Charles Spurgeon Commentary 1 Chronicles 22:5

"And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for Jehovah must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death." — 1 Chronicles 22:5 (ASV)

And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceedingly magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

If he could not build the temple, he would at least gather the materials for it. So, let us try to do all we can in the cause of God.

It is said that there was a king who felt so grateful to God for some special favor that he determined to build a great temple and pay for it all himself; no one was to help at all with it.

One night, in his dreams, he was told that the honor of building that temple would not belong to him as he desired. He thought to himself, "To whom then can it be? For I have not allowed any person to work for me without full wage, and I have done it all."

At last, he discovered that there was a poor woman in his kingdom who also loved his God. Not daring to help in the temple building, she had brought little handfuls of hay to give to the horse that had dragged the stones. So, hers was to be the greater honor.

If you cannot do all you would, do all you can. For God will accept it from you if it is offered with a willing mind and a loving heart.

And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it.

This was beautiful and thoughtful on David's part. It might be too great a strain upon the young man to collect the materials for the temple as well as to build it; therefore David will take his part, and prepare the materials for the house of the Lord. If we cannot do one thing, let us do another; but, somehow, let us help in the building of the Church of God.

The Church today seems only a poor thing; but it is to be "exceedingly magnificent." The glory of the world is to be the Church of God; and the glory of the Church of God is the Christ of God. Let us do as much as we can to build a spiritual house for our Lord's indwelling.

And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it.

There is no way of helping young people to serve God like setting them a good example. Let the father feel, regarding his son, that he is young and tender; he may not be able to begin, but if I begin, I will get him into the way of doing such things, and perhaps he will carry out my design when I am sleeping in the grave. It was well, it was wise, it was splendid of David to thus make all preparations so that Solomon might afterwards continue the good work.

So David prepared abundantly before his death.

If you cannot do everything yourself – and who can? – is it not well to prepare abundantly before our death for somebody else to go on with the work? Thus, we will live after we are dead: live in our sons, if God is so good to us; live in our grandchildren (who knows?); live in someone we were the means of bringing to the Saviour's feet by our ministry. Then he called to Solomon, his son.

He had prepared everything, and now he speaks to him, and he charged him to build a house for Jehovah, the God of Israel.