Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day,
Solomon has just praised a God whom the highest heavens cannot hold. In the same breath, he asks that God to listen to one man praying in front of an altar. Why would the infinite God pay attention to "the prayer of your servant"? And what gives a king the right to ask?
From greatness to a plea
Verse 28 begins with a "yet". The verse before it has just said that no house can hold God. One writer, reading the same prayer in 2 Chronicles 6, shows what that thought does to Solomon's tone:
The Bible TreasuryHe 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 the infinite greatness of God subdues him, and from here on his prayer becomes more of a supplication.
The king who stands as intercessor
Solomon is not praying as a private man. He stands in front of the whole nation, and the role he takes up there is not a king's:
H. L. RossierHere Solomon really fills the role of priest. He stands before the altar, facing all the congregation of Israel. There he stretches out his hands toward heaven, taking the character of intercessor. He is truly, as we have said, a picture of Melchizedek, king of righteousness and king of peace.
Melchizedek was the king and priest who met Abraham in Genesis. Solomon holds the same two offices here: he rules the nation, and he pleads for it.
"Your servant" — praying for others
Solomon does not pray only for himself. He speaks for a whole nation:
Leslie M. GrantSolomon pleads with God to pay attention to his prayer and supplication. He speaks especially for Israel, whose interests centred on the temple in Jerusalem (v. 28). That is the place where God had said He would put His name (v. 29).
He also senses what he and the people will need once God hears:
H. L. RossierSolomon knows these things. So he asks God to put His name there — the name that to faith stands for His very person. He asks God to hear from His dwelling place in heaven: 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."
Heard in heaven, not in the building
Solomon wants an answer, but he looks past the house he has just built:
The Bible TreasuryForgiveness is linked with God in His dwelling place, the highest heaven, and not with the house. For grace is sovereign and has its source in God dwelling in the heavens. The temple and its splendour were well suited for the law and the covenant, but forgiveness is with God in His dwelling place. That is where Solomon looks... He did not know, as we do, how that mercy is secured, and indeed abounds, through the cross of Christ.
The house as a door to heaven
Solomon asks the same thing again and again. One writer counts the requests in the matching prayer of 2 Chronicles 6:
Hamilton SmithThen 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 prayer toward this place may be heard in heaven. The house becomes the gate of access to heaven (vv. 21-40).
More than Solomon asked for
Solomon asked for God's ear. When God replied, He named something Solomon had not asked for:
Michael VogelsangEven Solomon, the king, had the desire that God would look at this place: "Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place" (2 Chr. 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 Chr. 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.
Summary
- Greatness first. Solomon prays only after admitting that the highest heaven cannot hold God. That greatness turns his asking into a plea, not a claim.
- Servant, not sovereign. He prays as God's servant, standing in for a nation — priest and intercessor, with hands stretched toward heaven.
- The name is the ground. The house matters because God put His name there, and that name stands for His own person.
- Heaven is the source. God hears from His dwelling place, not from the building. Forgiveness is sovereign grace, and commentators tie that mercy to the cross of Christ.
- The answer went beyond the ask. Solomon asked for open eyes and attentive ears. God promised eyes, ears, and His heart there for all time.