David's Desire to Build a Temple

Why was it "in David's heart" to build a temple?  2Chron. 6:8,9:

But the Lord said to my father David, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well in that it was in your heart. 9 Nevertheless you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body, he shall build the temple for My name.'

What was David's intent, just to build something?   I doubt it.  Was it to build a monument for his name, as the rich and powerful love to do?  Perhaps he had a desire to soothe his conscience from all the personal sins (Uriah) he had committed.  Surely this was the reason God didn't permit David to build it. 1Chron. 28:3 says, 

You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.

For this and maybe for other reasons, God did not allow him but his son Solomon to build the Temple.

And Solomon had a great understanding of the meaning of the Temple. He knew it was not the actual dwelling place of God, as he says in 6:38f,

... when they return to you ... and pray toward ... the temple I have built for your name: then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer ...

No one should imagine that the presence of God was connected to the Temple.  Stephen made this point again in Acts 7:48.  Rather, it is in US, His people, that our God would dwell.  Perhaps since David was not so innocent as his son, God knew his selfish ambition would get out of hand if he were to build such a monument, like the builders of Babel.

And so, my question again, is this: Why was it in David's heart to build a house for God? I think the only answer can be that it was his ambition to have a place for God's people to gather, a center for them to meet, a rallying point to come together for worship.  This ambition was, perhaps, personal, national, social and religious at the same time.  Such mixed motives do not work well for the service to God. HE alone must be our ambition, as Paul's when he said, "I count everything else as rubbish, compared with knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." [Phil 3:8]

It has long been in my heart as well to build a place of  worship for the Lord.  What is my motive?  Will God honor it and make it possible?  Indeed, I have left my home in Chicago and come to Virginia to plant churches.  But how can I do this, I who am not a king, not wealthy, not even "leadership material", and so have always been passed over when leaders were needed (until last month, when my boss asked me to manage one person, at the ripe age of 49)?   Jesus never commanded the disciples to build anything, but to "go and make disciples" and to "preach the gospel to all creation".  THAT is how the "temple not made by human hands" is built.  And these "living stones", I believe, are the temple that will endure after this world is replaced when the Lord returns.  Is THIS my ambition, then?  to build HIS temple? or am I still enamored of architecture and the Babel mentality of personal and institutional grandioseness?

May the gracious Lord, who changes hearts, help me to put to death the old man with its selfish desires, and be a new creation in Christ, to have as my one desire to know Jesus and make Him known to all.

Father, you who move hearts to glorify your name, move me not to build houses of wood and stone, but to reach people with your Gospel.  Lord, I know this is what you have called me to.  Help me to get busy with this work and forget about buildings and such matters, leaving these things to others; but giving my heart and soul to the things you have decreed plainly: preaching and making disciples. Lord, my heart is so cluttered and busy.  Please help me focus on your own work. As you have done before, take my heart, own it, and make its desires your own.  IJNA