1 Chronicles 29:10-20
After having addressed the people, David turns to the LORD. Is he going to boast of all that he and the chief of the fathers have given? On the contrary! He gives glory to God to whom everything belongs, and bows down before Him. These two feelings always go together. "Of thine own have we given thee" the king declares (v. 14). The Lord bestows good things on us in order to give us the joy of offering something to Him. He Himself has need of nothing (Psalms 50:10-12). But what is brought to Him willingly, with joy, has special value to His heart. To give under constraint, or in a legal spirit requires neither love nor faith. It is the way in which the Pharisees used to pay their tithes (Matthew 23:23). By contrast, the Macedonians, of whom Paul speaks, had acted "willingly", and abounded "with the riches of their liberality" (2 Corinthians 8:1-3).
Are not David’s words of praise truly magnificent (vv. 10-13)? They are worth the trouble of reading aloud while thinking of the One whom we are addressing. "Thine . . . is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all . . ." Above all – these are the hearts of those who belong to Him.