Solomon’s Prayer Of Dedication

I Kings 8:22-53

“And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven: And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart: Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. 

Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.  And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.” (I Kings 8:22-26)

Solomon starts out by acknowledging who God is and thanking him for keeping his promises.  He continues by asking him to keep on fulfilling those promises.

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?  Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day: That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.” (I Kings 8:27-29) 

Solomon acknowledges that what they have built, while the best they are capable of in no way meets God’s requirements.  In spite of the shortcomings, he asks that God will take int account their desires to please him and heed their prayers.

“And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.  If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.” (I Kings 8:30-32)

Solomon prayed for God to grant individual forgiveness  when people had sinned against one another, in matters such as keeping a promise.  He did not ask him to allow the guilty to go unpunished but that there be justice in each case.

“When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. 

When heaven is 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, when thou afflictest them: Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. 

If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)  That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.” (I Kings 8:33-40)

Solomon recognized the ease with which people forget God, and he would find it necessary to send judgment on them, perhaps in the form of military defeat for minor turning away, or famine an drought for more severe and prolonged turning away.  In extreme cases he might even take their land away from them.   Solomon prayed that when such things happened, if they turned back to him, God would remember his promise, he would forgive and restore them, teaching them to do what was right, and punishing those who would not.

“Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake; (For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house; Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.” (I Kings 8:41-43)

Solomon prayed that God would not just answer the prayers of Jews, but of anyone who came to the temple to pray, that they might all know God, and recognize his power.

“If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name: Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.” (I Kings 8:44-45)

He prayed that when Israel went into battle, if they would make God’s house the center of their worship, God would answer their prayers and give the victory.

“If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name: Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them: For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron: That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.” (I Kings 8:46-52)

Thanks to the sin nature we inherited from Adam, sin is inevitable, despite our best efforts.  Solomon prayed that when God’s people sinned, even so badly as to lose their land, that if they realized their sin, and stopped it, acknowledging it was wrong, and asking forgiveness, that God would grant forgiveness, and cause the people who had conquered them to have compassion because they were God’s people that he brought out of Egypt.

“For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.” (I Kings 8:53)

By taking Israel out of Egypt and making a covenant with them, God had committed to care for them and do these things, and Solomon was just asking that he continue to keep that promise.