Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in front of the entire community of Israel. He lifted his hands toward heaven, and he prayed, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven above or on the earth below. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion. You have kept your promise to your servant David, my father. You made that promise with your own mouth, and with your own hands you have fulfilled it today. “And now, O Lord, God of Israel, carry out the additional promise you made to your servant David, my father. For you said to him, ‘If your descendants guard their behavior and faithfully follow me as you have done, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’ Now, O God of Israel, fulfill this promise to your servant David, my father. “But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today. May you watch over this Temple night and day, this place where you have said, ‘My name will be there.’ May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive. “If someone wrongs another person and is required to take an oath of innocence in front of your altar in this Temple, then hear from heaven and judge between your servants—the accuser and the accused. Punish the guilty as they deserve. Acquit the innocent because of their innocence. “If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn to you and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave their ancestors. “If the skies are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and if they pray toward this Temple and acknowledge your name and turn from their sins because you have punished them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them to follow the right path, and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as their special possession. “If there is a famine in the land or a plague or crop disease or attacks of locusts or caterpillars, or if your people’s enemies are in the land besieging their towns—whatever disaster or disease there is— and if your people Israel pray about their troubles, raising their hands toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and forgive. Give your people what their actions deserve, for you alone know each human heart. Then they will fear you as long as they live in the land you gave to our ancestors. “In the future, foreigners who do not belong to your people Israel will hear of you. They will come from distant lands because of your name, for they will hear of your great name and your strong hand and your powerful arm. And when they pray toward this Temple, then hear from heaven where you live, and grant what they ask of you. In this way, all the people of the earth will come to know and fear you, just as your own people Israel do. They, too, will know that this Temple I have built honors your name. “If your people go out where you send them to fight their enemies, and if they pray to the Lord by turning toward this city you have chosen and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name, then hear their prayers from heaven and uphold their cause. “If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to their land far away or near. But in that land of exile, they might turn to you in repentance and pray, ‘We have sinned, done evil, and acted wickedly.’ If they turn to you with their whole heart and soul in the land of their enemies and pray toward the land you gave to their ancestors—toward this city you have chosen, and toward this Temple I have built to honor your name— then hear their prayers and their petition from heaven where you live, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you. Forgive all the offenses they have committed against you. Make their captors merciful to them, for they are your people—your special possession—whom you brought out of the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt. “May your eyes be open to my requests and to the requests of your people Israel. May you hear and answer them whenever they cry out to you. For when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Sovereign Lord, you told your servant Moses that you had set Israel apart from all the nations of the earth to be your own special possession.”
1 Kings 8:22-53

Dear God, this prayer is so long, I think what I’d like to do is break it down by outlining it so I can see beyond the words into the types of things for which Solomon was praying. So here we go:

• Worship
  • No one like you.
  • Keep your covenants
  • Show unfailing lov
• Kept your promise to David
• Supplication
  • Carry out your promise to David
    • If we do this then you will do that
• Requests for the Temple
  • Let your presence be here
  • Watch over the temple
  • Hear the prayers we make here
  • Judge your people here
  • Forgive us here
    • Defeat in war – Forgive us here when we repent
    • Drought – Forgive us here when we repent
    • Famine – Forgive us here when we repent
  • Welcome foreigners here
  • Hear us when we pray for victory against enemies here, even if it is just turning towards it no matter where they are
  • Should we find ourselves in exile, hear us when we turn towards this Temple to pray
• Hear this prayer and honor it as follow-through on what you said when you brought us out of Egypt nearly 500 years ago

There’s a lot here about making that location a sacred place that will give the Israelites special access to you that they don’t have in other places. Reading this, it reminded me a little of what I know of Muslims turning towards Mecca to pray and do their annual pilgrimage. But the truth is, this Temple would go on to be destroyed. Things come and things go. Sometimes we interpret what you’re telling us incorrectly. But you are always there. You hear us. You wait for us. You forgive us. The Israelites didn’t need a Temple for the 1,000 years between Abraham and this moment, and, in reality, they probably still didn’t. But it gave them a nice big tangible reminder of your provision and love for them and their duty to you.

Father, help me to not need these types of things to bring me to worship of you. Help me to be able to remember on my own how much I need you. I want to be internally driven to you. I’m sorry that sometimes I stray. I am sorry that I can be prone to wander and leave the God I love. But here is my heart, Lord. Take and seal it for your courts above.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen