"Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the whole assembly of Israel." (1 Kings 8:22a) 2 Chronicles 6:13 adds this information: "Now he had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had placed it in the outer court. He stood on the platform and then knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven." He ascends a platform, about 4.5 feet high, which was constructed for this occasion. Then he kneels on the platform and raises his hands to heaven.
He said: "Lord, the 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 this day." (1 Kings 8:23-24, 2 Chronicles 6:14-15) Solomon testifies to the greatness of God and thanks Him for making a beautiful promise and fulfilling it. He gives the Lord the credit for his own kingship and for the temple. Though much expense and labor has gone into the building of the temple, if the Lord had not given prosperity and peace to Israel and if He had not blessed the workers with the health and strength to perform their work, the temple would not have been possible. The same can be said about any successes you or I may experience in this life: the successes may have taken hard work and mental effort on our part, but if the Lord had not given us able bodies and healthy minds, the success would not have been accomplished. We couldn't take our next breath without the Lord, much less do anything else.
"Now Lord, the 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 successor to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants are careful in all they do to walk before Me faithfully as you have done.' And now, God of Israel, let Your word that You promised Your servant David my father come true." (1 Kings 8:25-26, 2 Chronicles 6:16-17) Solomon says, "You promised that I would succeed my father as king and build the temple. You've kept that promise. Now please also keep the promise that a man of the line of David will always sit on the throne of Israel."
The promise that Solomon would succeed David and that Solomon would build the temple does not appear to have any conditions placed upon it. But the promise that David would never fail to have a descendant on the throne of Israel does have a condition on it---David's descendants must be faithful to the Lord. Solomon himself will not be as faithful to the Lord as David was. Only three chapters from now we'll learn that his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord because he took so many foreign wives (who did not convert to the God of Israel) that he was drawn by them into dabbling in idolatry. Solomon's son Rehoboam will succeed him as king but will be a man without a heart for the people and will sit on the throne of a united Israel for only a short time before the ten northern kingdoms secede from the union. The kingdom will split in two in his day, leaving Rehoboam king only over Judah and Benjamin. From that time forward, the descendants of David will reign only over Judah and Benjamin (known as the kingdom of Judah) while men not of David's family line will reign over the kingdom of Israel.
But there is an aspect of the Lord's promise regarding the descendants of David that will be fulfilled regardless of the fact that not all of David's descendants were faithful to the Lord. Although there is no throne in Israel right now and no descendant of David's reigning from it, this does not mean that the Lord will not bring the Promised One from David's line. The throne and the kings were removed for a season---for a very long season of several thousand years so far---due to a widescale fall into idolatry, which we'll study as we move on through the Old Testament. But there will again be a throne in Israel and there will again be a king---the King of kings---reigning from it. He will reign not only over Israel but over the whole world forever. This is a part of the Lord's promise that is not conditional. No one from the royal family of Israel has reigned as king for a long time due to the sin and idolatry that will occur later in the Bible, but at the appointed time (known only to God Himself) the Lord will place upon the throne the One who has never sinned. He will place upon the throne the One who lives forever. And because His life has no end, His kingdom will have no end.
Solomon does not know that the nation will fall into disarray and idolatry. He does not know that invaders will someday conquer Judah and destroy the capital city and the temple. He doesn't know such things won't happen either, so he prays for the Lord to be merciful toward the nation because His temple is there. "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain You. How much less this temple I have built. Yet give attention to Your servant's prayer and His plea for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying in Your presence this day. 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. 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." (1 Kings 8:27-30, 2 Chronicles 6:18-21)
Solomon knows the Lord doesn't literally live in the temple. But the temple represents His presence with the people, His covenant with the people, and His love for the people. If they will look to Him in faith, He will forgive their sins, which is what Solomon means when he asks the Lord to hear the prayers the people pray toward "this place" (the temple). It is to the temple they will bring their sacrifices and offerings. It is at the temple, among other places, where they will pray and where they will receive religious instruction. Solomon knows he will sin and that the people will sin because everyone sins, as he will say later in this prayer. But he also knows that God hears prayers of repentance and is faithful to grant forgiveness to the penitent sinner. This portion of Solomon's prayer reminds me of the words a man will say many years later: the Apostle John. John was a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ but John wasn't a perfect man and he knew that no one is perfect. He, like Solomon, knew that believers sometimes mess up but, like Solomon, he also knew that the Lord is merciful, which is why he said: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
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