📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 17:25
What does 1 Chronicles 17:25 mean?
"For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you."
— 1 Chronicles 17:25 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For you made your people Israel your own people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God.
Now, Yahweh, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken.
Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel. The house of David your servant is established before you.’
For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you.
Now, Yahweh, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant.
Now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Yahweh, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.”
Explanation
First Chronicles 17:25 comes near the end of David's prayer of gratitude, spoken after the prophet Nathan delivered God's response to David's desire to build a temple. In plain terms, David is saying: "God, you told me that instead of me building you a house, you will build me one." The word "house" here is a play on meanings — David wanted to construct a physical temple, but God promised him a "house" in the sense of a lasting dynasty, a line of descendants who would reign. Because God had made this astonishing promise, David felt emboldened to keep praying, to keep speaking honestly and boldly before the Lord.
The context is essential to understanding the verse. David wrote in 1 Chronicles 17 (paralleling 2 Samuel 7) shortly after settling into his palace in Jerusalem. Feeling uneasy that he lived in a house of cedar while the ark of God
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