The People of God: The Story of the Churchنموونە

Israel’s request for a king leads to King David. Even though he will make plenty of big mistakes, David is a man who has a heart after God. He longs to build God a permanent dwelling place, a Temple. Although we have not looked at it, until this point, God’s presence had been housed in a Tabernacle, a tent, and in the ark of the covenant. David wants to build a permanent Temple for the presence of God amongst the people in his capital, Jerusalem. This Temple was to become another microcosm of Eden, a heaven-on-earth place where the possibility of communion once again between God and humanity was remembered and believed.

The response of the Lord to David’s desire is that it will not be him who builds the Temple but his son Solomon. Rather than David building the Lord a house, the Lord is going to build David a ‘house.’ This is not a physical house but a lineage. It is from this lineage that the ‘Son’ we read about yesterday will come. David seems to recognize this in his many prophetic psalms like the one in our reading today. Notice how Melchizedek appears again. He will be a priest-king in his line. He will judge the nations who do not rule in God’s way and humble arrogant kings and kingdoms.