1 Chronicles 17:20-22 meaning

Review Status

1 Chronicles 17:20-22 continues David's prayer by confessing that there is no one like the LORD and no God besides Him, that no nation on earth is like Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and for whom He made a name by great and terrible things in driving out nations and redeeming them from Egypt, and that God made Israel His own people forever and became their God.

1 Chronicles 17:20-22 lifts the prayer from David's house to God's character: "O LORD, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears" (v 20). The confession stands at the center of Israel's faith—"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4)—and David grounds it in testimony: all that we have heard with our ears (v 20). Israel knew God's uniqueness because the fathers had told the story, and the psalm of the previous chapter had just told it again (1 Chronicles 16:12-22). The God who promised David a house was the God who had no rival.

A unique God has made a unique people: "And what one nation in the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make You a name by great and terrible things, in driving out nations from before Your people, whom You redeemed out of Egypt? (v 21). Redeem is the language of purchase and rescue; God went to Egypt, as it were, and bought a people out of slavery for Himself (Exodus 6:6-7; Deuteronomy 7:8). The great and terrible things are the plagues and the Red Sea, and the driving out of nations is the conquest. God's purpose in all of it was to make himself a name, so that the nations would know who He is. David has just been promised a great "name" (1 Chronicles 17:8), and he answers by praising the greatness of God's name. He understands that his own standing exists to serve God's reputation.

The section closes with the covenant bond: "For Your people Israel You made Your own people forever, and You, O LORD, became their God (v 22). These are the two halves of the covenant formula that runs through Scripture—"I will take you for My people, and I will be your God" (Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 31:33). David sees that the promise about his house rests inside a prior and larger promise about God's people. God pledged Himself to Israel forever, and the dynasty just promised "forever" (1 Chronicles 17:12, 14) is the means by which God will keep shepherding the people He redeemed. For the Chronicler's readers, the word forever in this verse mattered as much as the one in 1 Chronicles 17:14. The exile had not unmade them as God's people, because God had become their God by His own act. Paul draws the same conclusion about Israel centuries later: "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29).