Originally posted: 4/25/2020

“I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them…” (17:10).

(The narrative conveyed in 1 Chronicles 17, is portrayed, almost verbatim, in 2 Samuel 7. The blog on 2 Samuel 7, was posted just a few months ago on Christmas Day, 2019. I remember feeling amazed, a blessed recipient of His serendipitous gift, so grateful to be able to post about His Planting Place on the day set aside to celebrate His birth.

Now, as we find ourselves living under the confines of sheltering-in-place, life can feel like anything but a celebration in our struggle to hang on, in confidence, that we are in fact Planted in the Place designed by our Faithful and Loving Father. I was encouraged when I read again about His Planting Place. It seemed a good idea to revisit the original post, making a few changes, primarily in the use of the Scripture references from today’s reading. I am praying it will encourage you as well. During these days, may we all find our peace in Him as we shelter-in-His Planting Place.)

I’m partial to the concepts of planting mentioned in Scripture. I love the truths conveyed: as He plants His truth in us we are planted in Him.

Planting implies growth, that we would bear fruit. And spiritual planting implies a cooperative effort of digging; as we dig in His Word, He digs the world out of us and plants His eternal truth within.

Planting implies security. It is the Lord God Who will plant His people, in His appointed place… His Planting Place.

Consider His Planting Place

• His Planting Place… the place appointed by Him
  • “I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them…” (17:9).

• His Planting Place… the place of His protection and security
  • “…so that they may dwell in their own place and not be moved again; and the wicked will not waste them anymore as formerly,” (17:9).

• His Planting Place… the place of His endless lovingkindness
  • “I will be his father and he shall be My son; and I will not take My lovingkindness away from him…” (17:13).

• His Planting Place… the place of His own heart revealed
  • “O Lord, for Your servant’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have wrought all this greatness, to make known all these great things,“ (17:19).

• His Planting Place… the place His Word is established as He has spoken
  • “Now, O Lord, let the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as You have spoken,“ (17:23).

• His Planting Place… the place His Name is magnified
  • “Let Your name be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel; and the house of David Your servant is established before You,’” (17:24).

• His Planting Place… the place of courageous prayer
  • “For You, O my God, have revealed to Your servant that You will build for him a house; therefore Your servant has found courage to pray before You. ²⁶ Now, O Lord, You are God, and have promised this good thing to Your servant. ²⁷ And now it has pleased You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You; for You, O Lord, have blessed, and it is blessed forever,” (17:25-27).

How do we respond to His Planting Place?

God confirmed His promise to David, that He would Plant His people in the Promised Land. But He was also speaking of a future promise, the salvation He would provide through the line of David, according to His perfect standard, the promised Messiah, the Son of God.

“This was a small thing in Your eyes, O God; but You have spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the standard of a man of high degree, O Lord God. (17:17).

When we place our faith in God’s Son for our salvation, we are, in fact, placed in Him.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, (1Corinthians 1:30).

As we consider His Planting Place, let us reflect on Jesus, our Savior, our Planting Place of salvation, new life and growth:

• His Planting Place… the place appointed by Him
  • And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved, (Acts 4:12).

• His Planting Place… the place of His protection and security
  • “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one,” (John 10:27-30).

• His Planting Place… the place of His endless lovingkindness
  • Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… ³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, (Romans 8:35, 37-39).

• His Planting Place… the place of His own heart revealed
  • “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).

• His Planting Place… the place His Word is established as He has spoken
  • For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. ²⁰ For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us, (2 Corinthians 1:19-20).

• His Planting Place… the place His Name is magnified
  • …so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, (Philippians 2:10-11).

• His Planting Place… the place of courageous prayer
  • Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need, (Hebrews 4:16).

May we learn from David’s response.

Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that You have brought me this far?”  (7:18).

Let us come to His Planting Place daily. May we humbly come before Him to sit at His feet that we would be Planted in Him and He would Plant His love in us, that we would grow in our faith and bear much fruit for His glory.

…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, (Ephesians 3:16-19).

Oh, that we would come to Him daily in faith, to cooperate with Him as we dig in His Word. Let us commit to seek out the Place He has appointed for us, our Place in Him, through His Word and enabled by His Holy Spirit.

And let us pray courageous prayers, believing what He has promised in His Word; convinced He will dig out the fears and worries of this world as He Plants the love and peace of His eternal truth within. May we all courageously grow, so as to abide by faith to live in His shelter-in-place, the shelter of His Planting Place.

“For You, O my God, have revealed to Your servant that You will build for him a house; therefore Your servant has found courage to pray before You. ²⁶ Now, O Lord, You are God, and have promised this good thing to Your servant. ²⁷ And now it has pleased You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You; for You, O Lord, have blessed, and it is blessed forever,” (17:25-27).

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
³ For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence...
¹⁴ “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
¹⁵ “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ “With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation,” (Psalm 91:1-3, 14-16).

Let’s Grow Together!