Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires,
Solomon has just finished his long prayer at the dedication of the temple. Now he asks God to keep those words near, day and night — but on what ground can a king ask God to take up his people's cause?
The man who stands between
At this moment Solomon is doing more than a king's work. Where he stands matters as much as what he says.
J. N. DarbyFor the moment Solomon fully takes the character of priest. He is the one who stands before the LORD, and also between the LORD and the people. As far as his position goes, this is a remarkable picture of what Christ as King will be for Israel in the day of His glory.
A prayer God agreed to keep
The request that his words remain near the Lord is a request that the house become a permanent address for prayer. God said yes.
J. N. DarbyThe king confesses that the highest heaven could not contain the LORD. Even so, he asks Him to grant every prayer that anyone brings to Him in this house. God granted that request (chapter 9:3). So God established the house as the throne of the God of heaven upon earth — the place where He revealed Himself, and where He had put His name.
The word that outlasted the temple
Solomon asks for a hearing day and night. Centuries later Daniel, far from this house, still prayed toward Jerusalem — and one writer asks why.
C. H. MackintoshWas there any divine reason for Daniel to pray toward Jerusalem? There certainly was. First, the LORD 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 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 ground.
Why he dares to ask
Solomon's prayer has already looked ahead to the worst case for Israel. His appeal is not to their record but to what God is.
H. L. RossierThe people are led into captivity because of their 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? They are His people; shall God abandon them? No, if in repentance they turn toward the land, the city, and the house, God will listen to them.
Commentators read the ground of this prayer differently. One writer holds that Solomon stays with God's government and never reaches past it.
William KellyEven he puts it entirely on conditional ground. He does not fall back on unconditional grace. He falls back simply on government. I do not doubt that this was all according to God. It would have been presumptuous, and beyond his measure, to plead unconditional grace. This is only done fully when Christ Himself is seen... For our walk we must acknowledge and bow to the righteous government of the Lord. But for our souls for eternity we dare not have any other foundation than the absolute, sovereign, unconditional grace of God.
The aim is wider than Israel
Solomon offers his own prayer as the reason God should act. What he asks for has a wider audience than Israel.
H. L. RossierHe presents his own words of intercession as a reason for God to bless His people. The result of this blessing should be "that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other" (v. 60). This will be realised in Christ's millennial reign. All this history, as we have so often remarked, is directing us toward it.
The intercessor Solomon points to
Solomon asks God to maintain the cause of "His servant." An older translation reads "maintain the right of His servant." That title does not stop with Solomon.
H. L. RossierAnd this Solomon himself is only a weak picture of the true King, the true Servant of the Lord. Christ's intercession causes God to receive this people again. He will restore them for the glory of Him who made the promises and for the glory of His Beloved. So the future restoration of the people depends on the presence of God's righteous Servant before Him, and on the fact that God cannot deny His character of grace, shown long before the law.
Summary
- Standing. Solomon prays as king and priest at once. He stands before God, and between God and the people — the position Christ will hold for Israel in glory.
- Staying. He asked that his words stay near the LORD. God granted it, and the house became the place where His name and His attention rested.
- Sustaining. God's word stood even when the building did not. So Daniel could still pray toward the ruined city on solid ground.
- Spreading. God maintains the cause day by day with a public purpose: that every people on earth may know the LORD is God and there is no other.
- Securing. Solomon's plea rests on the grace that brought Israel out of Egypt. One writer notes it still never leaves the ground of government. The servant whose prayer secures the people at last is Christ.