Bible Commentaries

7. The Last Acts of David and His Death

CHAPTER 28 The Great Assembly

1. The Address of David to the assembly (1 Chronicles 28:1-10)

2. The patterns, the gold and the silver delivered to Solomon (1 Chronicles 28:11-19)

3. His encouraging words to Solomon (1 Chronicles 28:20-21)

The events in this chapter connect with 1 Chronicles 23:1. There we find the brief statement that David was old and full of years and that Solomon his son was made king over Israel. Then follow the chapters which acquaint us with the preparations David had made for the building of the temple and the arrangements of the Levites, etc., for the temple service. And now the threads of the narrative which were dropped are taken up again. A great and representative audience was called by David when he made Solomon king. All the princes of Israel and the captains and mighty men in Jerusalem came together. As we know from the book of Kings the aged monarch was weak in his body. But when the hour came to address the great assembly he arose and stood upon his feet. The three attitudes of David are suggestive. He was, on his face, a penitent, (2 Samuel 1:12; 1 Chronicles 21:16); he sat in His presence as a worshipper (1 Chronicles 17:16), and now he stood on his feet as a servant. The words he spoke before the assembly are similar to those he addressed to his son Solomon in private (1 Chron. 22). After he had spoken all these words, in which he once more traced the gracious dealings of the Lord with him, he admonished his son to know the God of his father, to serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind. “If thou, seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off forever.” Then he exhorted him again to build the house. “Be strong and do it.”

After this David handed over the patterns of the porch, the temple houses, the treasuries, the upper chambers and the inner rooms and of the place of the mercy seat. How did the king obtain these patterns? He had them by the Spirit. The authorized version prints Spirit with a small “s.” It was not his own spirit who planned it. A certain commentator says it means that these patterns had been “floating in his mind.” The sentence “the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit” means that the Holy Spirit had revealed it all to him. It was given to him by inspiration as the pattern of the tabernacle and all belonging to it had been given to Moses also by revelation. Then he turned over to Solomon the immense quantities of gold and silver and other materials he had so faithfully collected for the construction of the Temple.