1 Chronicles 29:1
Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God. Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God.
Near death David summoned the princes of Israel with representative men from all parts of the kingdom to receive in trust the materials he had collected and to secure their concurrence and support in the great work to be accomplished. Though physical weakness made his personal attendance unexpected, he addressed the people for the last time with more than his wonted fervor and power. Solomon his son, whom alone God had chosen to build the temple and to succeed David, was yet young and tender and inexperienced for the task. The work committed to him was great and demanding precisely because of that youth and inexperience set against its magnitude.
The work is great because the palace is not for man but for the LORD God. It was not an ordinary royal palace for human use but the temple planned by David and built by Solomon crowning the heights of Mount Moriah as a dwelling-place for the Lord, with the ark as the symbol of God's presence. David had prepared extensively for the work with earnest devotion, collecting costly gold, silver, stones, marble and woods, giving generously from his own treasury, and following a pattern God revealed for the house. He told the assembly of his own cherished desire to build the house for the ark and of the Lord's command that other hands must build it. His experience equipped him to advise, counsel, and encourage Solomon, while the building itself belonged to the younger man to carry out.
God may assign a work to a new leader even when experienced workers have served faithfully, and older workers should support rather than hinder those entrusted with responsibilities they themselves are not to carry. That sacred purpose, that the house was for the Lord God and not for human purposes, called the people to willing dedication of service and freewill offerings of resources to sustain God's service and benefit themselves. David's generous example moved the people to give willingly. Although Solomon prosperously effected all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and the building was completed, the solemn ceremony of formally dedicating it to Jehovah and His worship still remained for it to indeed become that dwelling-place.