Building God's House: Or Not? - 2 Samuel 7

At the time of 2 Samuel 7 David is an important character. He has settled down. He has made it. He is, as the first verse of 2 Samuel 7 puts it, 'established in his palace'. This is a fascinating passage, this account in 2 Samuel 7 of what happens when David tells the prophet that he wants to build a place of worship.

David is now a formidable force on the world scene. He is an established figure politically. As the latter part of 2 Samuel 7:1 puts it, 'the Lord had given him security from his enemies on all sides'. Things have gone well for David and he’s enjoying the prosperity. He’s enjoying the power. He is very happy with what he has achieved. It’s a settled period and roots are being put down.

David is doing quite nicely, but a pang of guilt suggests to him that perhaps he has not done too well by God. David is feeling a bit guilty that he has invested so much in his own comfort, but done nothing about the provision of an appropriate worship space.

The people have moved on – so that they are not now moving on all the time, but God, as it were, has apparently been left behind still in their nomadic phase. 'Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the Ark of God is housed in a tent'. David wants to do something about the provision that has been made for God’s house, for the place of worship.

Nathan, like any good church minister, welcomes the prospect of this major donation –'Do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you'. It sounds great. But has David got it right? David has got kingship right. He has taken the people to a good place. They are settled. They are prosperous. But we’re about to discover that he hasn’t got his theology right. Nor, of course, has the prophet.

But, before we go on to say just a little about that, let’s remind ourselves that we, too, sometimes need to be moved in an unexpected direction by God. There are times when we think we’ve got it all mapped out, but actually we’re working off the wrong map. It’s our one, not God’s.

But let’s get back to our story. Nathan has told David to get on with putting his plan into action – but now he has got to reverse his advice because God tells him that he needs to tell David something different. Indeed, he needs to tell him precisely the opposite. The donation is to be turned down. The point is, of course, a theological one, as well as a practical one. The tent, in which God has so far dwelled, is a symbol of mobility. It indicates that God is on the move. In essence, David wants to pin God down. David wants to make sure that God is always there for him.

Now I don’t actually think there is anything wrong with wanting to pin God down. It’s natural. We all want to do it. We want to know that God is there for us. We want to do that, just as much as David did. But we need to learn, just as David did, that you can’t. I am not, of course, saying that God isn’t there for us. Of course, God is. That is fundamental. But it is equally fundamental that God is not necessarily there for us in the way that we want.

David has settled down. Now he starts thinking about getting God settled down as well. Only God doesn’t do settling down. David wants to give God a permanent roof, to try and make sure God doesn’t wander any longer, to create a place for God that removes any need to be vagrant or itinerant. Only God is not – and never will be – ready to be domesticated. God has been free and God will continue to be free. Even a royal apparatus as great as that of David is not able to make God its patron. The proposed permanent residence for God is unacceptable because it violates God’s freedom. God cannot be pinned down. Most of us try to do that at some time or other – but it just doesn’t work.

Now, of course, all this doesn’t mean that God isn’t interested in David. It doesn’t mean that God isn’t there for David. But what it does mean is that it is God who is setting the agenda. It is not David who is doing that. We all quite like to think that we can set God’s agenda – but we can’t. But the great thing is that the very fact that we can’t opens up all sorts of possibilities. What’s going on here is not David being limited because he can’t get enough of God. Rather, David is to find himself fulfilling a potential beyond his dreams because of what God makes possible.

There’s an interesting little play on words in verse 11. David has wanted to build God a house, a temple. That’s not to be for David. The house-building is to be done by God. God will build for David a house, a dynasty. Up to this point David’s concern has simply been with gaining the support of God to enable him to engage in a successful reign of king. But now the promise is that that is only part of the story. His reign is the start of a dynasty. The promise of God, through the prophet, takes us on a great leap into the future.

In words from Ephesians, chapter 3, verse 20, 'God has done for David more than all we can ask or conceive'.