Solomon Petitions God For His People
June 20, 2021
Commentary
In this whole prayer (vv. 23-53) Solomon called on God, who had been faithful to His promises in the past, to continue to be faithful to his people in the future. Solomon prayed for needs with confidence that those who sinned, were defeated, and those who had need would bring their cares to the Temple. He also acknowledged that the care of Israel was God’s responsibility: “They are Thy people and Thine inheritance which Thou has brought forth from Egypt” (1:51). The only thing that would result in God hearing His people’s prayers was the confession and forsaking of sin.
When Israel first entered the promised land they were ordered to clear out the wicked nations and thus many wars followed. However, we should not conclude that this was Israel’s ultimate goal. Instead, after subduing these evil people Israel was to become a light to the surrounding nations. Unfortunately, Israel’s own sin and spiritual blindness prevented them from reaching out to the rest of the world with God’s love.
Now we find Solomon interceding on behalf of non-Israelites who would trust in God and pray to Him (vv. 41-43). The Temple was to be the worship site for all God-fearing foreigners just as Moses had allowed foreigners to bring their offerings to the tabernacle (Num. 15:14).
Application
Even though I am in the senior years of my life I am running to win and have a goal of finishing well for the Lord by finishing my devotional commentary on the whole Bible.
Philippians 3:7– 14 (NET)
7 But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ. 8 More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things —indeed, I regard them as dung! —that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness —a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. 10 My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 14 with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Illustration:
A heart-broken little girl began to kneel and pour out her heart to God in the altar at her local church. She did not know what to say. As she wept speechless, she began to remember what her Father had told her, “God knows your needs even before you pray, and he can answer when you don’t even know for what to ask.” So she began to say her alphabet. A concerned adult from that church knelt beside her and heard her sobbing and saying her ABC’s and inquired what exactly she was trying to do. The little girl told this caring adult, “I’m praying to God from my heart.” But the adult answered, “It sounds to me more like your are saying the alphabet!” “Yes,” she said, “But God knows more about what I need than I do, and he can take all these letters and arrange them in just the right way to hear and answer my prayers!” (Toby Powers – Sermon Central)