“O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.” (1 Chronicles 29:16-17)

King David understood the great principles of joy-filled worship. True worship exalts the Lord as ruler of the universe and praises Him by enumerating all of His attributes especially the fact that He supplies our every need. Too often we look to our works and our resources to supply our needs. Many times we even look to the government and our elected leaders to protect us from harm and injustice. The Israelites of David’s kingdom knew that they needed to rely on the Lord alone for strength and to supply their deepest needs safety, security and their daily bread. Their joy came from acknowledging who God is and thanking Him for His caring love.

Another great principle of worship which David recognized involved giving one’s material and financial resources to God. David gave a large portion of his personal resources to be used for the Temple. The people followed his example. They gave just as their ancestors did for the construction of the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness. David and his people realized that in a very real sense the best use of their wealth and resources was in the service of the Lord. All of it came from God and thus derived value only from and in Him. And it gave them great joy to do this.

We in modern America should heed this principle of giving. Too often we withhold our resources from the Lord because we would rather spend it on ourselves for things we think we need or things the media tells us we need: vacations, cars, clothing, electronic trinkets and so on. The Israelites knew that the greatest good came from giving to God what He had already provided them. They knew that as they lived in faithfulness to Him, they would never lack for their daily needs.