Useful Bible Studies > 2 Samuel Commentary > chapter 7
For 40 years, King Saul fought Israel’s enemies fiercely, but he was unable to bring peace to the nation. Now however, the nation had a period of peace. King David did not consider that to be the result of his own efforts. It was God who had brought peace to Israel.
David could see that his life, too, was very comfortable at this time. In his new capital city, Jerusalem, he had built a palace for his large family. It seems to be mainly a wooden building; later kings would build much more splendid palaces. However, David imported the wood from Lebanon (5:11), and he considered it a great luxury.
David did not just want Israel to be a strong nation whose people lived comfortably. It mattered much more to David that its people should truly love God. So David gave careful attention to how he could make the nation’s relationship with God stronger. He saw from Deuteronomy 12:1-14 that God had chosen one particular place in Israel as his permanent home in this world. That was why David brought the very sacred box called the ark to Jerusalem (2 Samuel chapter 6). The ark was evidence of Israel’s special relationship with God.
So now, the ark stood in a tent in Jerusalem. However, that did not satisfy David. Instead, he made a serious promise that he would find a permanent place for it. He wanted to build a permanent building that would be the house of God in Jerusalem (Psalm 132:1-5). David had decided not to allow himself to enjoy any comfort or luxury until he had completed that task.
Next part: David expresses the desire to build God's temple (2 Samuel 7:2)
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