For silver was no ornament of the temple of Solomon. Everything was overlaid with gold. In the tabernacle there were bowls of silver; in Solomon’s temple they and all were of gold (1 Kings 7:50; 2 Chronicles 4:8).

Silver, we are expressly told, was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon: he made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones—for abundance (1 Kings 10:21; 1 Kings 10:27).

Rather, as God says by the Psalmist, Every beast of the forest is Mine, so are the cattle upon a thousand hills: I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine and the fullness thereof (Psalms 50:10–12). So here He tells them that for the glory of His house He did not need gold or silver, for all the wealth of the world is His. They had no ground then to grieve that they could not equal the magnificence of Solomon, who had abundance of gold and silver. All was God’s.

He would fill it with divine glory. The Desire of all nations, Christ, would come, and be a glory to which all created glory is nothing.

“God says really and truly, that the silver and gold is His, which in utmost bounty He created, and in His most just government administers, so that, without His will and dominion, neither can the bad have gold and silver for the punishment of avarice, nor the good for the use of mercy. Its abundance does not inflate the good, nor does its lack crush them; but for the bad, when it is bestowed, it blinds, and when taken away, it tortures.”

“It is as if He would say, ‘Do not think the temple inglorious because, maybe, it will have no portion of gold or silver, and their splendor. I do not need such things. Why would I? For Mine is the silver and Mine the gold, saith the Lord Almighty. I seek rather true worshipers: with their brightness will I gild this temple. Let him come who has right faith, is adorned by graces, gleams with love for Me, is pure in heart, poor in spirit, compassionate and good.’”

“These make the temple, that is, the Church, glorious and renowned, being glorified by Christ. For they have learned to pray, The glory of the Lord our God be upon us (Psalms 90:17).”