1Then Solomon spoke: Jehovah has said He would dwell in the dark cloud. 2I have built You an exalted house, and a place for You to dwell always. 3And the king turned his face and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. 4And he said: Blessed is Jehovah the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His hands what He has spoken with His mouth to my father David, saying, 5Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, nor have I chosen any man to be a ruler over My people Israel. 6Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there; and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel. 7Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel. 8But Jehovah said to my father David, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well in that it was in your heart. 9Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who will come from your loins, he shall build the house for My name. 10Thus Jehovah has fulfilled His word which He has spoken, and I have risen up in place of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah has spoken; and I have built the house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel. 11And there I have put the ark, in which is the covenant of Jehovah which He has made with the children of Israel. 12And Solomon stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands 13(for Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward Heaven), 14and he said: O Jehovah, God of Israel, there is no God in the heavens or on earth like You, keeping Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. 15You have kept what You have spoken to Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. 16Therefore, O Jehovah, God of Israel, now keep what You have spoken to Your servant David my father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man sitting before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, to walk in My Law as you have walked before Me. 17And now, O Jehovah, God of Israel, let Your Word be established, which You have spoken to Your servant David. 18But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the Heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this house which I have built. 19Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Jehovah my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: 20that Your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place where You have spoken to put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant prays toward this place. 21And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from Heaven Your dwelling place, and when You have heard, forgive. 22If anyone sins against his neighbor, and has been required to swear an oath, and has come with an oath before Your altar in this house, 23then hear from Heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, to bring retribution on the wicked to bring his way upon his own head, and to justify the righteous to give him according to his righteousness. 24Or if Your people Israel are struck down before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and have returned and confessed Your name, and prayed and made supplication before You in this house, 25then hear from Heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You have given to them and their fathers. 26When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they have prayed toward this place and confessed Your name, and turned from their sin because You afflicted them, 27then hear in Heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. 28When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever the plague or whatever the sickness; 29whatever prayer or supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own plague and his own grief, and has spread out his hands to this house: 30then hear from Heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone have known the hearts of the sons of men), 31that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways all the days they live on the face of the land which You have given to our fathers. 32Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but who has come from a distant land because of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they have come and prayed in this house; 33then hear from Heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name. 34When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they have prayed to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name, 35then hear from Heaven their prayer and their supplication, and do what is fitting. 36When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You have become angry with them and delivered them to the enemy, and they have taken them captive to a land far or near; 37yet when they have returned in their hearts in the land where they have been carried captive, and have turned back, and sought Your favor in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have acted wickedly; 38and when they have returned to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and prayed toward their land which You have given to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for Your name: 39then hear from Heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and bring about justice, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. 40Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer of this place. 41Now therefore, Arise, O Jehovah God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O Jehovah God, be clothed with salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in goodness. 42O Jehovah God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember the faithfulness of Your servant David.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 It is of great consequence, in all our religious actions, that we design well, and that our eye be single. If Solomon had built this temple in the pride of his heart, as Ahasuerus made his feast, only to
show the riches of his kingdom and the honour of his majesty, it would not have turned at all to his account. But here he declares upon what inducements he undertook it, and they are such as not only justify, but magnify, the undertaking. 1. He did it for the glory and honour of God; this was his highest and ultimate end in it. It was
for the name of the Lord God of Israel (
2Chr 6:10), to be
a house of habitation for him, 2Chr 6:2. He has indeed, as to us,
made darkness his pavilion (
2Chr 6:1), but let this house be the residence of that darkness; for it is in the upper world that he dwells in light, such as no eye can approach. 2. He did it in compliance with the choice God had been pleased to make of Jerusalem, to be the city in which he would record his name (
2Chr 6:6):
I have chosen Jerusalem. A great many stately buildings there were in Jerusalem for the king, his princes, and the royal family. If God chooses that place, it is fit that there be a building for him which may excel all the rest. If men were thus honoured there, let God be thus honoured. 3. He did it in pursuance of his father's good intentions, which he never had an opportunity to put into execution:
It was in the heart of David my father to build a house for God; the project was his, be it known, to his honour (
2Chr 6:7), and God approved of it, though he permitted him not to put it in execution (
2Chr 6:8),
Thou didst well that it was in thy heart. Temple-work is often thus done; one sows and another reaps (
John 4:37,
John 4:38), one age begins that which the next brings to perfection. And let not the wisest of men think it any disparagement to them to pursue the good designs which those that went before them have laid, and to build upon their foundation. Every good piece is not an original. 4. He did it in performance of the word which God had spoken. God had said,
Thy son shall build the house for my name; and now he had done it,
2Chr 6:9,
2Chr 6:10. The service was appointed him, and the honour of it designed him, by the divine promise; so that he did not do it of his own head, but was called of God to do it. It is fit that he who appoints the work should have the appointing of the workmen; and those may go on in their work with great satisfaction who see their call to it clear.
12 Solomon had, in the foregoing verses, signed and sealed, as it were, the deed of dedication, by which the temple was appropriated to the honour and service of God. Now here he prays the consecration-prayer, by which it was made a figure of Christ, the great Mediator, through whom we are to offer all our prayers, and to expect all God's favours, and to whom we are to have an eye in every thing where we have to do with God. We have opened the particulars of this prayer (1 Kings 8) and therefore shall now only glean up some few passages in it which may be the proper subjects of our meditation.
I. Here are some doctrinal truths occasionally laid down. As, 1. That the God of Israel is a being of incomparable perfection. We cannot describe him; but this we know, there is
none like him in heaven or in earth, 2Chr 6:14. All the creatures have their fellow-creatures, but the Creator has not his peer. He is infinitely above all, and
over all, God blessed for ever. 2. That he is, and will be, true to every word that he has spoken; and all that serve him in sincerity shall certainly find him both faithful and kind. Those that set God always before them, and
walk before him with all their hearts, shall find him as good as his word and better; he will both keep covenant with them and show mercy to them,
2Chr 6:14. 3. That he is a being infinite and immense, whom the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain, and to whose felicity nothing is added by the utmost we can do in his service,
2Chr 6:18. He is infinitely beyond the bounds of the creation and infinitely above the praises of all intelligent creatures. 4. That he, and
he only, knows the hearts of the children of men, 2Chr 6:30. All men's thoughts, aims, and affections, are naked and open before him; and, however the imaginations and intents of our hearts may be concealed from men, angels, and devils, they cannot be hidden from God, who knows not only what is in the heart, but the heart itself and all the beatings of it. 5. That there is no such thing as a sinless perfection to be found in this life (
2Chr 6:36):
There is no man who sinneth not; nay, who
doeth good and sinneth not; so he writes, agreeable to what he here says,
Qoh 7:20.
II. Here are some suppositions or cases put which are to be taken notice of. 1. He supposed that if doubts and controversies arose between man and man both sides would agree to appeal to God, and lay an oath upon the person whose testimony must decide the matter,
2Chr 6:22. The religious reverence of an oath, as it was ancient, so, it may be presumed, it will continue as long as there are any remains of conscience and right reason among men. 2. He supposed that, though Israel enjoyed a profound peace and tranquillity, yet troublesome times would come. He did not think the mountain of their prosperity stood so strong but that it might be moved; nay, he expected sin would move it. 3. He supposed that those who had not called upon God at other times, yet, in their affliction, would seek him early and earnestly. When they are in distress they will confess their sins, and confess thy name, and make supplication to thee. Trouble will drive those to God who have said to him, Depart,
2Chr 6:24,
2Chr 6:26,
2Chr 6:28. 4. He supposed that strangers would come from afar to worship the God of Israel and to pay homage to him; and this also might reasonably be expected, considering what worthless things the gods of the nations were, and what proofs the God of Israel had given of his being Lord of the whole earth.
III. Here are petitions very pertinent. 1. That God would own this house, and have an eye to it, as the place of which he had said that he would put his name there,
2Chr 6:20. He could not, in faith, have asked God to show such peculiar favour to this house above any other if he himself had not said that it should be his rest for ever. The prayer that will speed must be warranted by the word. We may with humble confidence pray to God to be well pleased with us in Jesus Christ, because he had declared himself well pleased in him -
This is my beloved Son; but he says not now of any house, This is my beloved place. 2. That God would hear and accept the prayers which should be made in or towards that place,
2Chr 6:21. He asked not that God should help them whether they prayed for themselves or no, but that God would help them in answer to their prayers. Even Christ's intercessions do not supersede but encourage our supplications. He prayed that God would hear from his dwelling-place, even from heaven. Heaven in his dwelling-place still, not this temple; and thence help must come.
When thou hearest forgive. Note, The forgiveness of our sins is that which makes way for all the other answers to our prayers,
Removendo prohibens -
The evil which it drives away it keeps away. 3. That God would give judgment according to equity upon all the appeals that should be made to him,
2Chr 6:23,
2Chr 6:30. This we may, in faith, pray for, for we are sure it shall be done. God sitteth on the throne judging right. 4. That God would return in mercy to his people when they repented, and reformed, and sought unto him,
2Chr 6:25,
2Chr 6:27,
2Chr 6:38,
2Chr 6:39. This we also may, in faith, pray for, building upon the repeated declarations God has made of his readiness to accepts penitents. 5. That God would bid the strangers welcome to this house, and answer their prayers (
2Chr 6:33); for, if there be in duty, why should there not be in privilege one law for the stranger and for one born in the land?
Lev 24:22. 6. That God would, upon all occasions, own and plead the cause of his people Israel, against all the opposers of it (
2Chr 6:35):
Maintain their cause; and again,
2Chr 6:39. If they be the Israel of God, their cause is the cause of God, and he would espouse it. 7. He concludes this prayer with some expressions which he had learned of his good father, and borrowed from one of his psalms. We had then not in the Kings, but here we have them,
2Chr 6:41,
2Chr 6:42. The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; and how can we express ourselves in better language to God than that of his own Spirit? But these words were of use, in a special manner, to direct Solomon, because they had reference to this very work that he was now doing. We have them,
Pss 132:8-
Pss 132:10. He prayer (
2Chr 6:41), (1.) That God would take possession of the temple, and keep possession, that he would make it his resting-place:
Thou and the ark; what will the ark do without the God of the ark-ordinances without the God of the ordinances? (2.) That he would make the ministers of the temple public blessings:
Clothe them with salvation, that is, not only save them, but make them instrumental to save others, by offering the sacrifices of righteousness. (3.) That the service of the temple might turn abundantly to the joy and satisfaction of all the Lord's people:
Let thy saints rejoice in goodness, that is, in the
goodness of thy house, Pss 65:4. Let all that come hither to worship, like the eunuch, go away rejoicing. He pleads two things,
2Chr 6:42. [1.] His own relation to God:
Turn not away the face of thy anointed. Lord, thou hast appointed me to be king, and wilt not thou own me? [2.] God's covenant with his father:
Remember thy mercies of David thy servant - the
piety of David towards God (so some understand it and so the word sometimes signifies), his pious care of the ark, and concern for it (see
Pss 132:1,
Pss 132:2, etc.), or the
promises of God to David, which were mercies to him, his great support and comforts in all his troubles. We may plead, as Solomon does here, with an eye to Christ: - We deserve that God should turn away our face, that he should reject us and our prayers; but we come in the name of the Lord Jesus,
thy anointed, thy Messiah (so the word is),
thy Christ, so the lxx. Him thou hearest always, and wilt never
turn away his face. We have no righteousness of our own to plead, but, Lord,
remember the mercies of David thy servant. Christ is God's servant (
Isa 42:1), and is called
David, Hos 3:5. Lord, remember his mercies, and accept us on the account of them. Remember his tender concern for his Father's honour and man's salvation, and what he did and suffered from that principle. Remember the promises of the everlasting covenant, which free grace has made to us in Christ, and which are called
the sure mercies of David, Isa 55:3 and
Acts 13:34. This must be all our desire and all our hope, all our prayer and all our plea; for it is all our salvation.
