The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 359

Vers. 11-13.-The aged king's charge to his son and successor. The la.nguage of David to his son here, and shortly afterwnrds to the prince~ of the kingdom, indicnte well his recognition and lively memory of the fact that stone and wood, gold and iron, will need willing hands, earnest minds, devoted hearts, und that even the best material of doctrine and truth will lie dead without the energy of the will and the living Spirit. 'l'he present utterances of David's lips, though somewhat various, go together to make what mny still be correctly called one charge. And this charge is formulated in words of- I. DIRECT ADDRESS AND INCITEMENT. David uses the direct human means. He looks upon his son. He speaks as a father to his son. With these natural aids of humnn look and voice he appeals to him, and remembers that the memory of them may possess an influence of incalculable helpfulness at some critical moments in time to come. It is not sufficient that we think and pray over God's work and over others. We must use that word as a weapon, and wield it with all such force, both of kind and of degree, as ruay be open to us. So to preaching and teaching the best, the purest, and the most prepared of Divine truth, we must add the instrument of appeal. 'l'hnt nppeal must be in God's name, and must consist of his truth, but it must still be our appeal, warm with the love and sympathy of the heart of a fellow-creature, and quivering with the 11nxious tones of a fellow-creature's voice. And in carrying out these methods, however unde- signedly, David: 1. Announces the opportunity that lies before his son. He will not suffer any risk in the matter, but constrains his son to look at the opportunity, secures his surveying it in something of its proper dimensions. Solomon was very young still ; but youth often under-estimates the dimensions of the things that arc greatest of all. Just as the vast scenery that the eye looks on for the first time seems to hnve been over-described and exaggerated, till the truth grows on the eye day after day, and month after month, and that eye becomes educated to estimate magnitude more correctly. David, therefore, fixes attention, at all events, upon tho grantlonr of the oppor- tunity which has now fallen to the lot of a very young man-" Build the house of the Lord thy Gori." 2. Emphasizes the value of the suggestions arisiny from a father'.~ e.i;perience. David has not concealed from his young son what it had been in himself which had stood in the way of his accomplishing his own desire. It is not always to 360 THE FIRST BOOK OF TRE CHRONICLES. (cH. xxn.1-19.