1 KINGS 8:22-24; 27-30
THE KING’S PRAYER TO THE GREAT GOD
ON A GREAT DAY

It’s a remark that I have been hearing for years from parents of adult children. They sometimes wonder where they went wrong. They go to spend a weekend with their children and they end up being the only ones attending church. They may be able to round up a grandchild or too, but Mom & Dad, the grand-children’s parents, seem to have a “take it or leave it” attitude about attending worship.

Every church has this problem, and it’s not just with under 40 generation. Every church has people who have fuzzy ideas about worship, ideas that need to be strained through the filter of God’s Word. Come back with me to a scene about 3,000 years ago, on one of the greatest days in Israel’s history, to see what we can learn about the importance of worship for us today.

I invite you to join me in thinking about
THE KING’S PRAYER TO THE GREAT GOD ON A GREAT DAY

First, notice that Solomon himself gave this prayer. Solomon was the King, but he was a Layman. His example reminds us just how very important lay people are in Christ’s church. God had answered the prayer Solomon gave when he assumed the throne of Israel. Remember what he prayed? O Lord, my God, you have made your servant King in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Give your servant a heart of wisdom to govern your people and to distinguish right from wrong.

Did you catch that? Solomon had an attitude of humility. He knew he would stumble if he didn’t have a lot of help. That attitude is missing in many people today. They think they can get along just fine without guidance, even God’s guidance. As far as they’re concerned, God didn’t know what he was talking about when he told us “we should keep the day of rest holy and that we should not despise preaching and his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”

Solomon had the right attitude. We are told: The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. …I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you not asked for–both riches and honor so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands, as David your Father did, I will give you a long life. Notice that so many of our missing friends are chasing after the good things of life. Solomon wanted wisdom, God’s Wisdom, and he got it and then some. The pastor of my home church in southeast Wisconsin is working in a changing neighborhood. Located less than 45 miles from many a Milwaukee suburban factory and business, he is finding that the area’s rolling hills are attracting people who wish to build beautiful homes on these hilltops. Judging from the size of the homes, they must make pretty good money and work pretty hard to make it. He tells me that many of these folks are not the least bit interested in the church; they’re tired out pursuing the good life, here and now. Jesus said that this attitude leads to trouble. We are told about the rich fool’s thinking in Luke 12: 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”‘ The result? Disaster! 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Look at the first paragraph and see where this prayer takes place–before the altar. The people of Israel knew that they had the favor of God only due to the fact that God himself would send the sacrifice for sin. Their father Abraham had tool Isaac: God will provide the Lamb for the offering.

When the prayer ended, a lot of sacrificial blood would flow. 22,000 cattle were sacrificed and 120,000 sheep and goats.

The point? The people of ancient Israel wouldn’t have had the gall to approach God without a sacrifice. So many today present themselves just as they are, covered with sin and with no one to intercede for them. That is spiritual suicide. That mocks God’s gift of a Savior by saying: No thanks. I can get along on my own. I’ll take my chances. That won’t work. We need a Savior. We need a Mediator, the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus, God’s Son, who offered himself up once for all as the bloody sacrifice for human sin.

Look at the 2nd paragraph of the text with me now: 27 “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 28 Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. 29 May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. 30 Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

Notice that Solomon prays for God’s mercy. The word he uses is quite picturesque–he prays for God to be gracious, to be compassionate, to bend or stoop in kindness…

Solomon in all of his greatness, even when seated on his ivory throne, never looked better than he did standing here before God’s altar, praying for mercy. This was a man who knew his place as a servant of the great and glorious God. How richly God answered Solomon’s prayer for mercy when Jesus came here in love and compassion to be our Savior. This compassion of God is the only hope for sinners, your only hope and mine too. In a part of the prayer not printed for you on the text sheet, Solomon confessed his sins and the sins of the people. Listen: 1 Kings 8:33 your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, 34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their fathers. 35 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, 36 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.

37 “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, 38 and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel–each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart, and spreading out his hands toward this temple–39 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men)…

Payment in full for the world’s sin is still 1,000 years in the future as Solomon prays in this new Temple. But in God’s mind, it is as good as done, so faithful are his promises and so great is His mercy. Now notice how Solomon prays for the Gentiles, for you and me as well. Look at the last paragraph with me now:

41 “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name–

42 for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm–when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

Solomon prayed earlier: 29 May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. That’s exactly what we pray for and what God promises to do for us in that ancient blessing we hear so often here in this house of worship: May the Lord lift his countenance upon you. That means that God is watching over his people, taking care of them and comforting them in times of trouble, uncertainty, illness, grief or sorrow. How many times hasn’t the name of God been used within these walls to comfort the grieving with the blessed good news of the name of God’s Son. Jesus, whose very name means Savior, said: I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Solomon prays that God’s name will be there. That’s exactly what happens when we begin our worship In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The occasion, the prayer, the many sacrifices, the joy of God’s people on Temple Dedication Day–these are pictures of the joy we are to have in the Lord. So don’t be afraid to speak up when you know of someone who doesn’t value worship very much. If not you, who? If not now, when? If you’re within the sound of my voice and don’t think it’s important to be with God’s people on the Lord’s Day, please remember: Worship is the highest and noblest act that any person can do. When men worship, God is satisfied! And when you worship, you are fulfilled! Think about this: why did Jesus Christ come? He came to make worshipers out of rebels. We who were once self-centered have to be completely changed so that we can shift our attention outside of ourselves and become able to worship him.

Raymond C. Ortlund

Chuck Swindoll writes:
What comes from the Lord because it is impossible for humans to manufacture it? Wisdom. What comes from humans because it is impossible for the Lord to experience it? Worry. And what is it that brings wisdom and dispels worry? Worship.

Worship isn’t listening to a sermon, appreciating the harmony of the choir, and joining in singing hymns! It isn’t even prayer, for prayer can be the selfish expression of an unbroken spirit. Worship goes deeper. Since God is spirit, we fellowship with him with our spirit; that is, the immortal and invisible part of us meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.

Brothers and sisters, think about these things in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Wayne Dobratz (reproduced with permission).