(18) Israel.--1Chronicles 29:10. (See Genesis 32:28, and Exodus 3:6.) Keep this for ever in the imagination.--Rather, preserve this for ever: to wit, "the cast (1Chronicles 28:9) of the thoughts of the heart of thy people." Give permanence to the frame of mind which has evinced itself in the freewill offerings of to-day. Prepare their heart.--Or, direct (1Samuel 7:3). (Comp. Ezekiel 4:3; Ezekiel 4:7, "direct the face towards . . ." Proverbs 16:9, "direct his going." Comp. also 2Chronicles 12:14; 2Chronicles 20:33.) Verse 18. - In the imagination of the thoughts of the heart. We have here again a reminiscence of the early language of Genesis (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21. See also our book, 1 Chronicles 28:9; Deuteronomy 31:21). This same word for "imagination" (יֵצֶר) is found in the Authorized Version in Isaiah 26:3, "Whose mind is stayed," etc.; and in Psalm 103:14; Isaiah 29:16; Habakkuk 2:18; in the last three passages translated as "frame," "framed," and "work." 29:10-19 We cannot form a right idea of the magnificence of the temple, and the buildings around it, about which such quantities of gold and silver were employed. But the unsearchable riches of Christ exceed the splendour of the temple, infinitely more than that surpassed the meanest cottage on earth. Instead of boasting of these large oblations, David gave solemn thanks to the Lord. All they gave for the Lord's temple was his own; if they attempted to keep it, death would soon have removed them from it. They only use they could make of it to their real advantage, was, to consecrate it to the service of Him who gave it.O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, The ancestors of the Jewish nation, whose covenant God the Lord was, and who had ever been mindful of his promise to them, with respect to them their seed:keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people; let the same disposition of mind always continue in them to serve the Lord their God: and prepare their heart unto thee; incline and dispose their minds always to fear the Lord, and obey his will. |
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