1 Chronicles 17:27

1Ch 17:27 Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may be before thee for ever: for thou blessest, O LORD, and [it shall be] blessed for ever.

Ver. 27. Now therefore let it please thee.] Or, It hath pleased thee. Compare 2Sa 7:29. Prayers are often made in faith as if they were already done.

For thou blessest, O Lord.] His often mentioning of God in this holy prayer is an evidence of strong affiance in God, and of his great affection to him, as is well observed.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ch 17:27. Let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant — He is therefore encouraged to ask a blessing because God had intimated to him that he had blessings in store for him and his family; thou blessest, O Lord — And therefore unto thee shall all flesh come for a blessing: unto thee do I come for the blessing promised to me. And he is therefore earnest for the blessing, because those whom God blesseth are truly and eternally blessed. Thou blessest, and it shall be blessed — Men can but beg the blessing, it is God that commands it; what he designs, he effects; what he promises, he performs; saying and doing are not two things with him. Nay, it shall be blessed for ever — His blessings shall not be revoked from the faithful, and the benefits conferred by them are such as will survive time and days. David’s prayer concludes as God’s promise did, (1Ch 17:14,) with that which is for ever. God’s word looks at things eternal, and so should our desires and hopes.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 27. For thou blessest, O Lord] "Thou beginnest to bless the house of thy servant, therefore it shall be blessed for ever." - T.

THE reader is requested to refer to 2 Sam. 7, and the notes there for many particulars that belong to the parallel places here, and which it should answer no good purpose to repeat in this place.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(27) Now therefore let it please thee.—Rather, and now Thou hast willed to bless. Samuel: “and now be willing, and bless.”

For thou blessest, O Lord.—For Thou, Jehovah, hast blessed. Samuel is, as usual, fuller: “For thou, my Lord Jehovah, hast spoken [promised], and in virtue of thy blessing thy servant’s house shall be blessed for ever.” Num_22:6 illustrates our text.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. now therefore let it please thee … that it may be … it shall be blessed] R.V. and now it hath pleased thee … that it may continue … it is blessed.

thou blessest, O Lord, and it shall be blessed] 2Sa_7:29, thou, O Lard God, hast spoken it; and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The marginal rendering is preferable.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Begun. Hebrew, "be pleased, (Haydock) or thou hast had the goodness to bless." Syriac, "I pray thee bless."

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The marginal, It hath pleased thee, is the correcter rendering of the Hebrew here, though the parallel place exhibits the imperative mood. That it may be before thee for ever. The fulfilment of these words can be found in the Messiah alone. (comp Psa_2:6-12)

A father"s prayer.

This was a prayer founded upon a promise. God had declared his purposes towards the seed of his servant David, and David was honouring God"s faithfulness, as well as expressing his own heart"s desire, when he thus solemnly and confidently invoked the blessing of the Giver of all good upon his household and his posterity.

I FAMILY FEELING IS DIVINELY ORDAINED. Nations of warriors have sometimes regarded and treated such feeling as weakness. On the contrary, it is implanted by the Creator; and God, the universal Father, cannot but be pleased with fatherly sentiment and fatherly care on the part of the heads of human households.

II FAMILY FEELING IS HALLOWED BY RELIGION. Always a beautiful thing, a father"s love becomes a holy thing when it is sanctified by a spiritual tone of mind and a spiritual habit of life.

III FAMILY FEELING WILL PROMPT A FATHER"S PRAYERS. If it is natural to wish well to our children, it is religious to express those wishes before him who does so much to fulfil our best and purest desires. As it would be criminal in any parent to be careless as to his children"s future, so it would be monstrous in a Christian parent to omit to commend his offspring to the care and guidance, love and sympathy, of our Father in heaven.

IV FAMILY FEELING WILL LOOK FORWARD TO THE COMMON ENJOYMENT OF BLESSINGS DURING THE ENDLESS FUTURE. It is questionable whether the language of the text has any reference to the future state. In praying that his house might be "before the Lord for ever," and so "blessed for ever," David was probably contemplating the permanence of his throne and that of his descendants. His prayer has been answered in a manner deeper than he could have anticipated. But we are bound to seek for our posterity an immortal happiness, and to anticipate for our families reunion in the presence and in the service of the Eternal.

T.

The blessedness of God"s blessings.

David puts his desire and prayer into the one expressive word "bless," and that because he has such a full apprehension of what God"s blessing is to his people. For thou blessest, O Lord, and it shall be blessed for ever." Men ask for the summum bonum. David finds it in the enrichment and the satisfying of the Divine goodness. "The blessing of the Lord maketh rich." As the verse on which we are dwelling reads in 2Sa_7:29, "With thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever." The word bless" is used with great frequency in the Old Testament, and evidently with a variety of meanings. It is difficult to fix upon a definition of the term which will express the essential idea that underlies the diversity of its forms. A distinction, however, is made in Psa_145:10, "All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee." From this choice of different terms we may learn that "bless" carries the idea of the intelligent agent who knows and loves the object with which he deals, and seeks for gracious adaptations to feeling as well as to need. If saints bless God, it means that they intelligently and lovingly apprehend the goodness of his dealings, and express their feelings of thankful love. If God blesses saints, it means that he intelligently considers their conditions, and finds and adapts grace precisely to their needs; and that whatsoever he does for them turns out to be for their ultimate good. We have come to use the term without due consideration, and as a mere formality. It often hides the fact that we have no precise petitions to present; and so we fall back upon the general prayer for blessing. We should be placed in extreme difficulty, if God were to say in reply to our prayer for blessing, "Say precisely what it is you want. Translate your word. Use exact terms. Ask for the very things which press upon your heart. For my blessing is this supply of all your needs out of my riches in glory. It may be well to show further what God"s blessing would be to a royal house or dynasty, and to a nation or people, noting the special features of that blessing as applied to David"s house and kingdom.

I "BLESS" STANDS FOR ALL KINDS OF REAL GOOD without venturing to specify any. It may fittingly be used in prayer when we have no specific desires, and only want to run into the shadow of God"s goodness. And it may be used when we are in difficulty, and do not even know what things we ought to ask. Sometimes we are afraid to ask definitely lest we should ask amiss; and then we may leave the form of the answer with God, only asking him to bless.

II "BLESS" THROWS THE MATTER WHOLLY BACK ON THE PERSON FROM WHOM THE GOOD IS SOUGHT. Compare the cry of Esau, "Bless me, O my father!" He could not tell what to ask, but left the matter with his father, and with full confidence in the fatherly love. So for us to ask God to bless us should be the expression of our full submission and entire surrender to his wisdom and grace in fixing the form which the good shall take; so it may be and should be a fitting expression of the right attitude and spirit of God"s people, who trust the whole matter of their temporal and spiritual good to him, and will not even seem to dictate to him. Enough for all true hearts to pray with David, "Let it please thee to bless us," "for with thy blessing shall the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.

III THE BLESSINGS WHICH GOD FINDS, FOR THOSE WHO THUS FULLY TRUST HIM, MUST MAKE THEM INFINITELY BLESSED. The things God sends will make them blessed, and their gracious moral influence on such recipients will make them double blessings. Christ"s miracles of healing were Divine blessings, and the healed ones were doubly blessed, in body and in soul. God"s gifts and providences now become double blessings; they order and hallow our lives; they help to meeten us for the "inheritance of the saints in the light." God still blesses with the eternal blessings. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Blessed forever - David's prayer concludes, as God's promise did, ver. 14, with that which is forever. God's word looks at things eternal. And so should our desires and hopes.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

for You, O Lord, have blessed You have blessed me.

and [he shall be] blessed forever That is to say, Your servant shall be blessed forever.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.