John Calvin Commentary Acts 7:47

"But Solomon built him a house." — Acts 7:47 (ASV)

Solomon built. Stephen seems to criticize Solomon indirectly in this place, as if Solomon did not consider the nature of God in building the temple. Yet Solomon undertook that work not without God's command. A promise was also added, in which God testified that he would be present with his people there. I answer that when Stephen denies that God dwells in temples made with hands, this does not refer to Solomon, who knew very well that God was to be sought in heaven, and that people's minds must be lifted up there by faith. He also expressed this in the solemn prayer he made:

“The heaven of heavens do not contain thee,
and how much less this house?” (1 Kings 8:23).

But Stephen reproves the dullness of the people, who abused the temple as if God were tied to it. This appears more plainly from the testimony of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:6), which Stephen also cites. God, Stephen says, wanted Solomon to build him a temple, but the people were greatly deceived in thinking that God was, so to speak, enclosed in such a building. As God complains through his prophet, the people do him injury when they imagine he is tied to a place.

However, the prophet does not only inveigh against the Jews for this reason—that they worshipped God superstitiously, thinking his power was tied to the temple. He also criticizes them because they esteemed God according to their own fancy, and therefore, after they had finished their sacrifices and external pomp, they imagined that he was pleased and that they had made him indebted to them.

This was a very common error in all ages, because people thought that cold ceremonies were sufficient for the worship of God. The reason is that, since they are carnal and wholly focused on the world, they imagine that God is like them. Therefore, so that God might remove this dullness from them, he says that he filleth all things.