Give God His Rightful Place (vv. 1-5). The ark represented God’s throne on earth (80:1; 99:1 nasb, niv) and its rightful place was in the Holy of Holies of God’s sanctuary. Unless God is on the throne of our lives, no enterprise we attempt can be really successful. The ark had been in several places before Solomon put it into the temple (2 Chron. 5). The ark went before the children of Israel as they followed the cloud and pillar of fire through the wilderness, and it also went before them into the water as the people crossed the Jordan River and entered Canaan. It is possible that the ark was temporarily at Bethel (Judg. 20:27) and then Mizpah (Judg. 21:5), but it finally rested at Shiloh (1 Sam. 1–3). The wicked sons of Eli used the ark as a “good luck charm” and took it into battle against the Philistines, but the Philistines captured it (1 Sam. 4–5). Frightened by the judgments God sent, the Philistines returned the ark to the Jews, and for twenty years it rested in the house of Abinadab in Kirjath Jearim (1 Sam. 6:1–7:2). When David became king, he wanted the ark in Jerusalem and prepared a tent for it, but his first attempt failed (2 Sam. 6:1-11). The ark remained in the house of Obed-Edom for three months, and then David successfully brought God’s throne to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:12-19; 1 Chron. 15–16). It appears that the tabernacle of Moses and its holy furniture were in Gibeon (1 Chron. 21:29).

David had two great ambitions: to bring the ark to Jerusalem and then to build a glorious temple to house it. He even made a vow to the Lord, and the Lord permitted him to fulfill the first desire but not the second (2 Sam. 7). David had gone through much hardship with reference to the building of the temple (v. 1; 1 Chron. 22:14), for the wealth he turned over to Solomon came from the spoils of his many battles. The worship leader called on God to “remember–pay attention to” what David had done, for humanly speaking, without David there would have been no temple. Even purchasing the property on which the temple was built cost David a great deal of pain (2 Sam. 24). The words spoken in verse 4 do not mean that David forsook sleep all those years but simply expressed the passion of his heart and the desire to accomplish his goal quickly (Prov. 6:4). “The Mighty One of Jacob” (vv. 2, 5) is an ancient name for Jehovah, for Jacob used it in his last words to his family (Gen. 49:24; and see Isa. 1:24; 49:26; 60:16).