Andreas Tennert

We find king Solomons prayer of dedication in 1 Kings 8:23-53. I will use the NASB1995 bible for this article. Who or what is actually dedicated? Firstly, the temple was dedicated to be the place at which people could come to God, the place for their spiritual cleansing and their worship. Secondly, it’s the re-dedication of God’s people, the Israelites, to be His servants. Let’s look at the structure first. To my understanding, this prayer has eight parts:

• verses 23-27: adoration, reference and calling on to God’s promise,
• verses 28-30: appealing to listen to Solomons and the peoples prayer,
• verses 31-32: asking for justice,
• verses 33-40: asking for forgiveness when the people repent during the challenges that God would confront them with in there sin,
• verses 41-43: for other nations to be heard for His glory when they turn to Him,
• verses 44-45: asking for people to be heard when in battle,
• verses 46-52: asking for forgiveness and compassion when people repent in exile and
• vers 53: acknowledging their identity in the Lord.

Now, what can we learn from this prayer and why is it relevant to us?

The prayer begins with “O Lord, the God of Israel” and ends with “O Lord God”. Ultimately, the focus in our prayer should be God. He is the beginning and the end. As Jesus says in Revelation: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” He is the all powerful, all knowing and omnipresent God. That is His identity that we should have in mind when we approach Him. While Solomon had the temple built as a meeting point for the people and God, he was very well aware that no house can contain God, that he is so much greater, as we can read in verse 27:

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!

And yet, God is not a distant God. He cares for His creation and therefor we can come to Him in supplication as Solomon does. And what a supplication it is … The largest part of the prayer – half of it, combining verses 33-40 and 46-52 – is about repentance from sin. That is the second major part that we need to be aware of, our sin. Solomon says:

“When they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin)”

I feel like Paul references this in Romans 3:23, when he writes “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. We are God’s creation who turned away from Him, following our own desires. As a result, we have to live with the consequences. In the old testament the consequences are clearly given to God’s selected people. In Deuteronomy, we can find next to the blessings, when the people follow the Lord, all the curses, when they fall away from Him. God will be rightfully angry. He promises to discipline His people, in order to turn their hearts back to Him. In Solomons prayer we find him addressing the disciplinary measures. From being defeated by enemies, via natural calamities to exile, he prays in God’s intention that when God’s people turn back to Him, He will listen and forgive and care for them.

Ok, but what does this have to do with those of us who are gentile Christians? Well, the answer is in Solomons prayer as well. In verses 41-43, he intercedes for people from other nations. He asks that God would listen to them as well, when they turn their hearts to Him, so that they would be ambassadors for God in their countries, proclaiming His works in their lives and thereby proclaiming His glory. And of course, all of us are also God’s creation and have fallen away from Him at one point or another.

Here is the wonderful thing, close to 1000 years after Solomons prayer, God answered this prayer in a much bigger way then Solomon asked for, by sending His own son Jesus into the world to die for the sins of not only His people Israel, but all people. As Paul writes in the letter to the Romans:

being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

Then Jesus rose again from the grave to take the throne in heaven, giving us the guarantee that we could find forgiveness through Him and wouldn’t only be foreigners, but could become God’s adopted children as well and much more. All we need to do is believe. If we do and follow Him, we are part of God’s family, and He will forgive our sins when we repent and turn our hearts to Him. As Solomon asked, we will start to see His works in our lives, most importantly the transformation of our lives and when we do, it is Him and these works that we should proclaim.

With that, I encourage you to take some time to read Solomons prayer of dedication, let it work in your heart and mind and deepen your prayer life and relationship with the Lord.