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In Christ, Mark
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Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward Heaven, and said:
"O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in Heaven above or on earth below — You who keep Your covenant of love with Your servants who continue wholeheartedly in Your way. You have kept Your promise to Your servant David, my father; with Your mouth You have promised and with Your hand You have fulfilled it — as it is today.”
"Now Lord, God of Israel, keep for Your servant David, my father, the promises You made to him when You said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before Me as you have done.' And now, O God of Israel, let Your word that You promised Your servant David, my father, come true.”
1 Kings 8:22-26
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In yesterday’s message from the scriptures found between 1 Kings, chapter 5 and the middle of chapter 8, we read about all the work that was invested to build God’s holy temple…a temple that the Lord had willed for Solomon to build back when his father David was king.
So what did Solomon do after the temple construction was finished?
We find the answer in today’s passage as we continue looking at chapter 8 for the scriptures tell us that “Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel” before spreading “out his hands toward Heaven” and proclaiming:
"O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in Heaven above or on earth below — You who keep Your covenant of love with Your servants who continue wholeheartedly in Your way. You have kept Your promise to Your servant David, my father; with Your mouth You have promised and with Your hand You have fulfilled it — as it is today.”
"Now Lord, God of Israel, keep for Your servant David, my father, the promises You made to him when You said, 'You shall never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk before Me as you have done.' And now, O God of Israel, let Your word that You promised Your servant David, my father, come true.”
These two paragraphs serve as the opening of Solomon’s prayer of dedication…the dedication of the temple to the Lord expressed in words punctuated with honor, glory, and praise for the God of Israel. Through Solomon’s proclamation, the Lord provides believers today with instruction through His Word as to how they’re to respond when taking time to dedicate our reverence and thanksgiving to Him for what He has done in our lives. Here are the steps Christians should take to that end:
First, we need to note Solomon’s initial actions for we read where he “stood before the altar…in front of the whole assembly of Israel.”
Here, we learn that Solomon didn’t come before the Lord in private to praise Him for all He had done in making the temple building project such a success. If he had done it that way, what would benefit would it have been to the people he was anointed and appointed to lead?
There was great benefit in dedicating the temple before the Israelite people in whole, publicly exclaiming gratitude to the God while lifting up His holy name and celebrating His goodness, grace, and providence. As we worship in our churches every week, let us model this open, collective form of adoration as we come to the altar of the Lord ourselves.
Next, we need to see that Solomon, while at the altar of the Lord and before the assembly of Israel, “spread out his hands toward Heaven”…lifting them up to the God who he recognized as sending good and perfect blessings down from the heavenly realm in abundance (James 1:17). Later, the Apostle Paul would exalt believers to lift up holy hands in prayer as he wrote to his young protégé Timothy (1 Timothy 2:8), emulating what we see Solomon doing in today’s passage.
As we come before the Lord in worship today, we too should lift up our hands to Him in respect and acknowledgement of His almighty, infinite power and might, adopting a full understanding that we rely upon Him in order to make it through this thing called life. We should never allow ourselves to feel uncomfortable to raise up our hands in the assembly of fellow believers because as we can see, it is very biblically appropriate to do so.
And this leads to the final step we see in Solomon’s prayerful opening to his temple dedication as he proclaimed the reasons why he was worshiping and praising God in the company of his fellow Israelites. This begins with Israel’s king emphasizing the distinct sovereignty of the Lord with these words:
“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in Heaven above or on earth below”.
Indeed, then and now, God ruled and reigned supreme as the Maker and Master of all created things. He had (and still has) no equal or rival and He will forever be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Then, look at what Solomon pivots to after he praises God for His omnipotence?
For we see him place the focus of his prayer of dedication on God’s love, testifying how the Lord had kept His “covenant of love” with His servants who had continued wholeheartedly to walk in His way.
The good news for believers in these present days is that He still maintains a covenant of love with them…not through the old covenant established with Abraham but rather through the new covenant sealed by the shed blood of Jesus, God’s one and only Son. He (Jesus), the Savior of the world, was sent from Heaven to earth to bear the sins of the world and save sinners who believed in Him out of nothing but pure love and grace before leaving His burial tomb on the third day by way of His Father’s resurrection power so that His disciples could one day join Him in everlasting life (John 3:16).
In today’s scriptures, we see Solomon declare God’s solitary dominion and covenant love to the assembly of Israelites but there was one more thing we need to add before we close today. For we see Israel’s king taking the time to praise the Lord for keeping His promise to David, Solomon’s father and predecessor on the throne. By fulfilling the words of His mouth with the works of His hands, God had made Solomon king, making good on His word to continue keeping men in the line of David on Israel’s throne as long as they would be “careful in all they do to walk before” Him as David had done.
Friends, today we get to serve the same Lord that Solomon and the people of Israel worshiped nearly three thousand years ago…a Lord who is still exclusively supreme and mighty…a Lord who still loves His children unconditionally…a Lord who never fails to keep the covenant promises that He has made.
My prayer, not just today but every day, is that we Christians…God’s people…would never feel ashamed to come into any assembly of gathered believers to proclaim God’s greatness and goodness with hands and voices lifted high in praise. For there is no God like our God…not in the Heaven above or the earth below...and to Him alone, we owe all our honor, glory, and praise…now and forever more.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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