God’s Word for You
1 Chronicles 22:1 The hilltop of grace
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, April 26, 2024
22:1 Then David said, “Here will be the house of the LORD God, and here will be the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”
This verse should be read in connection with the final verses of chapter 21. Here is the fuller explanation, without any conjecture or guessing, about David’s state of mind and faith. He was afraid to go to Gibeon to offer any sacrifices (21:30)—he was afraid of the sword of the Lord. Why was he afraid of that sword? Simply because it existed? No. Because the Lord had commanded him to build an altar here, at the threshing floor on the summit of the hill north of his own house, above Jerusalem. David’s words here in 22:1 are words of conviction; words of faith. “Here will be the house of the LORD God.” The house or tent of the Lord was no longer to be at Gibeon or any of the other high places in the land. It was to be moved here. The tent could be retired. The Lord had approved his plan to build a temple.
“Here will be the altar of burnt offering for Israel.” David was Israel’s king. He could not go wandering off to some other place, whether Gibeon, or Bethel, or even to his own village of Bethlehem for that matter, to make a sacrifice to the Lord. He must lead by example. He must worship the Lord here, and only here, for the rest of his life—or until the Lord told him otherwise.
Here we learn how David could speak the way he does in many other Psalms, mentioning the temple which, as long as he lived, did not yet exist. For he says about Psalm 30, “For the dedication of the temple” (30, Title). And in the same Psalm, he shows his delight in the Lord’s sovereign choice of Zion: “When you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm” (30:7). And he speaks of the future temple in glowing words:
“Sing praises to the LORD, enthroned in Zion” (Psalm 9:11).
“May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion” (Psalm 20:2).
And these words of Psalm 51 are filled with confident faith in the repentant sinner’s heart: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure make Zion prosper, build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar” (Psalm 51:17-19).
The choice of this place teaches us something far bigger; far more important, that the mere retirement of the tabernacle built by Moses. God chose this mountain for his temple so that every aspect of the crucifixion of his Son, Jesus Christ, would be his own act; his own doing and choosing. The Lamb of God was to be slaughtered here, where Abraham had been willing to offer Isaac. The Lamb of God would be offered as the substitute for all mankind just as God provided a substitute for Isaac with the appearance of the ram in a thicket caught by its horns (Genesis 22:13). So also Jesus, crowned by thorns as if from a thicket, would be caught, bound, and cause himself to be seemingly unable to escape punishment, all to atone for the sins of mankind.
In your imagination, O sinner, set foot onto this ancient hilltop, whether you recognize a tree here or there, or can conceive of the pile of stones David has made; a thicket to one side (perhaps near the bubbling spring of Bethesda) that recalls the thicket Abraham had seen, centuries before. Here on this hill, David’s piled stones would be replaced by a huge altar of bronze, an altar so large that many sacrificed bulls could easily be burned into ashes and smoke at the same time. To the west of the altar, a towering edifice of gleaming white stone would rise up into the sky, capped in gold, shining so brightly under the sun. The ark, brought as a sacred treasure within the walls of David’s city, would be finally set into its rightful place, forbidden to be touched, hidden from sight except in the moment of atonement once in a year. And outside this temple, just outside the walls of the city, is where your sins, O sinner, were forgiven. Where “Christ has satisfied and paid for all guilt and without man’s merit has obtained and won for him forgiveness of sins, the ‘righteousness that avails before God,’ and eternal life” (Formula of Concord).
Be bold, O sinner, and know that you can say along with David, “I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O Lord, proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds.” (Psalm 26:6-7).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.