1 Chronicles 15

1 Chronicles 15:1

God considers the preparation of a place for the arknot David’s housing projectthe important matter. “David made him houses in the city of David” was a housing project, and I’m sure that was considered important by a great many people.

1 Chronicles 15:2

My question is: David, why didn’t you do this the first time? Why did you have to go through that sad experience before you did it the right way? Well, that’s the way most of us learn. The old cliche is accurate: hindsight is better than foresight. It is easy for me to tell David he should have done it right in the first place, and then McGee turns right around, and the next step I take, I do it wrong. Then I have to learn to do it God’s way. I have a notion that is the experience of most of us.

1 Chronicles 15:3

Do you remember that in days gone by when America faced a crisis our national leaders called for a day of prayer? We don’t do that any more. Instead we get the brain trust together and expect them to solve the problems. We have seen that the decisions of the brain trust in the past have been as foolish as though they had been made by children; yet we don’t change our method. That is the tragedy of America in this dark hour in which we are living. David thought it was important to gather all Israel together to bring up the ark of the Lord. And God thought it was important. This is the reason He recorded it in Chronicles, which is His viewpoint of this historical period. Now David prepares to move the ark the right way.

1 Chronicles 15:4

Then he gives the chief of each family and the number of men each would furnish.

1 Chronicles 15:11

David had prepared a place for the ark, but we are not told exactly where it was. Was it the threshing floor of Araunah? Later on he bought that place for the site on which the temple was to be built. This is on the ridge called Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham offered Isaac. The ridge goes right through Jerusalem; and Golgotha, the place on which Christ was crucified, is located on this same ridge. I am of the opinion that the place David prepared for the ark was on Mount Moriah.

1 Chronicles 15:13

You will recall that David blamed God at first; he thought He was wrong in taking the life of Uzza, but then he discovered he himself was the one who was wrong, and he is confessing that.

1 Chronicles 15:14

Have you noticed the repetition of the expression “the ark of the Lord God of Israel”? We get the impression that the ark is very important to God.

1 Chronicles 15:15

He is referring to God’s explicit instructions in the fourth chapter of Numbers. David, we know, was a musician, and he wanted music with all of this.

1 Chronicles 15:16

David wanted the brass band, the orchestra, and all the choirs. It was to be a great day when the ark of God was brought to Jerusalem. This was the high point of David’s coming to Jerusalem. God does not even record David’s coming to Jerusalem to capture it from the Jebusites, nor does He record the great building project that David launched. God puts the emphasis upon the spiritual, and I hope we get the message.

1 Chronicles 15:25

Oh, this was a great day!

1 Chronicles 15:26

All of these sacrifices pointed to Christ.

1 Chronicles 15:27

What a day this was! I have always wanted a big orchestra, but I never did have it in any church I served. I guess the Lord just didn’t want me to have one. I believe one of the reasons the church service is so dead and the reason the world passes it by is that there is no evidence of joy. Look at people going to any church today and see if they look happy. Look at a newscast of a crowd at a baseball game, and you don’t see a sad face in the whole lot. Even those who are losing don’t seem to be sad. They all seem to be having a good time. The tragedy of the hour is that God’s people don’t seem to be having a good time. We ought to be! I think the world in that day heard about David bringing up the ark to Jerusalem. I think there were visitors from other countries who went home and said, “You should have been in Jerusalem with me. It was a great day, a great day!” Have you noticed that there is nothing in the newscasts, nothing on the front pages of the newspapers, which is spiritual or which shows the joy of the Lord? They will publish a freak sort of thing, an oddball news item about religion, or something about some religious nut. Today that which is spiritual and joyful has disappeared from the life of America. That is when we as a nation have begun to die, by the way. Now, however, we see that not everybody was in accord with David in this celebration.

1 Chronicles 15:29

Michal was the daughter of King Saul and the first wife of David. She looked at him showing his enthusiasm and joy in serving the Lord, and she thought in her heart, He is a religious fanatic!Oh, how we need men like David in our day. It does not have to be fanaticism, but we do need the underlying river of joy flowing through the hearts and lives of God’s people. That is the great message in chapter 15.