1 Chronicles 29:10-20

Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation.

The last thanksgiving

Every sentence weighed and measured for the occasion.

I. The infinite perfections of God.

1. God in His unspeakable grandeur.

2. God in His universal dominion.

3. God in His absolute ownership.

4. God in His covenant relation.

5. God in His goodness to men.

II. The peculiar relations of man to the infinite God.

1. Man is a dependent creature. “Who am I?”

(1) Dependent for substance to give.

(2) Dependent for the disposition to give it.

(3) Therefore indebted to God for all things.

2. Man is a short-lived creature.

3. Man’s conduct is observed by God. (J. Wolfendale.)

David’s thanksgiving

1. Its adoration of God.

2. Its acknowledgment of dependence upon Him.

3. Its recognition of the influence of His grace.

4. Its solemn appeal to conscious integrity.

5. Its earnest prayer for king and people. (J. Wolfendale.)

The reciprocal influence of mind upon mind in worship

In this address of the venerable King of Israel to the Omnipotent Sovereign of the world, the natural influence of one mind upon another, the secret but powerful sympathy of similar affections in the “devout congregation” combine with his own grateful dispositions to enlarge his conceptions and to bring forth the most affecting description of the excellences of the great object of their common homage. You cannot but have observed and felt an influence of this kind, and been moved by the affections of others, especially when they corresponded with the condition of your own hearts. You have felt auger, joy, or grief insinuate themselves into your minds from the expression of them in others; and you have seen these affections increased in them by the mutual sympathy of your feelings. How often has the rage of an individual, expressed by the fiery glance of his eye, the fierceness of his countenance, and the shrillness of his tones, with the force and quickness of lightning inflamed a multitude, and exasperated their headstrong passions. With what glowing delight has an assembly been filled by the joyful countenance, the cheerful glance, the eloquent tones of a happy friend. How often has the melancholy, downcast look, or the tender tear of an interesting mourner, covered the face of the beholder with like pensive sadness, and infused into your bosom sorrows not your own. This reciprocal impression of the affections of the heart must hold equally true in the worship of the Supreme, as in the intercourse of common life. (Anon.)

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power.--

God’s supreme dominion and universal authority

I. The supreme authority and dominion of the ever-blessed God. God, under every possible consideration, must be supreme. As, therefore, He must be supreme, so must He reign over all (Romans 9:5). God has an absolute right, not only to claim allegiance from all, but to dispose of all according to His own will and pleasure. Every part of God’s Word teems with His glorious sovereign authority.

1. Witness a few confessions. Text. Solomon (1 Kings 8:22; 2 Chronicles 6:14); Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:14); Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:3); the Levites (Nehemiah 9:4); the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:13); Paul (Ephesians 1:3; 1 Timothy 1:11); Jude (verses 20-25).

2. How the Lord asserts and claims this glorious prerogative as peculiar to Himself (Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 40:25; Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 43:15; Jeremiah 5:20; Daniel 7:13).

II. The nature of this supreme dominion and sovereign authority. Observe--

1. Negatively. It is not--

(1) A deputed and delegated authority.

(2) An assumed or usurped authority.

(3) An arbitrary authority.

2. Positively.

(1) It is universal.

(2) Equitable.

(3) Irresistible.

(4) Everlasting.

III. The aspect in which it is to be viewed by us.

1. As a most glorious doctrine.

2. As a most humiliating doctrine.

3. As a most alarming doctrine.

4. As a most encouraging doctrine.

5. As a most invigorating and establishing doctrine. (R. Shittler.)

The Divine greatness and beneficence

We have in these words a confession--

I. Of the Divine sovereignty.

II. Of the Divine power.

III. Of the Divine beneficence. (J. Johnson Cort, M. A.)

David’s thanksgiving

I. The occasion. David, in a general assembly of his people, moves them to contribute towards the building of the temple, and encourages them by his own example. They contribute willingly and liberally. Reckoning a talent of silver at £375, and a talent of gold at £4,500, what they offered amounted to above twenty-six millions of pounds sterling (besides the ten thousand drams of gold, the other metals, and precious stones), which, with what David gave himself out of his private treasury, being above sixteen millions more, makes a vast sum. For this he and the people rejoice. He blesses and praises God, not because they had so much, but because they had hearts to lay out so much for God and His worship. To have much may be a curse and a snare, but to have a heart to employ it for God is a far more blessed thing than to keep it, or gain it, or any way to receive it (Acts 20:25).

II. The mode or form of his praising God. It is an ascribing all excellences to Him. True praising or blessing of God consists in acknowledging that to be God’s which is His. When Christ taught His disciples how to pray and how to praise God, this is the mode of praising Him (Matthew 7:18): “Thine is,” etc. After the same manner does David here praise Him. (D. Clarkson.)

For all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine.--

The Lord is the owner of all things

I. What evidence there is in scripture for the Lord’s title to all things.

1. Those things are His which we have in common with others.

(1) The world in general (Psalms 50:1 or Psalms 24:1? Misprint in original text.);

(2) heaven (Psalms 89:11);

(3) the sea (Psalms 95:5);

(4) the earth (Exodus 19:5);

(5) everything in the earth (Deuteronomy 10:14).

2. Those things are His which we think to be properly ours. We may be proprietors in respect of men, so far as none of them may be able to produce any good title or lay any just claim to what we have; but we are no proprietors in reference to God.

(1) Lands (Leviticus 25:28);

(2) the fruits of the land (Hosea 2:9); and cattle (Psalms 50:10);

(3) money and clothes (Haggai 2:8; 1 Chronicles 29:14; 1 Chronicles 29:16);

(4) our children (Ezekiel 16:20);

(5) ourselves (1 Corinthians 6:19; Psalms 100:3);

(6) our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20);

(7) our souls (Ezekiel 18:4; 1 Corinthians 6:19).

II. What is the foundation of the Lord’s title to a propriety in all things? He that gave to all their being is clearly the owner of all (Psalms 89:11).

1. He made all for Himself, not for the pleasure of another, as the Israelites wrought for Pharaoh.

2. He made all things of nothing.

3. He made all without the help or concurrence of any other.

4. He upholds all things in the same manner as He created.

III. The nature and quality of this propriety.

1. He is the primary and original owner of all. His title and propriety is underived.

2. He is the absolute owner of all, without any condition or limitation.

3. He is the principal owner. All others that have right to anything have it under Him, and in subordination to Him, and are tied to acknowledge it by doing Him service for whatever they have.

4. He is total owner of all. When David gave the possession mentioned (2 Samuel 19:29) between Ziba and Mephibosheth, they had a joint interest therein, so Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah would have had in the navy and adventure if they had joined their ships according to the proposal (1 Kings 22:49). But none has a joint interest with God.

5. He is the perpetual owner of all.

6. He is transcendently the owner of all. He has the greatest right to them. He has more right to all than we have to anything.

7. He is the sole owner of all things.

Use 1. Of information.

(1) Herein we may discern the greatness of the Lord whom we serve and whose we are.

(2) This may inform us that the Lord hath a right to deal with us or any creature as He will.

Use 2. For exhortation. This truth suggests many duties of greatest moment and consequence.

(1) Thankfulness. Whatsoever we have that is good is from Him, and not only the substance, but every degree of it.

(2) Self-surrender.

(3) Improving all we have for God.

(4) Patience.

(5) Humility.

(6) Self-denial.

If God be the owner of all things, He is the owner of us; if He be the owner of us, we are not to own ourselves, and not to own ourselves is to deny ourselves.
We must deny ourselves--

(a) As to our judgments, We must give up ourselves to the conduct of that judgment which is laid down in Scripture, that which is called the mind of the Lord.

(b) As to our wills. The will of the Lord must be our will.

(c) As to our ends. The pleasing, and honouring, and enjoying God is the only end we should propose to ourselves, either in holy duties or worldly business.

(d) As to our interests. If God be our owner, we ought to own and mind His interest and none else.

(e) As to our business and employments. The example of Christ (Luke 2:19; John 4:34; John 9:4).

(f)

As to our possessions. We ought to look upon all we possess as the Lord’s and not ours.

Use 3. For encouragement.

I. This truth affords encouragement in those special cases which are most apt to trouble and deject you. He can supply all your need.

(1) Want you wealth, or what you judge to be a competency? (1 Chronicles 29:12). All the riches of the world are in His hands, and He can dispose thereof to whom and in what proportion He sees good (2 Corinthians 9:8; Philippians 4:19).

(2) Want you authority to countenance and secure you? (1 Chronicles 29:11). He has the disposing of it all.

(3) Want you victory over enemies, those that afflict and oppress your souls? The Lord can give it you; it is His own.

(4) Want you strength, outward or inward, to do, or to suffer, or to resist? This He can also give you, for it is all His own (1 Chronicles 29:12).

(5) Want you wisdom? (James 1:5).

(6) Want you gifts or other graces, or a greater measure of them? (James 1:17).

(7) Want you comfort? (2 Corinthians 1:3).

(8) Want you friends? All the friends in the world are but cyphers to Him.

2. There is encouragement to undergo or undertake anything for God which He calls you to. He is the owner of all things, and so has enough to requite you, to reward you, if all that is in heaven and in earth be enough to do it. (D. Clarkson.)

Divine ownership

God’s ownership is--

1. Universal.

2. Absolute.

3. Eternal. From this ownership we infer--

I. The absolute supremacy of God. He who owns all has a right--

1. To bestow on any creature whatever He pleases.

2. To withdraw from any creature in any way or at any time whatever He thinks best. “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away.”

II. The moral obligation of man. What is that?

1. To obey His will in everything.

2. To be animated by supreme gratitude. (Homilist.)

Thine is the kingdom, O Lord.--

The kingdom of God

I. Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom. What kingdom?

1. The kingdom of nature, with all its productions and materials.

2. The kingdom of providence. As He made all, so His care extends to all.

3. The kingdom of grace. This is a kingdom within the kingdom of nature and providence. It is a mediatorial, a spiritual empire, which is designed to establish the peculiar reign of God, not only over men, but in them.

II. The glory of this kingdom. This is seen--

1. In its Sovereign--the Lord Jesus.

2. In its universality.

3. In its prospect (Daniel 2:44; Daniel 7:13).

4. In its subjects: “The excellent of the earth.”

5. its privileges: “Eye hath not seen,” etc.

(1) Peace.

(2) Liberty: “The glorious liberty of the sons of God.”

(3) Plentitude: “The Lord of hosts makes unto all people a feast of fat things,” etc. “My God shall supply all your need,” etc. (W. Jay, M. A.)

And in Thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

The nature of true greatness

I. What is the nature of true greatness? The scriptural idea of greatness is essentially different from that which is formed by the world.

1. To a few names the world has by general consent appended the title of “the Great”--Alexander, Constantine, Napoleon. These were great men with little aims. Self was the beginning and end of all their plans and labours. Their greatness was like a tree of ample trunk and wide-extended foliage, not spreading a beneficent shade, but distilling a deadly poison on all beneath, and thus killing its own roots and insuring its own decay.

2. A higher order of worldly greatness is that which consists purely in exalted genius and great intellectual power, whatever be the form of its manifestation. This form of greatness has been generally beneficent in its influence. Still it is in itself incomplete and unfinished.

3. The greatness of the Bible is a holy greatness. The fear of God is the source of its wisdom; the love of God is the spring of its activity; the glory of God is the end of its enterprises and labours.

II. This greatness is a proper object of aspiration and pursuit.

1. Man was made for this greatness. He is born great. Great powers, great duties, great expectancies, a great sphere of action, great hopes and promises, are his. If he becomes little, it is by his own fault and sin.

2. The Word of God exhorts us to it, “calls” us to “glory” as well as to “virtue.”

3. We are taught that there will be a distinction in the rewards of eternity, graduated to the different degrees of merit and earnestness in the service of God in the present life.

4. The examples of Scripture are justifications of the highest aim. All history besides contains no such list of heroes as Hebrews 11:1.

III. The source of this greatness. All things are of God. Even the world’s heroes have felt and acknowledged this. If it is in God’s hands to make great--

1. Then He is to be acknowledged and adored as the author of all the endowments of men.

2. What must be the guilt of those who have perverted and abused their talents to spread disorder, pollution, and misery among His moral subjects!

3. Their greatness is to be solicited and expected from Him.

4. From Him we must derive our idea of greatness. This He has revealed to us--

(1) In His Word.

(2) In the life of Christ. (John Proudfit, D. D.)

The agency of God in human greatness

I. God makes men great by bestowing upon them distinguished genius and talents. Some of the courtiers of the Emperor Sigismund, who had no taste for learning, inquired why he so honoured and respected men of low birth on account of their science. The emperor replied, “In one day I can confer knighthood or nobility on many; in many years I cannot bestow genius on one. Wise and learned men are created by God only.”

II. God makes men great by an education, and by events in life suited to discover, to excite, to encourage, to improve, and to direct their talents. The most luxuriant soil, when uncultivated, often becomes wild and barren, while a soil less favourable richly recompenses the seed sown, and the labours of the husbandman.

1. Early instruction and discipline correct the blemishes, brighten the polish, and increase the excellences of genius.

2. The friends and companions of our early youth contribute not a little to the strengthening and improving our natural talents.

3. Favourable providences expand the faculties, call forth exertions, and discover the extent of talents, which otherwise might have lain dormant, or shone with less lustre. Erpinius the critic, was first stimulated to a proper improvement of his time and talents by looking into Fortius Ringelbergius’s treatise on study Franklin was similarly affected by an essay of Dr. Cotton Mathers, on doing good. Great occasions produce great talents. A Frederic and a Washington might have lived obscure, and died forgotten, had the time, place, and circumstances which called forth their abilities been different.

III. It is God who implants dispositions, and excites to conduct, which enable men to improve their natural abilities, and providential opportunities and advantages for becoming great. Exercise and activity marvellously improve and increase talents, comparatively small. God makes men great by influencing their tempers and enabling them to govern their spirits and conduct their lives by the rules of reason and religion.

IV. God makes men great by bringing them into difficult and trying situations, which exercise and manifest the greatness of their disposition and talents.

V. God makes men great by rendering the exercise of their talents acceptable and useful.

VI. It is God who assigns to the great the sphere of their greatness.

VII. In the hand of God it is to limit the duration of human greatness.

Conclusion: Address--

1. Those whom the hand of God hath made great. God made you great for the general good, and not merely for your own pleasure or profit. Distinguished talents were bestowed that, with success, you might guide others to wisdom, to religion, and happiness.

2. Those whom a scanty measure of natural talents or acquired accomplishments confines to a lower and more ignoble and laborious line of life. Beware of envy and discontent. (J. Erskine, D. D.)

All strength is from God

All Christians, in themselves, are but vessels, poor fragile things, just like earthen pitchers. We should be worthless, only God puts His life into our hearts. And this becomes part of the good news of Christ. It brings the happy assurance to every heart who hears it that even a child may be a vessel to carry the power of God. Weak people, little people, fragile people, God uses them all. God can fill the weakest and most fragile with strength for His work. He asks also that the heart may receive His life. The outside may be no better than earthenware, but inside there will be an excellent light and power of God. (D. Macleod.)