2 Samuel 7:1-2

When the king sat in his house That is, was settled in the house which Hiram's men had built for him; then he reflected upon the unsettled state of the ark. For, being a pious prince, he spent much of his time in holy meditations and the exercises of devotion; and among other subjects of consideration, thought upon the meanness of God's habitation in comparison of the splendour of his own. See now, I dwell in a house of cedar Such as the rich Jews had in the days of Haggai, termed by the Lord ceiled houses; see Haggai 1:4; but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains That is, in a tent or tabernacle, (2 Samuel 7:6,) composed of several curtains. This, David thought, ought not to be, and therefore resolved to build a stately house for God's ark.