The opening words of chapter 22 taken in immediate connection with ver. 28 of the preceding chapter (of which the 29th and 30th are parenthetical) show David, as it were, recognizing and bowing to the truth that neither himself could stand, nor the kingdom be established, save as the fruit of grace without the works of law. For that was the great truth stamped upon the altar built on Oman's threshing floor. It was in connection with, and the immediate sequence of, the word of grace, “It is enough, stay now thy hand,” i.e., mercy free and pure. The old altar is connected with law, and judgment, and the sword; and David is afraid. His fear is not the result of having no confidence in the Lord, but rather a tacit confession that he deserved death and could not stand before the sword. He builds an altar and turns to it where there is no angel with a drawn sword to fear, and says, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.” This is the altar of thanksgiving for the mercy which rose above the law that demanded righteous judgment. With what deep feeling of heart David would say, “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psalm 148), and while fearing the just judgment of God, yet peacefully resting upon His grace symbolized by a new altar exclaim (as in Psalm 144), “I will sing a new song unto Thee, O God.” A new altar demands and necessitates a new song. But the time was not yet come for the full display of this grace, indeed could only come by Him of Whom the Holy Spirit wrote by the pen of John, “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:1717For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)). So afterward Solomon and all the congregation go to the high place at Gibeon, the place of law, turning from the new altar on the threshing floor of the Jebusite, where only sovereign grace untrammeled by the requirements of the law was found. There were deeper evils in man yet to be brought into the light before God's due time came, when His grace revealed in the cross could meet the need of the worst. Therefore a little longer for Israel to continue under the law, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
This is the last attempt of Satan, recorded in Chronicles, against the kingdom during the life of David. He failed, but grace triumphed, and brings to view a better blessing, with victory through the grace of God, deliverance from the snares of the devil. Satan was bruised under his feet; and in the same manner we shall be victors, for it is written, “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Rom. 16:2020And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. (Romans 16:20))—your feet!
David's closing days are in peace, and the house of God is his uppermost thought. Though not allowed to build it, it is his part to prepare all the material, to give the patterns and appoint the order of service; and in giving these he was greater than Solomon who only built according to the prepared plan. God made David to understand (28:19), even as He made Moses understand when He showed the patterns for the service of the tabernacle, “See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed thee in the mount” (Hebrews 8:55Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. (Hebrews 8:5)). Besides the things, there were the twelve legions and their captains, and their monthly service. Surely all this care and minute arrangement will have its answer in the peaceful glories of Messiah's reign!
Not without a special divine purpose are all the sons of Moses reckoned among the mass of common Levites. “Now concerning Moses, the man of God [he himself is most prominent, and distinguished by that title], his sons were named of the tribe of Levi.” (23:14). No succession here of that kind of which a Judaizing Christendom boasts. His immediate successor in leading Israel into the promised land was Joshua the son of Nun. It was according to the wisdom of God in that dispensation that the sons of Aaron should inherit his honors, and ordinarily that the eldest should be high priest after him. All this necessarily passed away when the True and Great High. Priest came, Who abides forever. But to be the leader of His people was an appointment that God kept in His own immediate hand (Joshua 1:1, 21Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, 2Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. (Joshua 1:1‑2)); and both were needed.
We pass over the names and the apportioned work in the following chapters; not that they are unimportant, but the full meaning of their enumeration may be only clearly seen when all shall be accomplished under the reign of the true Solomon. But we may be allowed to point out that in all this the singers have a prominent place (25. is all about the singers). How the Lord delights in the songs of His people! He names the families of the singers, and gives through David the psalms to be sung; and so we read as the heading to most, if not all, of the psalms, “To the chief musician,” &c. Is it only Israel who is called to sing? Is it not so now, while the church, the future grand choir of the courts above, is now below? Yea, “Rejoice in the Lord alway, again I say rejoice” (Philippians 4:44Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)).
In the presence of the assembled chiefs David encourages and warns his son: a word for him, but as in their hearing, for them also. Solomon was foremost among them, and the earthly link between Jehovah and the people. But this picture of the future glory and the kingdom will be soon dimmed; for the glory of its then appearance is to be committed to the hand of man. Will he maintain it? Solomon is warned that his present glory and magnificence, which was not of his own acquiring but a special gift from God, would soon pass away if he were not faithful. And with the glory of the king would pass away the happiness of the people. How intimately the king's glory, the kingdom's prosperity, the people's joys and obedience to the law of God are interwoven; and he, Solomon, would be responsible for all. How earnestly David exhorts him to be faithful and to take heed (28:1-10).
David in the presence of all the congregation blesses the Lord, ascribing all his glory to God. The people and he were but strangers and sojourners as all their fathers were. And of the gold and silver which they had so abundantly given, after all it was what God had already given them, and he acknowledges God's claim over it all; “for all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.” How beautiful and acceptable to God this low but only right place of humility and thanksgiving; how different from the human boastful spirit that led him to number Israel (21.)! But now he has reached the end of his course, a point where for the display of the future glory of God's King he must give place to another. He has risen, step by step, through changing scenes, through sorrows and victories, and not without slips, personally to this point where Israel are now found worshipping God, and the joy is great, “And (they) did eat and drink before the Lord on that day with great gladness” (29:22).
In this joyful festive scene how apparently abrupt the transition appears from David to Solomon. The man of war makes room for the prince of peace. David vanishes, as it were, swallowed up in the glory (we may say that in the person of his son), clothed upon with immortality; not here in the typical scene taken away by death, but, as the poets sing, like the star of the morning absorbed in the surpassing light of the rising sun. Surely a fitting close for him who was chosen to be a type of the Lord as a Man of war; and more by this divine silence was he honored than was Jacob when all the elders of Egypt, with the chariots and horsemen, followed him to his grave. Nor need we ask how, for it is not David nor yet Solomon that fills the eye of the Holy Spirit, but the Christ and His never ending and unbroken glories.
The last act of David is to call Israel to the feast, and his last words are “Now bless the Lord your God” (29:20). The congregation respond, and bless the Lord God of their fathers. But there is in this feast more than meets the natural eye. This was a feast of the Lord, and anticipative of a greater feast, and of a greater congregation, when the Son of David will say, “My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation” (Psa. 22:2525My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. (Psalm 22:25)). Though not many souls might then have been able to be glad in its prophetic light, yet nonetheless it does point to a future feast, never to be thrown into the shade by succeeding rebellion and shame. For then a new heart will be given to the people, and clean water will be sprinkled upon them, and all shall know Jehovah. David begins the feast, clothed with the renown of a mighty conqueror who was never defeated, but whose course was marked with power and victory from the time that he rescued the lamb from the mouth of the lion and the bear, until the sons of the giant, the last of his enemies, fall by his hand, or by the hand of his Servants (20: 8). But these warrior glories are mellowed in the golden splendor of Solomon, of peace and plenty and undisputed supremacy.
“And they [the people] made Solomon, the son of David, king the second time.” This marks a change. David disappears. Solomon sits upon the throne of the Lord. Looking for a moment at this scene apart from its typical aspect, what a coronation (to use an earthly term) had Solomon! In the annals of the world, of its triumphs and rejoicings, was there ever such a national rejoicing as this? Yet how short even this magnificence falls of the exceeding glory and gladness to come! And this future gladness is unmingled with woe of any kind, while there is not a scene of the world's glory and apparent joy but has beneath its surface in not a few hearts a feeling (it may be) of incurable sadness. Here is no masked grief, but joy unfeigned. Yet it is not the very image, but a shadow of that to come. For Israel, David, and Solomon, in this first book of Chronicles, are but the frame containing God's picture of His Son in His earthly glory. What if some of the colors in that picture are human and therefore dark? They only enhance the brightness of Him Who stands in the foreground, Who is the center of all; the sun illuminating not only Israel but the whole world.
The last verses (29:26, etc.) are an addendum; for the 25th verse is a fitting close to the announcement that Solomon “sat on the throne of the LORD.” What other in such a position could there be that “the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before hint in Israel.” The picture of the glory is rolled up. The following verses are but the notice of David's death, and where the records of his reign may be found—his death as a man, not in his typical aspect, (that has ceased,) and Solomon takes his father's place.