2 Samuel 7:9
And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.
The verse declares that God had been with David wherever he went, cutting off all his enemies from before him and making his name great like the names of the great men in the earth, greatly favoring him and His chosen nation. These words are part of God's assurance of favor to David, to his descendants, and to Israel. By this time David dwelt in a palace of cedar in Jerusalem and the people dwelt in costly houses, while the ark built in the wilderness and borne from Horeb to Jerusalem through the forty-year pilgrimage still rested in the curtained tabernacle where the Shekinah dwelt between the cherubim.
Seeing the contrast between his own magnificent dwelling and the poor housing of the ark that symbolized God, David felt remorse and desired to prepare a more honorable place for the worship of God the Maker of heaven and earth, told his convictions to Nathan the prophet, and was at first encouraged to build a temple for the Lord to dwell in. The verse reminds David that God called him from a lowly position and entrusted him with great responsibilities, and that his prosperity, success, protection, and great name came through God's blessing and presence and not through any inherited goodness he possessed, a fact he was always to bear in mind. The verse belongs to God's message to David after his plan to build a temple was refused, for God had a special work for David to perform and in His providence had selected his son Solomon to accomplish the great work of building Him a house by divine appointment nearly three thousand years ago.
The verse shows that God may refuse even the best human intentions, as He refused David's wish to build His house, because human plans are not God's plans. For those who humbly devote themselves and all they have to His glory and remain humble, teachable, and under the control of His Spirit, God will still bless them and make them useful in advancing His cause, counterbalancing refusal with tokens of His love and other service. So He gave David the next highest honor of entrusting the building work to his son, giving him another service in advancing His cause.