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From: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30
Solomon’s Dedication Prayer (Continuation)
[27] “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest
heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! [28]
Yet have regard to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplication, O LORD my
God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prays before thee
this day; [29] that thy eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the
place of which thou hast said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that thou mayest hear-
ken to the prayer which thy servant offers toward this place. [30] And hearken
thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they pray
toward this place; yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou
hearest, forgive.”
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Commentary:
8:14-61. This long prayer of Solomon, the centerpiece of the Dedication of the
temple, has three parts to it: the first is a blessing (an act of thanksgiving to
God) for having fulfilled his promise (vv. 15-21); the second is a supplication for
the successors of David, for all the people, and even for foreigners resident in
the country (vv. 22-53); and the third, a blessing of Israel (v. 55), with a further
supplication on its behalf (vv. 56-61): “The Temple of Jerusalem, the house of
prayer that David wanted to build, will be the work of his son, Solomon. The
prayer at the dedication of the Temple relies on God’s promise and covenant,
on the active presence of his name among his People, recalling his mighty
deeds at the Exodus. The king lifts his hands toward heaven and begs the
Lord, on his own behalf, on behalf of the entire people and of the generations
yet to come, for the forgiveness of their sins and for their daily needs, so that
the nations may know that He is the only God and that the heart of his people
may belong wholly and entirely to him” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”,
2580).
8:22-53 The prayer properly speaking begins by proclaiming the greatness of
the God of Israel and his fidelity in keeping his promises. But the speaker, So-
lomon, immediately finds himself confronted by the mysteriousness of God:
God transcends all things (he is the creator of heaven and earth) yet he conde-
scends to dwelt in this temple. How is that possible? God is really in heaven
(Solomon goes on to assert) but he is also at the same time, in some way, in
the temple, where he has wanted “his name” to be (v. 29), that is, he himself in
person. Therefore (the prayer goes on to say), God hearkens from heaven when
man prays to him in that temple.
The temple is depicted as a place more of prayer than of offerings, and the atti-
tude of a person when he goes to the temple and when he prays should be one
of true and profound conversion—acknowledgment that his sin is the cause of his
misfortune. Thus, Solomon’s prayer is in line with the teaching and spirit of the
book of Deuteronomy. Its teaching includes the conviction that, through prayer,
man is delivered from evil, because God always forgives him. This aspect of pra-
yer is worth emphasizing because, as Bl. John Paul II has written, “’Conversion’
and ‘contrition’ are often considered under the aspect of the undeniable demands
which they involve and under the aspect of the mortification which they impose
for the purpose of bringing about a radical change of life. But we do well to recall
and emphasize the fact that ‘contrition’ and ‘conversion’ are even more a drawing
near to the holiness of God, a rediscovery of one’s true identity which has been
upset and disturbed by sin, a liberation in the very depth of the self and thus a re-
gaining of lost joy, the joy of being saved (cf. Ps 51:12), which the majority of peo-
ple in our time are no longer capable of experiencing” (”Reconciliatio Et Paeniten-
tia”, 31, 3).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.