King David is in a magnanimous mood. In today's first lesson, King David offers to build God a huge, marvelous temple in which to live. Is King David embarrassed? He has such a fine house of cedar, but the Almighty God of Israel has had for years to content himself with mere tents and mobile tabernacles. Is that any way for a King to treat his divine benefactor?

So King David announces a royal building progran1 in which a huge temple shall be built in Jerusalem. Surely God will be flattered. After all, a capital city, ruled over by such a wise and powerful king ought to have a grand temple to show its close relationship with the greatest of all Gods.

The response of God is shocking. God tells King David that he has been quite content to live in a tabernacle or a tent and that lie has no need…