1 Chronicles 29:19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart He had charged Solomon to serve God with a perfect heart, and now he prays to God to give him such a heart. He does not pray that God would make him rich, or great, or learned, but, what is infinitely more important, that he would make him sincerely and decidedly godly and righteous, devoted to God and his service, and steady and faithful therein. To keep thy commandments Which David knew would not, could not, be kept by Solomon or any man, unless his heart was renewed by the grace of God, and made right with him. And to build the palace, &c. Not only to observe the precepts of thy law in general, and do thy will in other respects, but in particular to accomplish thy design in building thee a temple, that he may perform that service with a single eye. For which I have made provision By purchasing the place, (chap. 21.,) and providing for the expenses of the work. From this prayer of David, both for Solomon and the people, we may see, that even in those days, when there was so much of ceremony and external pomp in religion, and when the church of God was in its nonage, as the apostle states, (Galatians 4:1-3,) and in bondage under the elements of the world, yet the inward grace of God, or the operation of the Spirit on the human heart, was judged absolutely necessary to enable a man to keep the commandments of God. How much more then is the grace of God necessary to enable a man to walk according to the more pure and spiritual doctrines and precepts of Christianity, to love and embrace its holy promises, and live up to its more divine and heavenly privileges.