and said, Jehovah, God of Israel! there is no God like thee, in the heavens or on the earth, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart;
Solomon kneels down before he says a word. Notice who is kneeling here.
What a wonderful example Solomon sets for us here! All the kings of the earth sought him out to hear his wisdom. Yet this great and glorious king kneels in public before the Lord and acknowledges His greatness and faithfulness. Of Solomon we are told, "Solomon loved the LORD" (1 Kings 3:3). May God grant us more such leaders who truly love the Lord and who honour and acknowledge Him in public! This is true wisdom!
Three things stand together in these opening words. God is beyond compare, He keeps His covenant, and His promise reaches those who walk with Him.
He began his prayer by giving God His place of great dignity and honour. He is the Lord God of Israel, greater than all others. He is the One who keeps His covenant with those who keep His covenant also, walking before Him with all their heart (v. 14). He also shows how much he values God's keeping of His promise. No one could doubt it. God had put Solomon on the throne and enabled him to build the temple (v. 15).
God said "walk before me" to Abraham long before Solomon prayed these words. They describe a life lived under God's eye.
God has always cared about how His people walk. He wants His own character to be seen in them. In this way they are for His pleasure and glory as they pass through the world. To Abraham God said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless" (Gen. 17:1). Abraham was always to know that the eye of God was on him, taking pleasure in everything that matched His mind and will. He was also to be sure in his heart that all the power of the Almighty would protect him and care for him.
Solomon begins on covenant ground, but he does not stay there. Once sin comes into view, he asks on a different basis.
In Solomon's prayer there seem to be two different grounds on which he stands to make his requests. The first is the promise God gave his father David, with conditions attached. In the second, it is the mercy of God that can forgive after someone has sinned. Once sin appeared, the whole kingdom would be lost. The sin might be in one person or in the nation at large, and Solomon himself might not be guilty. The kingdom was still lost unless God in His mercy went beyond the terms of His covenant with David. So in the case of transgression there can be no cry but for forgiveness.
Solomon says there is no God like the Lord in heaven or on earth. Then he asks this God to live in a house. A few verses later he faces the difficulty himself.
But Solomon asks a pertinent question: "But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth?" (v. 18). To do so would take an astounding act of grace, for the heavens and the highest heaven cannot contain God. He is infinite, without limits, and present everywhere at all times. We cannot understand the greatness of His being. He cannot be shut up in any place. Yet in a very real sense He lived in the temple, in the Most Holy Place, though in thick darkness. This is a paradox in which we may rejoice.
Solomon's whole prayer takes only a few minutes to read.
It would be a pleasure to copy out the whole of the king's comprehensive prayer, but space forbids. Anyone can read it without irreverent haste in five minutes. Sadly, we have had to listen to public prayers that took much more time than Solomon's. They contained much less definite matter. When shall we learn that we are not heard for our "many words"? (Matt. 6:7) ... In His Word, God commends prayer that is definite and persistent.
- Who — Solomon starts with who God is, not with his own need. There is no God like Him in heaven or on earth.
- What — That God binds Himself by covenant and steadfast love, keeping His promise to those who keep His.
- To whom — The promise reaches those who walk before Him with all their heart. They live under His eye, as Abraham did.
- Beyond — Once sin enters, covenant terms are not enough. Solomon turns to the mercy that forgives.
- How — Kneel in public, pray with clear content, keep it short. Solomon's prayer can be read in five minutes.
who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him; thou spokest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled [it] with thy hand as at this day.
Solomon stands before the whole assembly at the dedication of the temple. He points to a promise God has now carried out in plain sight: Solomon sits on the throne, the temple stands, and the day itself is the proof. So what is the link between what God says and what God does?
Solomon opens his address the same way he speaks here: God said it, and God did it. One writer points out how he blessed the people — by blessing God.
We are told he blessed them, but the way he did this was by saying, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with His hand has fulfilled what He promised with His mouth to David my father." For if God is blessed, the people will be blessed also.
Behind the kept promise stands a choice. God picked one city and one family when He could have picked any other. One writer sees in this the ground every believer stands on.
He recounts how God had chosen from the beginning. As He chose Jerusalem and no other city to be the capital, so also He chose David's house and no other family. And out of David's family He chose Solomon himself. Everything depends on the election of God. There is nothing good that is not founded on God's election — nothing. The whole blessedness and strength of the believer depends on it. That is what delivers a person from self.
Solomon does not stop at thanks. He names one promise as kept, then asks for the rest of it. That rest carried a condition for David's sons.
He shows too how much he values God's keeping of His promise. No one could doubt it: Solomon sat on the throne, and God had enabled him to build the temple (v. 15). So he prayed that God would keep the rest of His promise to David — that David should not fail to have a man sit before God on the throne of Israel. But this came on condition that David's sons would walk in God's law (v. 16).
He prays in that same spirit, pleading God's mercies to David.
So Solomon prayed and asked the LORD that His eyes should be open and His ears attentive to the prayers offered to Him in that place. He quoted David's petition in Psalm 132, and used God's mercies to David as a plea. Then the fire comes down and consumes the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD fills the house.
God kept His word that day. Yet one writer calls it a picture of something larger, since Solomon was not the king God's plans had in view.
God's counsels about the kingdom have been carried out in type, but only in type, under the reigns of David and Solomon. David was the suffering and rejected king. In his Son he has become the king of peace, the king of glory who sits on the throne of the LORD. Chronicles is careful to leave out Solomon's faults completely. Even so, he was not the true king according to God's counsels.
Kings fail, and David's line was no exception. Can a promise survive the people it is made to?
God said to David, "You shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel." There was always a man whose birthright it was to sit on David's throne. Each one proved unworthy, but the line of descent continues until Christ came. He is the Man on whom the Holy Spirit looks. In Him there was, and is, the divine right as well as the human title. He is the Son of God as well as Son of David. And whatever may come between the promise and its fulfilment, He will certainly sit there.
- Chosen. Everything here rests on God's choice — of a city, a family, a man. No one earned it, and that is what frees a person from self.
- Spoken. God committed Himself in words to David before there was any temple or throne to see.
- Done. Solomon blesses God because the hand matched the mouth; and in blessing God he blesses the people.
- Pleaded. Solomon used the promise already kept to ask for the promise not yet kept. Then fire came down on the sacrifice.
- Christ. Solomon's day was only the picture. The line held through unworthy kings until the Son of David. He holds both divine right and human title, and He will sit on that throne.
And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only thy sons take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.
Solomon stands before the altar with the finished temple behind him. His first request is that God keep an old promise made to his father. But that promise carries a condition, and the small word "if" shapes the rest of his prayer — and the rest of Israel's history.
Solomon does not begin with a request. He begins by pointing to a promise God has already made good, and only then asks for the rest.
He shows his appreciation of God's having kept His promise. There was no doubt about it: God had put Solomon on the throne and enabled him to build the temple (v. 15). So he prayed that God would go on keeping His promise to David — that David would never fail to have a man sit before God on the throne of Israel. But that promise carried a condition: David's sons must walk in God's law (v. 16).
The promise would be pure gift if the condition were not there. One writer points to that condition as the thing that sinks not only Solomon but every reader of the verse.
All the faithfulness of God towards His own depends on what He has promised Christ. We would be standing on the ground of pure grace here, if only there were no if... How this "so that" or "if only" condemns us all! It absolutely condemned wise Solomon, and how much more ourselves, a worthless lot. If getting anything from the Lord depends on our own performance, we are condemned from the start. Of course grace also brings responsibility to those under its rule, but that responsibility is a different thing. Grace says: "Let us be what we are." Legal responsibility says: "Let us become what we should be."
David's psalm of praise and Solomon's prayer sound very different. One writer traces that difference to the condition Solomon cannot get past.
The words that press on his mind are these: "if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me." This gives his prayer the character of pleading. David's psalm is thanksgiving and praise instead, because he sees Israel in the land, enjoying God's unbroken favour. Solomon sees them rebellious, suffering, and scattered. David calls upon the heavens to be glad, and on the nations to say "The LORD reigns." Solomon prays for mercy for the time when Israel will be scattered among the nations.
Having started from a conditional promise, Solomon cannot stay there. The rest of his prayer moves to different ground.
In Solomon's prayer there seem to be two different grounds on which he stands to present his requests. The first he takes is the promise conditionally given to his father David. In the second, it is the mercy of God that can forgive after someone has sinned. For once sin appeared — in any one man, or in the nation as a whole — the whole kingdom would be lost. Solomon himself might not be guilty, but nothing could save it unless God in His mercy went beyond the terms of His covenant with David. So in the case of transgression there can be no cry but for forgiveness.
David's sons did not keep the condition, and the throne disappeared. Yet the promise did not die with his family.
He promised David that he would never lack a man to sit on his throne, but He added, "if only your sons pay close attention to their way." On the ground of responsibility all is lost. David's throne has long disappeared; his family also. Even so, David does not lack a man to sit upon his throne. Matthew 1 gives the family line of his true Heir, and before His birth the angel said to His mother: "The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:32-33).
God stated this promise most plainly at Israel's darkest moment.
Every blessing that depended on their obedience is lost. Yet this one promise becomes more necessary, so to speak, through their unfaithfulness... This promise shines with increased brightness when everything seems lost. Nebuchadnezzar's armies were besieging the city. Jeremiah was in prison for his testimony. Their guilt was full, and the Gentile nations were about to rule over them. Then the word of the LORD came to the imprisoned prophet: "David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel" (Jer. 33:17).
- Kept — Solomon prays from proof, not hope. God had already set him on the throne and let him build the house. So he asks God to keep the rest.
- Conditioned — The promise he repeats carries an "if." That condition puts the whole kingdom on the ground of human obedience.
- Condemned — On that ground nothing survives. The condition sank Solomon himself. It sinks anyone who tries to earn from God by performance.
- Beyond — So Solomon's prayer shifts to a second ground: mercy that forgives after sin, going past the terms of the covenant.
- Secured — The throne outlived the family that lost it. The promise rests on the Son of David, and it shone brightest when everything else had collapsed.
And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, let thy word be verified which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David.
Solomon is midway through his prayer at the dedication of the temple. Here he takes God's own promise to David and asks God to keep it. But what is he really asking for? And what does his prayer rest on, when the promise he just quoted carried a condition?
Solomon's prayer stands on two very different grounds. This verse belongs to the first. One writer marks where the change happens, and shows what the older wording "let your word be verified" asks for:
These two very different standpoints appear: the first in 2 Chronicles 6:14-20, and the second in verse 21 and following. In the second part Solomon is no longer on covenant ground. He and the people would not need forgiveness if they had righteously kept the conditions laid on them, for God made His promise depend on their obedience. In the earlier part he shows no doubt or fear about whether he or the people would keep the law. Here his prayer is, "let your word be verified." He is calling on God not to forgive, but to fulfil His promise.
The same writer names the second ground, and why Solomon needs it:
Solomon seems to stand on two different grounds as he prays. The first he takes is the promise conditionally given to his father David. The second is the mercy of God, which can forgive after sin. Once sin has appeared — in any one man, or in the nation at large, even if Solomon himself is not guilty — the whole kingdom would be lost unless God in His mercy went beyond the terms of His covenant with David. So where there is transgression, there can be no cry but for forgiveness.
The promise Solomon asks God to confirm has an "if" in it. One writer, on the same prayer in 1 Kings, weighs that little word:
And now he asks God to keep with David what He had promised him. All the faithfulness of God towards His own depends on what He has promised Christ. Here we would be stepping onto the ground of pure grace if only there were not an if. "There shall not fail you a man before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me." How this "if only" condemns us all! It absolutely condemned wise Solomon, and how much more ourselves. In a system where we must earn anything we get from the Lord, we are condemned from the start.
He then contrasts two kinds of responsibility:
Grace also brings responsibility for those under its rule. But that responsibility is completely different. You could put it like this: "Let us be what we are," whereas legal responsibility says: "Let us become what we should be."
The promise Solomon leans on has two sides. One writer separates them:
The promise to David is twofold: absolute and conditional. In Psalm 132:11 it expresses the divine purpose: "The LORD swore to David a sure oath that He will not turn back: 'One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.'" ... In verse 12 the condition of keeping the LORD's covenant and testimony comes with it, and there it is David's natural heirs who are in view. 2 Samuel 7:12-16 draws the same distinction. So when Christ, as the Son of David, is before the mind of the Spirit, the promise is unconditional. It announces God's purpose in grace. But when David's children, his immediate descendants, are in view, whether they stay on his throne depends on their responsibility.
Solomon asked God to make His word good. God did — and one promise outlasted the ruin that came:
Solomon said, "Verify Your word." Truly the word was verified in their judgment. But there is one promise that their sin and judgment do not touch. Every blessing that depended on their obedience is lost. This one, you could say, becomes more necessary because of their unfaithfulness. The Lord had said there shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel; that God's king should sit on His throne in Zion. It is His eternal purpose, declared in His word (Psalm 2). Kings and rulers take counsel against Him, yet nothing can annul it. This promise shines brighter when all seems lost. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar were besieging the city. Jeremiah was in prison for his testimony. Their cup of iniquity was full. Then the word of the Lord came to the imprisoned prophet: "David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel" (Jeremiah 33:17).
- Ask — Solomon is not pleading for pardon here but for performance: that God would carry out what He said to David.
- Condition — The promise he quotes hangs on an "if," and that "if" condemns Solomon and everyone after him.
- Collapse — Every blessing resting on obedience was lost. God's word came true in the judgment that followed.
- Constant — One promise stayed untouched: a man of David's line on the throne. God repeated it to Jeremiah while the enemy army surrounded the city.
- Christ — Where the promise looks to the Son of David, it carries no condition. It rests on God's purpose in grace, not on our performance.
But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
Solomon has just built the temple. At the height of the dedication, he stops to ask whether God would live with people on earth at all. The verse holds two facts together: no space in creation can hold God, yet He chose this house.
Everything in creation has a limit that God set. One writer asks what that says about God Himself:
God, who sets limits to everything else, is Himself without limits. He sets a limit to the sea: "Thus far shall you come, and no farther." He sets limits to the angels, who, like the cherubim, move and stand at His command. But He is infinite, without limits. He who can span the heavens and weigh the earth in scales must be infinite. "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" The humble heart is His throne, as far as His gracious presence goes. Heaven is His throne, as far as His glorious presence goes. Yet neither of these thrones will hold Him, for the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him.
The thought of God's greatness changes how Solomon prays, and where he looks for forgiveness:
He recognises the infinite majesty of God… The thought of God's infinite greatness subdues him. From here on his prayer becomes more of a plea for mercy… Forgiveness is linked with God in His dwelling place, the heaven of heavens, and not with the house. Grace is sovereign, and its source is God dwelling in the heavens.
Solomon's question is not a denial. One writer holds both halves of the verse together:
But Solomon asks a fitting question, "Will God indeed dwell with man on the earth?" (v.18). For Him to do so would take an astounding act of grace, for the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God. He is infinite and present everywhere at all times. We cannot grasp the greatness of His being. No place can confine Him. Yet in a very real sense He dwelt in the temple, in the holiest place of all, though in thick darkness. This is a paradox we may rejoice in.
Honour for the temple can slide into overrating it. One writer names the cost, and points back to what Solomon himself admitted at the dedication:
Superstitious exaltation of the temple takes away from the glory of the One who gives it all its distinctive grandeur. The Lord did choose to make it holy and fill it with glory. Because of the cloud, the priests could not stand to minister… But Solomon himself, at that solemn consecration, had admitted that heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, much less the house he had just built.
Solomon asked his question as if the answer had to be no. One writer answers it:
But so it was. The Son of God, the Lord's equal, He who was with God and was God, appeared in flesh and talked with us here. He dwelt with men on the earth. He lived among us as in a tent. He was Jesus. We knew Him as such. He was a Man, and a Friend, and a Master, and a Companion. He invited confidence. He looked for sympathy and gave it.
The building is gone, but God still has a dwelling on earth:
Solomon's Temple has gone, but something more wonderful has taken its place. The Church, made up of sinners drawn from both Jews and Gentiles, is now His Temple (1 Cor. 3:16); His house (1 Tim. 3:15); His habitation (Eph. 2:22). No mere cloud of glory fills this one; the Holy Spirit has come from heaven to form the building and to make His home in it. Every believer in Jesus is a "living stone" in God's "spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5).
- Contained by nothing. God sets the limits of the sea and of angels; He alone has none, and no throne in heaven or earth holds Him.
- Yet housed by choice. He dwelt in the temple, in thick darkness — an act of grace, not a shrinking of God.
- A subdued king. God's greatness subdued him. His prayer turned into a plea for mercy, since forgiveness comes from God's dwelling place, not from the house.
- A guarded building. Prizing the temple above the God who filled it robs Him of glory — Solomon admitted as much on the day he dedicated it.
- An answered question. God did dwell with men: the Son of God appeared in flesh and lived among us. Now the Spirit makes His home in believers, each one a living stone.
Yet have respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, Jehovah, my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee;
Solomon has finished the temple. He has just admitted that heaven itself cannot hold the God he built it for. Then comes a small-sounding request: that this immense God would turn and listen to one man praying.
This verse marks a turn in the prayer. What Solomon has just said about God's greatness changes the way he asks.
He recognises the infinite majesty of God. "But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built!" The thought of God's infinite greatness subdues him. From here on, his prayer becomes more of a plea.
Solomon names himself twice in this verse, and both times as a servant. On the platform he acts for the people rather than ruling them.
But something else strikes us here: Solomon on his platform is in reality much more an intercessor, an advocate for Israel, than a king. There, on the platform, he bows the knee and spreads out his hands in supplication toward heaven... on his platform, which once was an altar, he takes only the place of an intercessor. He prays for the people whose future conduct — their sin already visible — would bring all God's purposes to nothing, if indeed anything could bring them to nothing.
That role did not end with Israel. Solomon's place on the altar-platform pictures how Christ pleads for His people now, and the pleading rests on the sacrifice underneath it.
This role that Solomon filled on behalf of Israel is the very role the Lord fills today on our behalf. "If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2). His office as Advocate rests on the propitiation He has accomplished. In the same way, Solomon's intercession could not be separated from that platform, the mysterious and marvellous figure of the altar.
Propitiation means the sacrifice that satisfies God's claim against sin.
This request opens a long run of them. Again and again Solomon asks God to hear, from heaven, the prayers made toward this building.
Then on the side of man's responsibility and privilege, we see that Solomon's temple becomes the gate of Heaven. Nine times the king asks that God would hear in Heaven the prayer made toward this place. The House becomes the gate of access to Heaven.
The first part of the prayer asks for something different from the part that follows. Here Solomon asks God to keep His word. He has not yet asked Him to pardon.
In Solomon's prayer there seem to be two different grounds on which he stands to make his requests. The first is the promise given conditionally to his father David. The second is the mercy of God that can forgive after a person has sinned. These different standpoints appear, the first in 2 Chronicles 6:14-20, and the second in verse 21 and following... In the first part he shows no doubt or fear about whether he or the people will keep the law, and there his request is "let Your word be confirmed." It is calling on God not to forgive, but to fulfil His promise. He seems confident in himself, for though he speaks of any man sinning, or even of all the people, he never says, "If we sin."
God answered Solomon directly. That answer shaped the way He dealt with Israel from then on.
The mercy of God stands out in Solomon's prayer as much as the unbending righteousness of God stood out in the law given by Moses. God dealt with Israel on this mixed system of grace and righteousness until the Lord came. To put it in human terms, God accepts Solomon's change to the old covenant: "Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: I have heard your prayer" (2 Chronicles 7:12).
- Greatness first. Solomon prays only after admitting heaven cannot contain God. That admission turns his prayer into a plea.
- Servant next. Twice he calls himself a servant: on the platform he is an intercessor and advocate for Israel more than he is a king.
- Altar underneath. He pleads standing on the altar-platform. Christ is Advocate today on the same ground: He is first the propitiation for our sins.
- Heaven above. Nine times he asks God to hear, in heaven, prayer made toward this house. The building is the gate of access, not the destination.
- Answer after. God replied, "I have heard your prayer," and dealt with Israel from then on in a blend of grace and righteousness.
that thine eyes may be open upon this house day and night, upon the place in which thou hast said thou wouldest put thy name to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant prayeth toward this place.
Solomon has just said that the heavens cannot hold God. Now he asks God to keep His eyes on a building made by human hands. The verse holds two things together: a God too great for any place, and a place He calls His own.
Solomon asks this knowing how strange it sounds.
But Solomon asks a fitting question: "Will God indeed dwell with man on the earth?" (v. 18). To do so would require an astounding act of grace, for heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain God. He is infinite, without limits, and present everywhere at all times. We cannot understand the greatness of His being. No place can confine Him. Yet in a very real sense He dwelt in the temple, in the holiest of all, though in thick darkness. This is a paradox in which we may rejoice.
Solomon does not ask God to fit inside the house. He asks for the name — and the name carries the whole person.
Solomon, knowing these things, asks God that His name might be there. To faith, that name represents His very person. He asks that God, from His dwelling place in heaven, might hear the king, His servant, and His people Israel when they turn toward His house. At the same time he shows his sense that both the king and the people will need forgiveness: "And when you hear, forgive."
God had a reason for marking out one place.
In pure grace He singled out the temple as the place of His dwelling, to focus Israel's thoughts on Him as the Center of all Israel's interests.
Up to this verse Solomon pleads a promise. From the next verse on, he pleads for mercy.
These standpoints are fundamentally different. The first runs from 2 Chronicles 6:14-20, the second from verse 21 on. In the latter Solomon is no longer on covenant ground. They would not need forgiveness if he and the people had rightly fulfilled the conditions laid on them. God made His promise depend on their obedience. In the earlier part he shows no doubt or fear about his own, or the people's, keeping of the law. Here he asks, "let your word be confirmed." He is calling on God not to forgive, but to fulfil His promise.
Solomon asked for open eyes and ears. God's answer added something the king never asked for.
Even Solomon the king wanted God to look at this place: "Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place" (2 Chronicles 6:40). Let us listen to God's answer to Solomon's prayer: "Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place… and my eyes and my heart will be there for all time" (2 Chronicles 7:15-16). Not only My eyes and My ears, says the Lord, but also My heart is at this place where the saints are gathered to My Name.
"Toward this place" was not only for people standing in Jerusalem. Centuries later Daniel proved it from exile in Babylon.
He was in captivity, with little hope of change there in Babylon, but Daniel never forgot that the name of God was centred in Jerusalem. God said He would place His name there, and He did. Solomon's wonderful prayer on the day of dedication made provision for those in captivity to look toward the place where God had placed His name. Those who prayed toward that place knew that their prayers would be heard, would be answered, and would be blessed.
The principle did not stop with Israel.
God is careful to say that Israel might sacrifice only "at the place which the Lord your God will choose, to make His name dwell there." This is a very great principle, as true now as in Israel's day. The Name of the Lord Jesus is the only gathering centre today. The believer who does not gather simply in that Name will lack the deep enjoyment of Christ that our God would have our souls taste.
- Grace stoops. The highest heaven cannot contain God. Yet He chose to dwell in one house — a paradox to rejoice in, not to explain away.
- The name is the gift. God did not shrink Himself into a building; He put His name there, and to faith that name stands for His very person.
- The eyes reach further. Solomon asked for eyes open day and night; God answered with eyes, ears, and heart there for all time.
- The place reaches the exile. Solomon's prayer made provision for captives far from the temple. Daniel proved it in Babylon, praying toward that place.
- The centre remains. What the chosen place was to Israel, the Name of the Lord Jesus is now. It is the one gathering point, and the measure of what a believer enjoys of Christ.
And hearken unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou from thy dwelling-place, from the heavens, and when thou hearest, forgive.
Solomon has just said that the highest heaven cannot contain God. Now he asks Him to listen to prayers turned toward the house he built — and to forgive.
God's name rests on the temple. His dwelling is higher. Solomon already knows what a building can hold and what it cannot.
"But," Solomon adds, "will God indeed dwell on the earth?" Even in the Millennium this will not be… His dwelling upon earth with men waits for the eternal heaven and earth of Revelation 21:3. Knowing this, Solomon asks God that His name might be there — the name that to faith stands for His very person. He asks God to hear from His dwelling place in heaven. He asks Him to hear the king, His servant, and His people Israel when they turn toward His house. At the same time he shows he feels that both king and people will need forgiveness: "And when you hear, forgive."
Something shifts at this verse. Until now Solomon has asked God to keep His word. From here he asks God to pardon.
Two wholly different standpoints appear here. The first runs from 2 Chron. 6:14-20, the second from verse 21 on. In the second Solomon is no longer on covenant ground. He and the people would need no forgiveness if they had kept in righteousness the conditions laid on them, for God's promise depended on their obedience. In the first part he shows no doubt or fear about his own or the people's keeping of the law. There his prayer is "let your word be verified." That is calling on God not to forgive, but to fulfil His promise.
Solomon asks for pardon from God's dwelling place, not from the house he built. Grace explains why.
Forgiveness belongs to God in His dwelling place, the heaven of heavens, and not to the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. The temple and its magnificence were well suited for the law and the covenant, but forgiveness is with God in His dwelling place. That is where Solomon looks. He knows there is no one who does not sin, so he prays for forgiveness. For if God judged by law, and by righteousness apart from grace, He would, yes He must, forsake His house. He would leave Israel under the dreadful judgment of a broken covenant. Often he says "hear and forgive."
"Toward this place" sounds like a rule for people who can reach the building. Solomon looks ahead to days when no one could.
Solomon's prayer does not look ahead to the coming happy time. It looks to the near future, when Israel would forsake the Lord, and the Lord would forsake His house and dwell in the heaven of heavens. Even there He would hear the supplication and confessions of the repentant. Through His inspired writer the Holy Spirit gives this repeated cry: "Then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place." So He teaches the repentant and humble to look up through the gloom around them to God's eternal dwelling place.
Jonah, far out at sea with no temple in sight, had these words to lean on.
What do these words mean — "I will look again toward Your holy temple"? Surely Jonah's mind turned back to Solomon's prayer at the dedication of that temple, recorded in 2 Chronicles 6… It was on the ground of words such as these that Jonah had authority from the Lord Himself to count on the mercy of God to forgive his sin, and deliver him.
Solomon prays here for people who have not yet sinned. That role points beyond him.
Something else strikes us here. On his platform Solomon is really much more an intercessor, an advocate for Israel, than a king… On that platform, which once was an altar, he takes only the place of an intercessor. He prays for the people whose future conduct — their sin already in sight — would bring all God's counsels to nothing, if indeed His counsels could ever be brought to nothing… This role that Solomon filled on behalf of Israel is the very role the Lord fills today on our behalf. "If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." His work as Advocate rests on the propitiation He has made, just as Solomon's intercession could not be separated from that platform — a mysterious and wonderful picture of the altar.
- Place. God's name was on the house, but His dwelling was heaven. Solomon asks Him to hear from there.
- Ground. At this verse Solomon leaves covenant ground. If the people had kept the conditions, they would need no pardon.
- Source. Pardon belongs to God in heaven, not to the temple, because grace is sovereign and flows from Him.
- Reach. The repeated cry teaches the humble to look up even when the house is forsaken and gloom surrounds them.
- Advocate. Solomon pleads from an altar-platform for people not yet guilty. The Lord fills that role now, and His work as Advocate rests on the propitiation He made.
If a man have sinned against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to adjure him, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;
Solomon is dedicating the temple, and his long prayer turns from general words to the real troubles his people would meet. The first is not a national disaster but a private wrong — one man against his neighbour, taken to God's altar under oath.
The verse pictures a dispute no one can prove, so the case goes to God. One commentator sets out how that worked:
If one sinned against his neighbour and there was any question about the matter, so that the accused had to swear to his guilt or innocence, then Solomon asks that God would hear and intervene, absolving the innocent and condemning the guilty. Because people may swear falsely, Solomon prayed that God would settle such cases.
The man does not swear in private. He swears "before your altar in this house," and the place matters.
The first situation is individual. Solomon asks God to condemn the wicked man when someone lays an oath on him before the altar "in this house" — and to justify the righteous. The presence of God in His house makes iniquity impossible. This is the simple, general truth that each man is repaid for what he does. That is how it was known under the law, when God consented to come and dwell among a people in the flesh.
One writer explains what taking such an oath meant:
The law required an oath on several occasions. In such cases God required His people to swear by His name. The oath then did more than confirm the truth. It was also a solemn vow, made in the knowledge that Jehovah was present.
Elsewhere in this prayer Solomon asks God to forgive. Here he does not. One writer marks the difference:
"If any man sin against his neighbour." Such a thing might happen as an exception to the general obedience of the people... And Solomon's prayer in such a case is not, Hear and forgive. It is, "hear from heaven [where he knew that forgiveness could only be found] and act and judge your servants. Repay the wicked by bringing his way on his own head. Justify the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness." This is law. If God had repaid the sinner at once in judgment, neither land nor people would have been polluted.
The wording of the verse assumes that a wrong between neighbours would be rare. Read against the rest of the prayer, that assumption collapses:
He had before said, "If any man sin," as if such a thing would be an exception in Israel; but now in 2 Chron. 6:29, the exception to the general prevalence of iniquity would be if any man prayed or confessed his sin.
The oath happens at the altar in the house. Forgiveness, one writer notes, belongs somewhere else:
Forgiveness is linked with God in His dwelling place, the heaven of heavens, and not with the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. The temple and all its splendour suited the law and the covenant. But forgiveness is with God in His dwelling place. Solomon looks there.
The case settles the account between two men. One writer shows what it could never do:
The law never brought out the depths of sin in man. And while the law held sway as a rule of life, forgiveness could not be known as the gospel proclaims it. The saint of old under law knew that if the Lord marked iniquity none could stand. He did not have, and could not have, the knowledge of a perfect redemption. He could only say, "But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." He did not have the knowledge of God's perfect love which casts out all fear. By the unspeakable grace of God this knowledge is ours.
- Oath — when no court could prove a wrong, the man swore at God's altar, where His presence left nowhere to hide.
- Verdict — for this first case Solomon asks God to judge, not to pardon; the guilty repaid, the righteous vindicated. This part of the prayer is law.
- Exception — the wording treats one man's sin as rare; by later in the same prayer the rare thing is the man who confesses.
- Higher ground — the house held the altar and the oath, but forgiveness belongs where God dwells, in heaven, and Solomon looked there.
- Beyond the altar — the case could settle a debt between neighbours; it could not reveal the depth of sin or God's perfect love. That knowledge came later, and belongs to us.
then hear thou from the heavens, and do, and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head; and justifying the righteous, giving him according to his righteousness.
Solomon's long prayer at the temple's dedication turns to one ordinary quarrel: a man wrongs his neighbour, and the accused swears an oath at the altar. Solomon asks God for the verdict no human court could reach — and that request shows both the law Israel lived under and what God would later do beyond it.
Commentators tie the oath to the place where it is sworn — God's own house:
The first situation is individual. It is the request for God to condemn the wicked when an oath is imposed upon him before the altar "in this house" — and to justify the righteous. The presence of God in His house makes iniquity impossible. It is the simple and general truth of individual retribution, as it was known under the law when God consented to come and dwell among a people in the flesh.
Later in the same prayer Solomon pleads for forgiveness. Here he asks instead for a judge's decision:
Solomon's prayer in such a case is not, Hear and forgive, but "Hear from heaven" — the only place where he knew forgiveness could be found — "and do, and judge Your servants." This is law. If the sinner had been repaid at once in judgment, neither land nor people would have been polluted.
Writers reading the whole prayer note the limits of Solomon's requests, and a shift in what counts as the exception:
Solomon's requests go no further than troubles and judgments in this life, for Israel is God's earthly people. He had before said, "If any man sin," as if such a thing would be an exception in Israel. But now in 2 Chronicles 6:29, sin is so widespread that the exception would be any man who prayed or confessed his sin.
Strict repayment needs someone clean enough to carry it out. Israel's later history left it with no one:
But when the whole nation are sinners, when those whose office it was to vindicate the law were equally guilty, who then could righteously take vengeance for a broken law? That is what the whole nation had become by the time of the prophets, and this is why the prophets were sent. It was even worse when the Lord was here. In His presence they dared to pose as defenders of the law, while their own conscience bore witness against them. Their inability to act became plain (see John 8). Only the mercy that endures for ever could act for such a people. And he who at the first said "Verify Your word" can only now say "Hear and forgive."
The verse sets two actions side by side: repaying one man and clearing the other. Where the ESV reads "vindicating the righteous," older translations read "justifying the righteous" — the wording in the quotes that follow. They draw the difference out of Solomon's own prayer:
We must remember that among men only the innocent can be justified and the guilty forgiven. Solomon realised this when praying at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8). First he prays: "Hear in heaven, and do, and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked ... and justifying the righteous." Then he prays again: "Hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel."
God is not bound by that limit:
The glory of the gospel is that it shows how God can do what is impossible among men. He can justify the ungodly, and that when there are no extenuating circumstances. He can take a vile, depraved sinner, and not only forgive him, but clear him of every charge so completely that the challenge can ring out and never be answered: "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies."
Solomon asked God to do what the law prescribed. Commentators observe that the gospel answers a question the law never raised:
The law looked for nothing more than this, that the judges "shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked" (Deuteronomy 25:1). It never looked for the ungodly to be justified. But this is what God does in the gospel, on the basis of the work of Christ, since "Christ died for the ungodly." This opens the door into blessing for sinners such as ourselves.
- Charge. One man wrongs another and swears an oath at the altar. Solomon asks God Himself for the verdict.
- Verdict. Here he does not ask God to hear and forgive, but to hear and do — strict repayment, each man getting what his own conduct earned. This is law.
- Collapse. Such justice needs a clean party. Once the whole nation was guilty, judges included, no one could justly avenge a broken law. Only mercy could act.
- Distinction. Among men, only the innocent can be justified and only the guilty forgiven. So Solomon prays twice: here for a verdict, later for forgiveness.
- Gospel. The law never looked for the ungodly to be justified. God does it, clearing them of every charge, because Christ died for the ungodly.
And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication before thee in this house;
Solomon prays at the newly built temple about a defeat he knows will come: his people losing a battle because of their own sin. The verse names the way back — turn, confess His name, pray at this house — but why pray at a house far from the battlefield?
Solomon is not imagining a remote possibility. One writer points to the wording he chose:
Solomon had no false hopes that Israel would never be defeated by enemies. He does not say "If," but "When Your people are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You... and pray and make supplication to You in this temple." Time after time enemies defeated Israel because they had sinned against God, so Solomon's prayer is truly prophetic. He asked that God would hear Israel's repentant prayer and restore them by His grace.
The same writer finds this pattern in the prayers that follow:
In fact, every one of the detailed prayers that follow has in view a condition of failure on Israel's part, except for verses 32 to 35.
The verse traces a lost battle back to its cause. Writing about Israel's defeat at the city of Ai in Joshua's day, one commentator states the rule:
Failure before the enemy is always the result of some hidden, unjudged sin among those who bear the name of the people of God. Blessing is held back as long as sin goes unjudged. In grace God uses their defeat to bring the sin out into the light.
Solomon does not teach his people to ask for help on its own:
It is the model prayer for Israel. It links confession of sin and prayer for forgiveness with every request. It names sin as the one cause of all troubles and disaster. Through this prayer Israel learned to throw itself on Jehovah with supplication and repentance for sin, and to find that the Lord hears and delivers His people.
Israel prayed this way later, when trouble came and they admitted that God was right to judge them:
They confessed their sin, judged themselves, and agreed that God's judgment was righteous. Then they added: "Only please deliver us this day." They appealed to His grace. Could He turn a deaf ear to their cry? Impossible!
Confession is the first step, not the last. Writing again on that defeat at Ai, one commentator shows what faith does next:
They humble themselves before God; that is the first thing to do. But faith rises above confession and shame, though no true faith is without it. It appeals to God to uphold His own glory, in spite of Israel's disgrace. Joshua strikes the right note in his lament: "And what will you do for your great name?" That was the boldness of faith, pleading that God had committed His name to them.
God had taken this house to live in. That gave His people one place to turn in every trouble:
Solomon shows how God had taken this house to live in, so His people could always pray to Him there — always look to Him in every trouble. Whatever the sin or the suffering, personal or national, God was there for them to pray to. And that is what Israel did. Even if they were out of the land, they looked to it as a witness of this great truth.
Having a way back is not the same as taking it. One writer marks the same condition elsewhere in Solomon's prayer:
Mark the words, "if they pray toward this place." Israel did nothing of the kind in Elijah's day. Their hearts were stubborn; there was no sense of guilt; and they were in no mood for humbling themselves before God. As for God's loved centre, they had turned their backs on it.
One writer sees only part of the answer so far:
This was partly fulfilled when God brought a large number of Judah back from Babylon after the 70 years of captivity. But the true fulfillment comes when the Lord Jesus, in His power, gathers all twelve tribes back at the end of the Great Tribulation. Then their guilt will drive them in repentance to the Lord.
Read this way, the whole dedication prayer becomes a map of the centuries that followed:
Solomon's prayer looks onward to it, but takes up also the intervening time. He, as it were, counts upon the coming glory, and pleads for mercy in view of it; he sees the scattering of rebellious Israel. His prayer is a divine forecast of their history, couched in the language of supplication. Grace will restore the nation to the rule and glory of Christ.
- Sin first. Defeat points back to hidden sin, and blessing waits until that sin is judged.
- Turn next. The remedy is not better tactics but turning back. Confession goes with every request in Solomon's prayer, and faith then pleads God's own name.
- A place to turn. God took that house to live in, so His people could turn there in any trouble, personal or national, even from far outside the land.
- Turning refused. The way back stood open and unused. In Elijah's day hearts were stubborn, and Israel had turned its back on God's centre.
- Turning completed. The return from Babylon answered part of the prayer. The full answer comes when the Lord Jesus gathers all twelve tribes back.
then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land that thou gavest to them and to their fathers.
Solomon is dedicating the new temple, and in the middle of the celebration he prays about defeat, sin and exile. One case he raises is a battle lost through the nation's own sin, and there his request is pardon first, then a way home.
Solomon is not imagining a remote possibility. One commentator points out the wording of the condition itself:
Solomon had no false hopes that Israel would never be defeated by enemies. He does not say "If." He says, "When Your people are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this temple." Israel really was defeated by their enemies many times because they had sinned against God. So Solomon's prayer is a prophecy. He asked God to hear Israel's repentant prayer and restore them by His grace.
Solomon prays through case after case, and one thing never changes:
It is the model prayer for Israel. Every petition includes confession of sin and prayer for forgiveness. The prayer owns sin as the one cause of all troubles and disaster. In it Solomon taught Israel to throw itself on Jehovah with pleading and repentance for sin, and to find that the Lord hears and rescues His people.
Solomon does not ask on the same basis all the way through:
In Solomon's prayer he seems to stand on two different grounds when he brings his requests. The first is the promise given to his father David, a promise with conditions attached. In the second, it is the mercy of God that can forgive after sin is committed. For once sin appears, the whole kingdom would be lost unless God in His mercy went beyond the terms of His covenant with David. Sin could show up in any man, or in the nation at large, even if Solomon himself were not guilty. So in the case of transgression there can be no cry but for forgiveness.
Notice where pardon has to come from:
Forgiveness belongs with God in His dwelling-place, the heaven of heavens, and not with the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. The temple and its greatness suited the law and the covenant. But forgiveness rests with God in His dwelling-place, and that is where Solomon looks. Nothing could be hidden from God's all-searching eye. The thought behind 2 Chronicles 6:36 — "there is no man who does not sin" — pressed on his heart, so he prays for forgiveness. Suppose God judged by law, and by righteousness apart from grace. Then He would — yes, He must — abandon His house and leave Israel under the terrible judgment of a broken covenant. Often he says "hear and forgive."
The request does not stop at pardon; it asks for the land back. Commentators see that answered in stages:
Verses 24 and 25 deal with prayer offered toward the temple after Israel's sin has brought defeat by an enemy. They ask that when the people pray, God may bring them back to their land. This was partly fulfilled when God brought a large number of Judah back from Babylon after the 70 years of captivity. But the true fulfillment comes later. The Lord Jesus will gather all twelve tribes back by His power at the end of the Great Tribulation, when their guilt actually drives them in repentance to the Lord.
Later, Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem while it lay in ruins. One writer asks what gave him the right:
Was there any divine reason for Daniel to pray toward Jerusalem? There certainly was. Jehovah had said to Solomon, about the temple at Jerusalem, "My eyes and My heart will be there for all time." Jerusalem was God's centre. It was, it is, and ever shall be. True, it was in ruins — the temple was in ruins; but God's word was not in ruins, and here is faith's simple but solid warrant.
One writer traces Jonah's confidence back to words like these:
Jonah's words, "yet I shall again look upon your holy temple," surely turned his mind back to Solomon's prayer at the dedication of that temple. It was on the ground of words such as these that Jonah had authority from the Lord Himself to count on the mercy of God to forgive his sin, and deliver him.
- Cause — Solomon traces defeat to sin, not to accident. He says "when," not "if," so the prayer reads as prophecy.
- Turning — The way back is confession that owns God's name. Every petition in this prayer carries repentance.
- Ground — Solomon first pleads God's promise to David. Once sin appears, he can plead nothing but mercy.
- Source — Solomon asks for pardon from heaven, not from the house, because sovereign grace flows from God's own dwelling-place.
- Return — God answers by giving the land back: in part after the seventy years in Babylon, and fully when the Lord Jesus gathers all twelve tribes.
When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, because thou hast afflicted them;
Solomon stands at the new temple and prays through disasters that have not yet happened. A sky shut against rain is one of them, and he names both its cause and the way back.
Solomon asked for pardon before he named a single trouble. One writer lists the troubles he saw coming:
However favoured and glorious Solomon might be, Solomon was not Christ. Solomon was surrounded by splendour. He had wisdom and power beyond anyone before him. Yet he felt that stability had not yet come. So his prayer is full of anticipations of trouble. Knowing to some extent what poor flesh is capable of, Solomon used the word "forgive" before mentioning any specific evil (verse 30). He then lists the likely needs and troubles of the future: personal sins, military defeat, drought, famine and disease, danger in war, and captivity in a foreign land.
That outlook marks Solomon off from his father:
David's psalm is mainly thanksgiving and praise. He pictures Israel in the land, enjoying God's unbroken favour. Solomon sees them rebellious, suffering, and scattered.
A shut heaven was nothing new to Israel:
What barrenness and desolation there must be when heaven is shut up! No refreshing showers come down. No dew falls. Heaven and earth are cut off from each other. How often had Israel tasted the awful reality of this!
The rain stops "because they have sinned." The change is on the people's side, not God's:
We know well that it is not God's desire that His people should suffer. He is no miser, and if the rain is withheld, the fault is with His people and not with Him. He had made this clear to them, so that they well understood that when heaven was "shut up" it was in chastening.
Solomon asks three things: prayer toward the temple, acknowledging God's name, turning from the sin. Elijah's day shows what happens when all three are missing:
Mark the words, "if they pray toward this place." Israel did nothing of the kind in Elijah's day. Their hearts were stubborn; there was no sense of guilt; and they were in no mood to humble themselves before God. As for the place He loved, they had turned their backs on it for good. Bethel and Dan with their golden calves suited Ahab's followers better than Zion. There Jehovah lived among His people, with the atoning blood always on the mercy seat under His holy eye.
To pray toward that place was to pray toward the blood on the mercy seat. Yet even without such praying, the rain came back:
In the days of Ahab, Elijah prophesied a drought like this. It lasted three and a half years. Yet we do not read that Israel afterwards gave up their sin and sought the Lord. So God's grace was even more than Solomon asked.
Solomon speaks of God afflicting His people. One writer explains what that affliction is for:
God sends His judgments to break down the pride and unbelief of the heart. He does this wherever there is the least trace of submission to Him, the least desire to turn from wickedness to Himself. This is what all chastening does for those who are trained by it: "For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?" God's people have known the rod from the beginning. How many have had reason to bless Him for it — for the overthrow of idols they had set up, the loss of property, of health, even of life itself!
Israel's drought fell on the land. For Christians the dryness is inward:
For us the withdrawal is on our side. If joy and spiritual food and power fail, the limit is in ourselves alone. God does not hide Himself, and the Spirit is not grieved away. But the barrenness and loneliness of soul are just as real as if it were true. Thanks to His grace, the presence of the Spirit with us is a pledge of our recovery to the joy of the Lord.
- Cause. The rain stops because of sin, not chance; the fault lies with the people, never with God.
- Consequence. A shut heaven means no showers, no dew, no exchange between heaven and earth — the land goes barren.
- Conditions. Prayer toward the place, acknowledging His name, and turning from the sin — the three things Elijah's generation refused.
- Compassion. Affliction is aimed at breaking down pride, and in Ahab's day God sent rain even beyond what Solomon's prayer asked.
- Comfort. When a Christian's joy dries up, the limit is on our side; the Spirit's presence is the pledge of recovery.
then hear thou in the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
Solomon is dedicating the temple, and he prays through every disaster that could later strike his nation — here, a sky that gives no rain. His request reaches further than relief: he asks not only for rain, but for God to teach the people how to walk.
Solomon was not inventing a scenario. Drought stood on a list of corrections God had already announced, and He applied them step by step.
How these steps tell of the longing of Jehovah's heart over His rebellious people! He chastises them only as much as is needed to lead them to repentance. First He threatens sickness, slaughter by their enemies, and the crops they worked for left at the mercy of the invader. … If that had succeeded in bringing them to repentance, God's dealing in government would have stopped. But that failing, drought, and consequent famine, would be sent.
A closed sky was meant to raise a question, not just hardship. Israel owed God that question even when nothing obvious had gone wrong.
The famine was God's call to repentance, and should always have been understood that way. Even where there had been no public departure from God, such an affliction should always have brought them on their faces, searching their hearts and asking, Why is this?
The promise hangs on a direction of prayer — toward the place Solomon was dedicating. In Elijah's day, that was exactly what nobody did.
Note the words, "if they pray toward this place." Israel did nothing of the kind in Elijah's day. Their hearts were stubborn; there was no sense of guilt; and they were in no mood to humble themselves before God. As for His beloved centre, they had turned their backs on it. Bethel and Dan, with their golden calves, suited Ahab's followers better than Zion. Zion was where Jehovah lived among His people, with the atoning blood always on the mercy seat under His holy eye.
Solomon asks God to hear "in heaven." That phrase repeats through the prayer, and it outlasts the temple itself.
Even from the heaven of heavens He would hear the prayers and confessions of the repentant. Through His inspired instrument, the Holy Spirit gives this repeated cry: "Then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place." It teaches the broken and humble to look up through the surrounding gloom to God's eternal dwelling place. This is a gracious hint for the closing days of the people's long captivity. They will be in a far country, with no access to the temple, and every outward mark of their still being the chosen people of God gone. Let them only look up to the heaven of heavens, and He who sits on the throne will hear, and will forgive.
Rain would end the drought. Solomon asks for more than that.
In the days of Ahab, Elijah prophesied a drought like this. It lasted three and a half years, though we do not read that Israel afterwards forsook their sin and sought the Lord. So God's grace was even more than Solomon asked. However, in verse 27 Solomon asked for Israel's restoration. He asked that God might teach them the good way in which they should walk, as well as send rain on the land. The full accomplishment of this will not come until the beginning of the millennium.
Commentators differ on whether Israel ever met the condition. Grant sees no real turning from sin. Hole points to the killing of Baal's prophets as the confession Solomon described.
Solomon had asked for rain if, when heaven was shut up, there was prayer, confession of Jehovah's name, and a turning from their sin. And the Lord had told Solomon that He had heard his prayer. The people had confessed Jehovah's name and had openly rejected Baal by killing his prophets. So Elijah prayed with full confidence that God would make good His word in mercy, just as He had already done in judgment. Again it was a matter of asking God to fulfil His own word.
God's answer matched Solomon's petition clause by clause. One pronoun changed.
And the Lord is as detailed and particular in His answer as Solomon was in his prayer. "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain… if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." … Solomon prays for Israel as the Lord's people. In his prayer he said, Your people. And the Lord owns them as His, and says, My people.
- Cause — The shut heaven is not weather but discipline. God sends it in steps, going only as far as He must to bring repentance.
- Call — Every drought was a summons to ask, "Why is this?" — even when no public sin was visible.
- Condition — Mercy waits on three things: prayer toward God's chosen centre, confession of His name, and turning from sin. Ahab's Israel refused all three.
- Reach — The temple can be gone and every outward mark of favour lost. Heaven is still the address, and God still hears and forgives.
- Result — Solomon asks past the rain for the good way to walk. God answers clause by clause, and turns Solomon's "Your people" into My people.
If there be famine in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their gates; whatever plague or whatever sickness there be
Solomon is dedicating the new temple, and he names the disasters that could come: crop failure, disease, insects, and enemy armies at the gates. Behind the list lies one question — is such trouble sent to destroy God's people, or to bring them back?
Solomon groups several calamities together, and one commentator notes how they interlock — a siege cuts off food, and hunger breeds disease.
Verses 28-31 consider a case of famine in the land. It might follow when God held back the rain. Pestilence, blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers might come with it. It might also happen when enemies besieged them in their cities and they had no way to get food. Plagues and sickness could be very common at such a time. If this would drive people to pray and confess to God, then Solomon asks that God would hear from heaven and forgive Israel's sin. He asks God to give each person the mercy that suits the state of his heart (v. 30). The desired effect was that Israel would fear the Lord (v. 31).
These troubles are not random. One writer counts five graded steps in God's chastening, and the grading itself shows something about Him.
These steps, as set out here, are five in number. How they tell of the longing of Jehovah's heart over His rebellious people! He chastises them only as much as is needed to lead them to repentance. (1) First comes sickness, with the threat of slaughter by their enemies, and the crops, the fruit of their work, left at the mercy of the invader... If that had succeeded in bringing them to repentance, God's dealing in government would have stopped. But if it failed, He would send drought, and the famine that follows it.
The verse ends wide open: whatever plague, whatever sickness. The next verse turns inward, to each person knowing his own affliction — older translations call it "the plague of his own heart."
In his prayer Solomon speaks of every man knowing "the plague of his own heart." He points to the only way of relief: spreading it out before God (1 Kings 8:38). A plague in the heart is something known only to the person himself, and it spoils his joy. It may be some question between the soul and God that is unsettled. It may be some secret sin left unconfessed. Faith sees the grace that is in the heart of Christ. It can spread the plague out before Him and find deliverance from every evil influence.
The troubles listed strike a whole nation. The prayer that meets them can start with one person.
He supposes that plagues, drought, famine, locusts, enemy attacks or the like might strike the land because the people living in it were unfaithful. If they repented in heart, the prayer of only one man would be enough, as they stretched out their hands toward this house. He asks that God would then hear in heaven and forgive, while still giving each person according to his ways, so that He would be feared. It is always law, but mixed with the mercy that law can allow if God finds truth in the heart.
Solomon's words were not left behind with the ceremony. One writer points to a later prayer in Israel's trouble that leaned on them.
He reminded God also that Israel had dwelt in the land and had built a sanctuary for God's name (v. 8). This refers to Solomon's building of the temple. He also points back to Solomon's prayer at that dedication: "If disaster comes upon us — sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine — we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple) and cry out in our affliction, and You will hear and save."
God answered this prayer, and His answer names what must come before healing.
He assures the king of this: suppose He has chastised His people by sending drought, locusts or pestilence. If they then humble themselves, seek His face and turn away from their wicked ways, He will forgive and heal their land. There can be no recovery apart from the conditions mentioned in these verses. His people who have failed must first humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn away from their evil ways.
- Trouble comes. Solomon names famine, disease, blight, insects and siege. He builds the possibility of failure into the dedication of the house.
- Trouble is measured. God grades the chastening. He sends it only as far as it needs to go to bring the people to repentance, and stops when it has done its work.
- Trouble exposes. Behind the outward plague lies the plague of the heart. Only the sufferer knows it, and he must spread it out before God.
- Trouble needs only one. The prayer of a single person with a true heart is enough; God answers each one according to what He finds there.
- Trouble is answered. God sets the terms: humble yourself, pray, seek His face, turn from evil — and He forgives and heals the land. Later, God's people came back to this same prayer when disaster came.
what prayer, what supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, when they shall know every man his own plague, and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house;
Solomon has finished the temple and kneels before the whole nation. He names every trouble that might drive Israel to pray — defeat, drought, famine, sickness — and then narrows it down to one person, one private sorrow, and one question: does God hear me?
Solomon's list does not need a crowd before God will act. Writing on the matching prayer in 1 Kings, one commentator notes how little God asks for:
He supposes that plagues, drought, famine, locusts, enemy attacks, or the like might strike the land because the people living in it were unfaithful. If they repent in heart, the prayer of only one man would be enough, when they stretch out their hands towards this house. May God then hear in heaven and forgive, while still giving to each according to his ways, so that He might be feared.
Older translations read "every man the plague of his own heart." That is a trouble nobody else can see or report. One writer explains what such a plague is, and how faith finds relief:
In his prayer, Solomon speaks of every man knowing "the plague of his own heart," and points to the only way of relief: spreading it out before God (1 Kings 8:38). A plague in the heart is something only that person knows, and it comes in to spoil his joy. It is some question between the soul and God that is unsettled; it may be some secret sin left unconfessed. Faith, realising the grace that is in the heart of Christ, can spread the plague out before Him, and find deliverance from every evil influence.
One writer explains what the open hands mean, and points to a battle where they counted:
In Scripture, spreading out the hands is the confession of weakness and the attitude of prayer. Moses, with his lifted hands, secured Israel's victory over the Amalekites (Ex. 17), who are a figure of the flesh.
The king who asks God to hear each sufferer is himself an intercessor. One writer sees his place of prayer as a picture of something later:
On his platform, which once was an altar, he takes only the place of an intercessor. He prays for a people whose sin could already be seen. This role that Solomon filled on behalf of Israel is the very role the Lord fills today on our behalf. "But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2). His work as Advocate rests on the propitiation He has accomplished, just as Solomon's intercession could not be separated from this platform, that mysterious and wonderful picture of the altar.
The sufferer turns toward the house, yet Solomon asks God to hear from heaven. One writer explains why forgiveness does not belong to the building:
Forgiveness is linked with God in His dwelling place, the heaven of heavens, and not with the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. The temple and all its splendour suited the law and the covenant. But Solomon looks to heaven, because he knows there is no one who does not sin, and he stands before the holiness and righteousness of God, who can meet man only on the ground of infinite mercy and sovereign grace. He did not know, as we do, how the cross of Christ secured that mercy — and made it overflow.
Later kings used what Solomon asked for. One commentator turns Hezekiah's response to a threatening letter into a question for every reader:
He read it and went up into the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. What blessing there would be in the lives of all God's people! What wonderful proof of His power and His love we might have, if we took everything that happens to us straight into the presence of God and spread it before Him!
- Known. The affliction here is one nobody else can see. It may be an unsettled question between the soul and God that spoils a person's joy.
- Named. It may even be a secret sin left unconfessed. Relief comes by spreading it out before God, not by hiding it.
- Spread. Open hands are Scripture's confession of weakness. Moses lifted his hands, and Israel won the battle.
- Carried. Solomon pleaded on a platform that pictured the altar, for a people already sinning. Christ is our Advocate, and His work rests on the propitiation He accomplished.
- Forgiven. The prayer goes toward the house, but pardon comes from God in heaven, because grace is sovereign. We now know what Solomon did not: the cross of Christ secured that mercy.
then hear thou from the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and forgive, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men),
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
that they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, all the days that they live upon the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
Solomon is praying at the dedication of the temple, looking ahead to famine, disease and siege — trouble that would drive Israel to pray toward the house. His closing words name the goal of the whole prayer: a forgiven people who fear God and walk in His ways in the land He gave.
The verse is the tail end of a longer prayer. One writer follows its steps: trouble, prayer, confession, then God's answer.
If this drove people to pray and confess to God, then Solomon asks that God would hear from heaven and forgive Israel's sin. He asks God to give each person the mercy that suits his case, taking account of the state of each heart (v. 30). The desired effect was that Israel would fear the Lord (v. 31).
You might expect pardon to make sin feel less serious. One writer says the opposite:
If there is no standing before God through our own merits, there is forgiveness through His mercy. And if God forgives, it is so that He may be feared, and not so that men may think lightly of their sin or of His mercy. Grace does not lead to a careless walk; on the contrary, it teaches us to live soberly, righteously and in a godly way (Titus 2:12).
Another writer turns this around. Without pardon, whatever fear remains is of the wrong kind.
Was there ever true fear of Him without pardon? Certainly Psalm 130:4 makes it clear that there is pardon with Him so that He may be feared. Without it, what can the fear be but slavish and tainted? This strengthens the soul to "turn away from evil."
The word "fear" can suggest terror of God. One writer rules that out:
This fear of the Lord is not the slavish dread that marks the superstitious. No. It is a reverent trustfulness joined with hatred of evil. "The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil" (Proverbs 8:13). "The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever." Where this is kept up, the presence of the Lord is a reality and a joy.
The verse ties fear to walking in His ways, all the days they live. One writer treats that obedience as gain, not burden:
It was all for their real good, their deep and full blessing, to walk in the way of God's commandments. The path of whole-hearted obedience is the only path of true happiness; and blessed be God, this path can always be walked by those who love the Lord.
The verse ends by tying this life of fear to the land God gave the fathers. It came as a gift, but staying in it ran on other terms — and so did the throne Solomon sat on:
Grace had led them up to this point... Grace had set them in the land, as God had in His goodness long before set Adam in the garden. But they must now hold it on the terms of their own covenant, that is, on condition of obedience. I may add that it was the same afterwards with the throne of David... He set his throne in peaceful glory in the person of his son Solomon. But then the family of David had to keep the throne of David on terms of obedience. And we know they lost the throne, just as the tribes of Israel lost the land, and Adam the garden.
Solomon's prayer left a way back for a failing people. History shows what became of it:
All their privileges were in this way bound up with obedience, yet joined to a gracious resource should failure come in. Clearly, they failed to use that resource in their time of need.
- Trouble — Famine, disease and siege were meant to drive Israel to prayer and confession. God answers with mercy measured to the state of each heart.
- Forgiveness — God forgives so that He may be feared. Pardon never makes sin or mercy a light thing.
- Fear — This fear is not the dread of the superstitious. It is reverent trust joined with hatred of evil, and only pardon makes it possible.
- Walk — Real fear takes the shape of a path, and whole-hearted obedience is the only road to true happiness.
- Land — Grace gave the land, as it gave David's throne. Obedience was the term for keeping both, and Israel left the way back unused.
And as to the stranger also, who is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand and thy stretched-out arm; when they shall come and pray toward this house,
Most of Solomon's long prayer is about Israel — their sin, their famine, their defeat, their captivity. Then he turns and prays for a foreigner with no claim on the covenant, who knows God only by report: on what ground can such a person be heard?
The person Solomon has in mind is a traveller, drawn by what he has heard of God. One commentator notes where such a man could pray, and what Solomon asks for him:
In verses 32 and 33 Solomon prays for any foreigner who had come to Israel from a far country because of his regard for God's great name. The temple court counted as part of the temple. So if such a person came there and prayed, Solomon asks God to hear his prayer and answer it. His aim is that this might have some real effect on all the peoples of the earth, so that they recognize the greatness of the God of Israel.
What the foreigner hears about God is enough to send him to prayer. One writer points out what is missing from this part of the prayer:
There are also resources for the stranger... God would hear him in heaven and answer him. For the king wishes that all the peoples of the earth, as well as his people Israel, might know the name of the Lord and fear Him. Here there is no judgment, no conditional blessing at all. The stranger, outside the circle of the law, approaches God by faith and receives a full blessing.
One writer argues the prayer reaches far past Solomon's own time, and points to the words Jesus quoted about God's house:
Solomon prays for the stranger, who comes in to share in Israel's blessings and privileges, even to pray in this house. The Lord said it was written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations" (Mark 11:17). The few strangers who worshipped in that temple cannot be the full answer to Solomon's prayer. The prophetic Spirit of God led him beyond his own time, to the time when all Israel shall know the Lord. He goes on to say, "that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, as do Your people Israel."
One writer names the first visitor who fit this prayer, and the detail that ties her to it:
This Queen's visit was the first answer to Solomon's prayer. In 1 Kings 8:41-43 he asked God to take notice of the stranger who was not of His people Israel, who might come to His house from a far country for His name's sake. The Holy Spirit expressly records that it was "concerning the name of the LORD" that the Queen of Sheba consulted king Solomon (1 Kings 10:1). Thank God, He has always had true sheep outside the fold... In that age His dealings were with Israel. Even so, there has always been room in His great heart for those who wanted Him, wherever they were and whoever they were.
Later answers came in another form. One writer describes a foreign woman who could not enter the temple, and where she took her need instead:
When this "stranger" woman "heard of Him," she came to Jesus as to the true Temple of God on the earth. She was forbidden to enter the temple at Jerusalem. And He answered her according to all that she sought of Him.
Commentators differ on where the weight falls. Some look ahead to a day when the nations know God's name. Others point to people answered at the time. Both rest on the same ground: God hears the stranger.
One commentator draws a line between what that house taught and what Christians should copy:
He shows how God, having taken this house to dwell in, could always be prayed to — always looked to in every trouble. No matter what the sin or the affliction might be, whether personal or national, God was there to be prayed to... Just think of the folly of a Christian turning to the east because a Jew did it. It is as if the God who has revealed Himself to us is in the east more than any other spot of the earth... No, we belong to heaven, and we look there if we look anywhere.
- Report — The stranger starts with nothing but news. God's great name, mighty hand, and outstretched arm reach him in a far country.
- Faith — He comes with no covenant and no law behind him. God hears him anyway, with no condition attached.
- Reach — Solomon's prayer runs past his own time. It reaches the day when every people on earth knows God's name as Israel does.
- Answers — The Queen of Sheba came asking about that very name. Later, a woman shut out of the temple brought her need straight to Jesus, and He answered her.
- Direction — That house showed that God can be prayed to in any trouble. What changes is where we look: we look up, not east.
then hear thou from the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; in order that all peoples of the earth may know thy name, and may fear thee as do thy people Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name.
Solomon's prayer at the temple's dedication has worked through Israel's own troubles — drought, defeat, captivity — and then turns to an outsider with no share in the covenant. Solomon asks God to answer that foreigner's prayer, and to let the answer teach every people on earth to fear God's name as Israel does.
This part of the prayer stands out. Solomon puts no conditions on the stranger and holds nothing back.
There are also resources for the stranger. He would come from afar, hearing about the great name and the power of the Lord. Facing toward this house, he would bring his request to Him. God would hear him in heaven and answer him. The king wishes that all the peoples of the earth, as well as his people Israel, might know the name of the Lord and fear Him. Here there is no judgment, no conditional blessing at all. The stranger, outside the circle of the law, approaches God by faith and receives a full blessing.
One thing brings this man from far away: what he has heard of God's name. Solomon asks God to answer him in a way the watching world notices.
In verses 32 and 33 Solomon prays for any foreigner who had come to Israel from a far country because of his regard for God's great name. Suppose such a person came and prayed in the temple. The temple court counted as part of the temple. Solomon asks that God would hear his prayer and answer it. He wants this to have a real effect on all the peoples of the earth, so that they recognise the greatness of the God of Israel.
The stranger faces the house, but God hears from heaven. That same cry served Israel later, when they had no temple to face.
The Holy Spirit through His inspired instrument gives this repeated cry: "Then hear from the heavens, Your dwelling place." This teaches the humble and broken-hearted to look up through the surrounding gloom to God's eternal dwelling place. It is a gracious hint for the last closing days of the people's long captivity. They are in a far country with no access to the temple. Every outward mark of their still being the chosen people of God is gone. Let them only look up to the heaven of heavens, and He who sits on the throne will hear, and will forgive.
Solomon asked for more than his own lifetime could deliver.
The stranger is prayed for, and comes in to share in Israel's blessings and privileges, even to pray in this house. The Lord said it was written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Mark 11:17). Only a few strangers worshipped in that temple, and they cannot be the full answer to Solomon's request. The prophetic Spirit of God led him beyond the time then present, to the time when all Israel shall know the Lord... In that day Israel will be the greatest nation and will rule over the Gentiles. Israel will also be a model of obedience and worship.
Two outsiders in Scripture found what this prayer asks for. Where each found it matters.
In the middle of these warnings of disaster, the king prayed for the stranger from far away. That stranger might hear of Jehovah's great name and come to His house looking for blessing. The Queen of Sheba and the Ethiopian eunuch are examples of this, but with this difference. The Queen got the blessing in Jerusalem, for everything was in divine order in her day. The eunuch got the blessing while going away from Jerusalem. The Temple was then an empty shell, since the Christ of God had been rejected.
One writer goes further. A woman shut out of the temple brought her request straight to Jesus.
When Gentile strangers brought their requests straight to Jesus, we see individual instances of Jehovah's full reply to the prayers of Solomon at the dedication of the temple... This "stranger" woman could not enter the temple at Jerusalem. When she "heard of Him," she came to Jesus as to the true Temple of God on earth. He answered her according to all that she asked of Him.
- Name heard — The foreigner starts with nothing but a report of God's great name. That report is enough to set him travelling and praying.
- Name pleaded — He has no covenant claim. Outside the law, he comes by faith and receives a full blessing, with no conditions.
- Name answered — He faces the house, but God hears from heaven. That is why exiles with no temple could still look up and be forgiven.
- Name known — God answers one stranger in open view, so that all the peoples of the earth recognise the greatness of Israel's God.
- Name feared — The few who came in Solomon's day were only a first instalment. The prayer looks on to a day when God's house is a house of prayer for all nations, and Israel itself the model of worship.
If thy people go out to battle against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;
Solomon is dedicating the temple, and his prayer works through troubles he expects Israel to meet — here, the day the nation marches out to fight. Two things carry the request: God Himself sends them, and they pray toward the city and house He chose.
Solomon asks God to accept prayer aimed at one place on earth. God had chosen that place.
Jerusalem was Jehovah's earthly centre, so Solomon asked God to graciously accept every prayer directed towards the city and sanctuary. Daniel remembered this in his captivity. "He had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God" (Dan. 6:10).
The verse does not cover every war Israel might choose to fight. The words about the way God sends them limit the whole request.
If God sends Israel to battle against their enemies, and they pray toward Jerusalem and the temple there, Solomon asks that God would hear their prayer, answer it, and uphold their cause (vv. 34-35). Notice that he does not pray for this if Israel went to battle without God's direction. We can expect God's blessing only in God's way.
Solomon was at the height of his glory, yet his prayer keeps expecting trouble. Danger in war is one of those troubles.
However favoured and glorious Solomon might be, he was not Christ... Solomon was surrounded by splendour, and he had wisdom and power that no one before him had matched. Yet he felt that stability had not yet come. So his prayer is full of anticipations of trouble. No such thoughts will be present in the mind of Solomon's greater Son when He takes the throne.
Generations later a king of Judah went to war. He prayed on the strength of God's promises to Solomon, made when Solomon built the house.
But war begins. He could no longer have the unmixed blessing of dealing with God alone, without trial. The enemy had to step in for his good, under God's government — though in the trial he passes through he may have full blessing. His piety was genuine; the trial proves it. He appeals to God's relationship with Abraham and to His promises to Solomon, when Solomon had built the house... God abundantly granted his prayer.
Daniel opened his windows toward Jerusalem while he was in captivity. What gave him the right to pray that way?
Faith always seeks and finds a warrant for its activities in the word of God. This is of the very deepest possible importance. If Daniel had not had a divine warrant for praying toward Jerusalem, his conduct would have been utterly absurd. It would have been the height of folly to rush into the lions' den merely to carry out some theory of his own. But if a divine principle was involved, then his conduct was what we may call perfectly magnificent... it was owning God's centre, and taking God's ground, despite the hopeless ruin of that whole order of things.
God put His name in the house Solomon built, and Israel turned toward it in prayer. That centre has now changed.
Once the temple was where God set His name, and every faithful person had to go to it. Now our rallying point is a Person. Our centre is Christ Himself.
- Sent. Solomon asks God's help only in the war God Himself sends. Blessing comes only in God's way.
- Toward. Jerusalem was God's chosen centre on earth. He promised to accept prayer turned that way.
- Heard. When war came, Jehoshaphat pleaded this promise and the house Solomon built. God granted his prayer in full.
- Held. Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem from captivity on the strength of these words. Faith finds its warrant in Scripture, not in circumstances.
- Christ. Solomon's prayer expects trouble; Solomon's greater Son will take the throne with no such fears. Our centre now is a Person, not a place.
then hear thou from the heavens their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their right.
Solomon is dedicating the temple, and in his prayer he looks ahead to a day when Israel marches out to war. Two questions sit inside the verse: what gives a praying army any claim on God, and what does a house in Jerusalem have to do with a battle fought far away?
The request is not a blank cheque for any war Israel might choose. One writer points to the condition sitting in the verse just before this one: God is the one who sends them out.
Suppose God sends Israel to battle against their enemies, and they pray toward Jerusalem and the temple there. Then Solomon asks that God would hear and answer their prayer, and maintain their cause. Let us note that he does not pray for this if Israel went to battle without God's direction. We can expect God's blessing only in God's way.
Most of Solomon's requests deal with Israel failing. This one is different, and one writer says why that is remarkable.
Here we find, not the shortcomings of the people, but Israel acting according to the will of God. That same will guides her to wage war against her enemies. This is a remarkable fact. The nations have acknowledged the God of Israel, and now Israel herself will be a people willing to fight the enemies of the Lord. The house from now on will be the centre of blessing and strength for the people.
Solomon has just watched the cloud of God's presence fill the building. Yet he does not ask God to answer out of the temple; he asks Him to hear from heaven. One writer explains why that matters so much.
The cloud, the symbol of the divine presence, filled the house. Because of it the priests could not stand to minister. One might have thought people would stop treating heaven as a place where God is to be sought and found. But Solomon begs God to hear from heaven, "Your dwelling place," whenever anyone prayed toward that house. This is very instructive. Otherwise we might conclude this: since God has a dwelling place on earth, we should look for Him there, as though He had abandoned heaven.
The chapter repeats one pattern: pray toward this place, hear from heaven. It settles something permanent about God. It also carries a warning about copying the outward form.
He shows how God, having taken this house to dwell in, could always be prayed to — always looked to in every trouble. No matter what the sin or the affliction might be, whether personal or national, they could always pray to God there. And so we find Israel did. Even if they were out of the land, they looked to it as a witness of this great truth. But just think how foolish it is for Christians to take up such things — to turn to the east because a Jew did it, as if the God who has revealed Himself to us were in the east more than any other spot on earth. No, we belong to heaven, and we look there if we look anywhere.
Years later an army invaded Judah. King Jehoshaphat prayed on the exact ground Solomon had laid down, and one writer traces how he reasoned.
He appeals to the relationship of God with Abraham, and to His promises to Solomon when Solomon had built the house… God answers him. The king encourages the people by acknowledging the voice of the prophets. He encourages them too by singing the praises of God before the blessing came — singing in faith that His mercy endures for ever. God abundantly granted his prayer.
A real battle tests whether the faith behind the prayer is alive.
In real conflict only one thing stands: a living personal faith in a living personal Saviour God. This is what is needed. This alone can sustain the heart, whatever comes. Faith brings God into the scene, and all is strength, victory, and perfect peace.
- Sent. The promise attaches to the battle God directs. Solomon does not ask God to back a war Israel picks for itself — blessing comes in God's way.
- Faced. The praying army turns toward the chosen city and the house built for God's name. The house becomes the centre of blessing and strength for the people.
- Heard. Though the cloud filled the temple, the answer comes from heaven. God has an address on earth without ever having left His dwelling place above.
- Upheld. God hears, God answers, and God maintains their cause. That prayer stayed open in every trouble — personal or national, in the land or far from it.
- Proved. When an army came, Jehoshaphat stood on these very words, and God granted his prayer in full. Real conflict tests one thing: living faith in a living God.
If they have sinned against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, and they have carried them away captives unto a land far off or near;
Solomon kneels to dedicate the temple, and on Israel's brightest day he looks ahead to exile. His aside — that no one is sinless — raises the hardest question in the prayer: if failure is certain, how can God keep such a people?
Solomon has been asking God to hear from heaven. One writer shows why forgiveness had to come from heaven, and not from the new temple.
Forgiveness is linked with God in His dwelling-place, the heaven of heavens, and not with the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens... If God judged on the principle of law, and on righteousness apart from grace, He would — indeed He must — forsake His house and leave Israel under the awful judgment of a broken covenant... Solomon knows that there is no one who does not sin. He stands in the presence of the holiness and righteousness of God, who can only meet man on the ground of infinite mercy and sovereign grace.
Solomon lived under the law, which put him on the ground of establishing his own righteousness. That makes his admission here surprising.
Yet they are remarkable words from a man who was under law, and who therefore stood on the ground of establishing his own righteousness. The words are almost a confession that his righteousness at its best would only be as filthy rags.
One writer reads this as a forecast, not a guess. The repentance it describes has still not come.
In verses 36-39 Solomon speaks of an occasion when Israel sins against God (not "if they sin", "for there is no one who does not sin")... He adds, "when" (not "if") they come to themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and repent... There is no shadow of doubt that Israel will do this one day, though centuries have passed since they were scattered through the world. The pride of man's natural heart is so great that he will keep up his rebellion against God even while going through the motions of religion. But in the end the Great Tribulation will break down their arrogant pride, so that they make the confession found in the next verse.
The exile was not God's first move. It came after Israel ignored lighter discipline at home.
Their sins and their judgments had been in the land. Then the outpouring of the wrath of the Lord drove them out of their own land into one far away. Captivity to the Gentiles was to follow pestilence and famine and war. What they suffered in the land was enough to teach them to obey God's law — if only they had had ears to hear and hearts to understand. But they ignored every call... Restoring them after discipline only gave them a further chance to sin, until the cup ran over.
Exile is not the end of the story. Solomon sees one resource left for a failing people.
Solomon is a prophet here. He sees what is bound to come on this people under the law, for there is no one who does not sin. Yet a resource still exists. The house is there, and God cannot deny His promises. Solomon does not refer to the law, but to grace. By pure grace the God of the promises had saved His people from Egypt — could He deny this grace, even under the system of law?
The same writer adds that Solomon is only a picture here. Israel's restoration rests on the intercession of a greater King — "the true Servant of the Lord."
Solomon asks God to forgive. He never says how a righteous God can do it. Another writer names the answer.
"There is no one who does not sin," said Solomon, as he knelt and stretched out his hands in prayer to Almighty God. How can this question be met? Above that crowd of sinners a cross lifts its rough head. To that cross Jesus went. On it He bore our sins in His own body. There He was wounded for our transgressions. And His great sacrifice and precious blood answer the question.
- Diagnosis — No one is sinless. Solomon states it as a fact, at the height of his glory, not at his lowest point.
- Sentence — Exile came last, not first. God sent lighter discipline at home, and Israel ignored it until "the cup ran over."
- Distance — "Far or near" covers every exile. Forgiveness belongs to God in heaven, not to the temple, so no captive is beyond reach.
- Resource — Solomon pleads grace, not law. The God who rescued Israel from Egypt cannot deny His own character.
- Answer — Solomon asked God to forgive, but could not say how. The cross of Christ supplies what his prayer left open.
and if they shall take it to heart in the land whither they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done iniquity and have dealt perversely;
Solomon is dedicating the new temple. At the height of the celebration he looks ahead to the worst thing that could happen: defeat, and life as captives in a foreign land. Here he gives that broken people their words. Does God still hear prayer offered far from the house He has chosen?
Solomon seems to describe just one possible future among many. One commentator reads the wording as something firmer:
In verses 36–39 Solomon speaks of an occasion when Israel sins against God. He does not say "if they sin," since "there is no one who does not sin." God's anger gives them up to captivity under an enemy, whether near or far. He adds "when" — not "if" — they come to themselves in the land where their enemies have carried them captive. There they repent and plead with God, saying, "We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly." There is no shadow of doubt that Israel will do this in the end, though centuries have passed since they were scattered through the world. The pride of man's natural heart is so great that he will not stop rebelling against God. He keeps that up even while going through the forms of religious observance. But the Great Tribulation will in the end break down their arrogant pride, so that they make the confession seen in verse 37.
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Solomon has just built a magnificent house. Yet when he asks for pardon, he points past it — upward. One writer explains why:
Forgiveness is linked with God in His dwelling-place, the heaven of heavens, and not with the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. The temple and its magnificence were well suited for the law and the covenant. But forgiveness is with God in His dwelling-place, and that is where Solomon looks… Solomon knows there is no one who does not sin. He stands in the presence of the holiness and righteousness of God, who can only meet man on the ground of infinite mercy and sovereign grace. He did not know, as we do, how the cross of Christ secures that mercy — indeed makes it abound.
The captives have no way to reach the temple and no outward sign left that they are God's people. One writer says the prayer is meant for that very moment:
The Holy Spirit, through His inspired instrument, teaches the contrite and humble to look up through the surrounding gloom to God's eternal dwelling place. It is a gracious hint for the last and closing days of the people's long captivity. They are in a far country, with no access to the temple. Every outward mark that they are still the chosen people of God is gone. Let them only look up to the heaven of heavens, and He who sits on the throne will hear, and will forgive.
Later, Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem while the city lay in ruins. One writer explains what backed him:
Was there any divine reason for Daniel's praying toward Jerusalem? Certainly there was! First, the Lord had said to Solomon, about the temple at Jerusalem, "My eyes and My heart will always be there." Jerusalem was God's centre. It was, it is, and it always shall be. True, it was in ruins — the temple was in ruins; but God's word was not in ruins, and here is faith's simple but solid warrant.
Israel had a place on earth to turn toward in prayer. One writer warns Christians not to copy the habit:
No matter what the sin or the affliction — personal or national — God was there to be prayed to. And so Israel did. Even when they were out of the land, they looked to it as a witness of this great truth. But just think of the folly of Christians taking up such things. A Christian turns to the east because a Jew did it — as if the God who is revealed to us is in the east more than any other spot on earth. No, we belong to heaven, and we look there if we look anywhere.
The captives do not work up this change of heart themselves. One commentator names its source:
It will be a work of God's grace in their hearts that moves all this. That grace makes them return to the Lord with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity (v. 38). This prayer of Solomon has in it the element of a prophecy. Even today many Israelites turn their eyes toward Jerusalem, though they are still cold toward the Lord Jesus.
- Sin assumed. Solomon builds his prayer on one admission: no one is without sin. Exile is a matter of when, not if.
- Chastening. Captivity is God's answer to long rebellion. It breaks a pride that religious routine leaves untouched.
- Confession. The captives own their guilt without excuse, and God's grace in their hearts produces that confession.
- Direction. No temple is within reach, so the exile looks up. Forgiveness is with God in heaven, not with the building — the ground Daniel stood on while Jerusalem lay in ruins.
- Restoration. Solomon's prayer runs ahead as prophecy: the scattered people will be heard and forgiven. Christians belong to heaven and look there, not to any place on earth.
and if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers, and the city that thou hast chosen, and the house that I have built unto thy name;
Solomon has just finished the temple. At the height of Israel's glory, his prayer turns to the worst thing that could happen: sin, defeat, and exile in a far country. This verse names the way back — a return with the whole heart and soul, made in enemy territory, with prayer aimed at the land, the city, and the house.
Look closely at the wording of this whole section. Solomon does not speak of national ruin as a risk that might never come, and he speaks the same way about the confession that follows:
In verses 36-39 Solomon speaks of an occasion when Israel sins against God. He does not say "if they sin," because "there is no one who does not sin." God's anger then delivers them to the captivity of an enemy, whether near or far. He adds "when" — not "if" — they come to themselves in the land of their captivity. There they repent and plead with God, saying, "We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness." There is no shadow of doubt that Israel will do this in the end, though they have been scattered through the world for centuries.
The condition Solomon states is inward. What God promised to answer was never a flawless record of obedience:
He had promised this. If they were led into captivity, and then turned to Him with all their heart while surrounded by their enemies, He would bring them back. He never said, if they kept the law to the letter, for that would not have been possible for them.
Notice where the answer comes from. Solomon asks God to hear from heaven, not from the building — so a door stays open even after the building falls:
The Holy Spirit gives this repeated cry through His inspired instrument: "Then hear from the heavens, Your dwelling place." This teaches the contrite and humble to look up through the surrounding gloom to God's eternal dwelling place. This is a gracious hint for the last, closing days of the people's long captivity. They will be in a far country, with no access to the temple. Every outward mark of their still being the chosen people of God will be gone. Let them only look up to the heaven of heavens, and He who sits on the throne will hear, and will forgive.
Centuries later Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon. Writers point to this verse as his warrant, even though the city he faced lay in ruins:
Was there any divine reason for Daniel to pray toward Jerusalem? There certainly was! Jerusalem was God's centre. It was, it is, and ever shall be. True, it was in ruins — the temple was in ruins; but God's word was not in ruins, and here is faith's simple but solid warrant.
Solomon prayed for a whole nation. Yet Jonah took hold of that same prayer as one man needing forgiveness and rescue:
Jonah's mind surely turned back to Solomon's prayer at the dedication of that temple. It is recorded in 2 Chronicles 6, and he no doubt knew it well... Words such as these gave Jonah authority from the Lord Himself to count on God's mercy to forgive his sin and deliver him.
The verse rests on God's own choice — the city He chose, the house built for His name. One writer draws out the lasting principle, and adds a warning:
Solomon struck the right note when he touched this great point of election. He shows how God, having taken this house to dwell in, could always be prayed to — always looked to in every trouble. No matter what the sin or the affliction might be, personal or national, God was there and they could pray to Him. And so we find Israel did. Even when they were out of the land, they looked to it as a witness of this great truth. But just think of the folly of Christians taking up such things... No, we belong to heaven, and we look there if we look anywhere.
- When, not if. Solomon builds the fall of his own nation into the dedication of his own temple. He treats sin, captivity, and the confession that follows as certainties.
- Heart, not record. The terms are a return with all the heart and soul; God never made restoration wait on keeping the law to the letter.
- Heaven, not walls. The prayer asks God to hear from His dwelling place above. He still hears the contrite when the temple, the land, and every outward mark of belonging are gone.
- Faith, not sight. Daniel prayed toward a ruined city because God's word about it was not in ruins. Jonah claimed the same words for one man's sin.
- Upward, not eastward. God made Himself reachable in every trouble. Christians belong to heaven, so that is where they look.
then hear thou from the heavens, from the settled place of thy dwelling, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their right, and forgive thy people their sin against thee.
Solomon dedicates the temple at the height of Israel's glory. Yet his closing requests look ahead to a day when the people are captives far from home, with no temple to visit. What is left to plead when every promise tied to obedience has been broken?
One commentator finds two footings in this prayer. The shift from the first to the second produces the cry for pardon.
In Solomon's prayer there seemed to be two different grounds on which he stands to present his requests. The first he takes is the promise given to his father David with a condition attached. In the second, it is the mercy of God that can forgive after sin is committed. Suppose sin appeared in any one man, or in the nation as a whole. Even if Solomon himself was not guilty, the whole kingdom would be lost unless God in His mercy went beyond the terms of His covenant with David. So in the case of transgression there can be no cry but for forgiveness.
So where should a captive look for pardon? Not to the house Solomon had just finished.
Forgiveness is linked with God in His dwelling-place, the heaven of heavens, and not with the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. Nothing could be hidden from the all-searching eye of God. The thought of 2 Chronicles 6:36 — "there is no one who does not sin" — seems to press upon his heart, and so he prays for forgiveness. For if God judged by law, and by righteousness apart from grace, He would, yes must, forsake His house and leave Israel under the awful judgment of a broken covenant.
The refrain of this prayer — hear from heaven, Your dwelling place — speaks to people with nothing left to see or touch.
Solomon's prayer does not look ahead to the coming happy time. It looks to the near future, when Israel would forsake the Lord, and the Lord would forsake His house and dwell in the heaven of heavens. Even there He would hear the pleas and confessions of the repentant. The Holy Spirit, through His inspired instrument, gives this repeated cry: "Then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place." This teaches the contrite and humble to look up through the surrounding gloom to God's eternal dwelling place. It is a gracious hint for the last and closing days of the people's long captivity. They will be in a far country, with no access to the temple, and every outward mark that they are still God's chosen people will be gone. Let them only look up to the heaven of heavens, and He who sits on the throne will hear, and will forgive.
Notice Solomon's wording. He prays about a certainty, not a possibility.
In verses 36-39 Solomon speaks of an occasion when Israel sins against God — not "if they sin", for "there is no one who does not sin". God's anger then hands them over to an enemy who carries them off, whether near or far. He adds, "when" (not "if") they come to themselves in the land of their captivity. There they repent and plead with God, saying "We have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly." There is no shadow of doubt that Israel will do this in the end, though centuries have passed since their scattering through the world.
The same writer expects more than a short reprieve.
Solomon prays that God would hear from heaven, and He surely will. He will fully restore the remnant of Israel to their land for good, with His full, free forgiveness.
One writer points to Daniel, a captive who kept praying on the strength of this word.
Daniel based his action on the Word of God. He had heard God's Word saying that if His people were in captivity they were to pray to Him, and to look toward His house. Daniel acts on this scripture. He does not shut his windows, nor increase, nor lessen his petitions: he is just that day what he had been every day before. He was a very even saint. It was not the great difficulty that took him to his knees three times daily.
- Sin assumed. Solomon does not ask if the people will fail; he builds his prayer on a settled truth: there is no one who does not sin.
- Covenant exhausted. Once sin comes in, no one can plead a promise that hung on obedience. Only mercy beyond its terms will do.
- Heaven addressed. God grants pardon from His dwelling place in heaven, not from the house just built, because grace is sovereign and springs from God Himself.
- Distance no barrier. With the temple gone and every outward mark of favour lost, the contrite still look up through the gloom, and the One on the throne hears.
- Answer certain. Daniel rested on this word in captivity. Its fullest answer — Israel restored for good, freely forgiven — is still to come.
Now, my God, I beseech thee, let thine eyes be open and let thine ears be attentive unto the prayer [that is made] in this place.
Solomon has just finished the long prayer that dedicated the new temple. He has named one disaster after another — defeat, drought, famine, captivity. Now he gathers it all into one closing plea. Will God, whom heaven itself cannot hold, really turn His eyes and ears toward one building and the people praying there?
Earlier in the chapter Solomon asked out loud whether God would really live with people on earth. That question changes the tone of everything he prays next.
He recognises the infinite majesty of God. "But will God really dwell with people on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built." The thought of God's infinite greatness subdues him. From then on his prayer becomes more of a plea.
That raises a problem no argument can settle.
He is infinite, without limits, and omnipresent, present everywhere at all times. We cannot understand the greatness of His being. Nothing can confine Him. Yet in a very real sense He lived in the temple, in the most holy place, though in thick darkness. This is a paradox in which we may rejoice.
So what are the open eyes and attentive ears for? Solomon has one need in mind as he prays for Israel.
Solomon begged God to give attention and care to his prayer for Israel. He asked that God's eyes would be open toward the temple. He realised that when Israel prayed, they would need forgiveness, and he asks God to forgive.
Notice where he expects forgiveness to come from. Not from the splendid building in front of him, but from above it.
Forgiveness belongs to God in His dwelling place, the heaven of heavens, not to the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. The temple and its splendour suited the law and the covenant well. But forgiveness is with God in His dwelling place. That is where Solomon looks. Nothing could be hidden from God's all-searching eye. The words of 2 Chronicles 6:36 — "there is no one who does not sin" — seem to press on his heart, and he prays for forgiveness.
Solomon leans on God's mercies to David, and the answer is not words only.
So Solomon prayed. He asked Jehovah that His eyes should be open and His ears attentive to the prayers offered to Him in that place. He quoted David's petition in Psalm 132, and used His mercies to David as a plea. Then the fire comes down and consumes the burnt offering and the sacrifices. The glory of Jehovah fills the house.
In the next chapter God answers. He repeats Solomon's words and adds one Solomon never asked for.
Nehemiah comes to God and reminds Him of this wonderful promise, asking Him to keep it at that time. The excess seen in 2 Chronicles 7 is delightful. Both Solomon and Nehemiah ask that God's eyes and God's ears be attentive. But God adds to that and says, "My heart." It is a blessing to see that God's eyes and ears are toward His people. His heart is toward them too.
God's reply reaches past Solomon's day.
Not only My eyes and My ears, says the Lord, but also My heart is at this place where the saints are gathered to My Name. This is surely a thought to revive us in these last days.
Centuries later the temple lay in ruins. Daniel still turned his prayers toward Jerusalem.
Was there any divine reason for Daniel to pray toward Jerusalem? There certainly was. God had said to Solomon, about the temple at Jerusalem, "My eyes and My heart will be there always." Jerusalem was God's centre. It was, it is, and ever shall be. True, it was in ruins — the temple was in ruins; but God's word was not in ruins, and here is faith's simple but solid warrant.
Nehemiah leaned on the same promise long after the building was gone.
- Majesty. Solomon asks whether God would live with people on earth at all. That question humbles him, and his prayer turns to pleading.
- Need. Solomon asks for open eyes and attentive ears because the people will sin. The whole prayer turns on their need of forgiveness.
- Source. Forgiveness comes from God in heaven, His dwelling place, not from the building. Grace is sovereign and comes down from above.
- Answer. Fire fell and glory filled the house. God answered in words that added His heart to His eyes and ears.
- Warrant. Daniel and Nehemiah prayed on that promise long after the temple was rubble. The house fell; God's word did not.
And now, arise, Jehovah Elohim, into thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength let thy priests, Jehovah Elohim, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in [thy] goodness.
Solomon has just finished the long prayer that dedicated the temple. He closes it by asking God to move into the finished house, and by asking for two gifts: priests clothed with salvation, and a people glad in God's goodness.
These closing words match a prayer in Psalm 132. One writer explains why such a prayer gets answered.
It is very interesting to see how closely this psalm matches the words of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. Both were taught by the Spirit, and in both alike... there is communion with Jehovah's own desires and purposes. This is the secret of effective prayer. The Lord Himself taught His disciples, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."
Israel already had words for the ark from the days when it still travelled. Solomon asks for something different.
When the people were to journey, Moses said, "Rise up, Jehovah, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You." This was when the ark went before them to search out a resting place for them. When it rested, he said, "Return, O Jehovah, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel." But, when God had up to a certain point given rest to Israel, they did not know how to enjoy it... But the faithfulness of God is lasting. He has now stepped in with grace and power, and the throne stands as the vessel of this power and grace. So another word is given: "Arise, O Jehovah, into Your rest, You and the ark of Your strength" (Psalm 132:8).
Solomon asks God to enter His own rest. That rest shapes what the believer wants too.
Into God's rest we are to enter, when His love will be satisfied and His nature perfectly met through the fruits of it... So it is God's rest and the ark of His strength — a new thing... But then man's, the saint's, rest is only in this: "Surely I will not come into the tent of my house, nor go up to my bed... until I find a place for Jehovah, a dwelling for the mighty God of Jacob." His rest, his heart's rest, could only be in the rest of God perfectly glorified.
That name looks back at what the ark had already done.
The millennial day, foreshadowed in this scene, will indeed be a rest for God and His people, but also for the "ark of His strength." The One in whom God showed His strength is the One who made it possible for Jehovah to enter His rest, the rest that remains for the people of God. The waters fled at the Jordan. The strong walls fell at Jericho. Among the Philistines, the idol Dagon fell and broke. In each place people saw the strength of Jehovah in the ark.
Psalm 132 asks for priests clothed with righteousness. Here the word is salvation — and that is the word God Himself uses when He answers.
So the desire (v. 9) is that Jehovah's priests be clothed with righteousness, like John the Baptist's father. The answer (v. 16) is, I will also clothe her priests with salvation — the full final deliverance of God. The desire is right: righteousness suits them. The answer is from God, and suits Him in the power of His grace.
One writer explains what that clothing secures, and what kind of person the word "saints" points to.
"I will also clothe her priests with salvation" — a security greater than any personal righteousness of man. "And her pious ones" — not holy ones, in the sense of being separate from evil, but godly, with a heart for God — "shall shout." Yes, they shall shout aloud for joy.
One writer reads this closing request as prophecy of a coming day of rest.
But the prophetic prayer of Solomon includes a return and a gathering of all back again to their land. He reaches forward to the millennial day.
- Rest — Moses once asked God to rise and scatter enemies. Now the throne stands, and Solomon asks Him to rise and sit down.
- His rest, not ours — The rest asked for is God's own, where His love is satisfied. Our hearts rest only when He is glorified.
- Strength at rest — The ark is named for the power it carried at the Jordan, at Jericho, and among the Philistines. That strength makes the rest possible.
- Clothing given, not earned — Asking righteousness for the priests is right. God answers with salvation, a greater security than any righteousness of man.
- Joy last — Rest for God, strength proven, priests clothed — and then a people with a heart for God shouting aloud for joy.
Jehovah Elohim, turn not away the face of thine anointed remember mercies to David thy servant.
Solomon has just finished a long prayer at the dedication of the temple. He ends it with words that were not his own — a petition David had already made in Psalm 132. He does not point to his own record, or the nation's. He asks God to look on His Anointed and remember what He promised David. Older translations read "the mercies of David your servant" where the ESV has "your steadfast love for David your servant." The commentators below use that older wording.
These closing words are borrowed. God's answer came at once.
Solomon prayed and asked Jehovah that His eyes would be open and His ears attentive to the prayers offered to Him in that place. He quoted David's petition in Psalm 132, and used His mercies to David as a plea. Then the fire comes down and consumes the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of Jehovah fills the house… The public acceptance of the sacrifice sets the people in public connection with God, and makes them confess that Jehovah is good and that His mercy lasts forever.
Solomon had spent the whole prayer imagining Israel's future sin, defeat and exile. The people had no record to plead. God's promise to David was their only ground.
They and their fathers have failed, but God had made promises to David. Where they could not speak of themselves, they could tell of the promises. David had died, but the promises held good. His children had failed, but God's words could not… How gracious of our God! He did not only plan. He promised His servants, long since dead, what He would do for them and their people. So when failure comes in — and the only right place for the people is to admit it — they can still lay hold of promises.
Who is this anointed one? Grant looks past Solomon to Christ.
Last and most important, he draws attention to the grace of God's Anointed. Christ alone is the Center of blessing for mankind, God's anointed King. He maintains all the interests of believers, and all God's interests too. The closing sentence is precious too: "Remember the mercies of Your servant David." This points to the resurrection of Christ (Acts 13:34). Solomon did not realize what it meant when he spoke.
David died, and his sons failed. So how could anything promised to him be called "sure"?
We must have Christ's resurrection even to get the earthly blessings of Israel. Israel could not have them without death and resurrection. So the sure mercies of David are proof of resurrection. Nothing was sure till that. If they trusted in a living man, all failed.
This plea leans on David, not on the man who prays it. Dennett carries that into Christian prayer.
The believer will enter into this. He knows that God hears his prayers only as they come in and through the One whom David pictures. What power and what perseverance in prayer this should give the Lord's people! They can plead all the infinite acceptability of Christ Himself before God. Yes, He has said, "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." (John 14:14.)
Psalm 132 makes the same request. The reply overshoots it.
The answer (verses 17, 18) is also more. The horn of David is to bud. God ordains a lamp there for Him, and His crown shall flourish on Him. That is, He goes beyond the wish. But note it is "there" — in Zion.
That lamp held through generations of failure.
God says, "I have prepared a lamp for my anointed." Man may fail, as the priests did, but God will not. This promise came up several times in their history, when nothing but God's forbearance and faithfulness could hold off the punishment they deserved: when Solomon had sinned (1 Kings 11:36), when Abijah reigned (1 Kings 15:4), and when Jehoram walked in the ways of Ahab (2 Chronicles 21:7).
The same king who asked God not to turn away His face later turned his own away.
The first idol came after the temple was built and the Lord's name was called on. It appeared in the family of the king — the very man who had prayed so hard that the Lord God would not turn away the face of His anointed… The man who had led the people in the worship of Jehovah is now, in this way, the leader in idolatry.
- Plea — Solomon ends by quoting David's words, asking God to act on a promise rather than on performance.
- Person — "Your anointed" reaches beyond Solomon to Christ. He is the one Center who holds every interest of God and of His people.
- Proof — These mercies are "sure" because they rest on resurrection. Trusting a living man left everything uncertain.
- Promise — The reply in Psalm 132 exceeds the request: a budding horn, a lamp, a flourishing crown.
- Warning — The man who prayed this later brought in the first idol. The plea's strength was never in him.