(23) And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart: (24) Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. (25) Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. (26) And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father. (27) But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? (28) Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee today: (29) That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. (30) And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.
In this former part of Solomon's prayer, I would desire the Reader to remark with me, the posture in which it was offered. It is said, he stood before the altar. Jesus is our Altar, as well as our High Priest and Sacrifice. Therefore, certainly, it was in view of the glorious Mediator, that Solomon prayed. But it also appears, from what is said in the further prosecution of this prayer, at 1 Kings 8:54, that Solomon when he had finished his prayer, arose from off his knees. I am inclined, therefore, to suppose, that when the king began the prayer, be stood as is here said, before the altar: but, perhaps, as his mind became more inflamed with the spirit of devotion, he fell on his knees as he prosecuted the prayer, and so remained until that he had finished it. But what a vast comprehension of subject matter doth the prayer contain, even in the few verses only already noticed. How doth Solomon enlarge upon the being, and attributes, and perfections of God! How highly doth he speak of him as a God in covenant; here taking into view, the whole Three Persons of Jehovah! How solemnly doth he draw the contrast between the greatness and holiness of the Lord God, whom the heaven, and the heaven of heavens are not worthy to contain, and the littleness of the earth, and all that is in it! And having thus enlarged on the glories of Jehovah, how sweetly, and fervently, doth he plead with God for grace, and the performance of all his covenant promises to David and his seed forever. Precious Jesus! was Solomon struck with astonishment, in the contemplation that the heaven, and the heaven of heavens had not splendor enough to contain thee; and what a thought is that, to overpower the mind, that thou shouldest tabernacle in our flesh? Reader! I should suppose it impossible for you to overlook the sweet strain of gospel mercies, which runs through the whole of this prayer of Solomon, in the part of it which we have already read; Not to see Jesus in the whole of it, as the sum and substance of the covenant, is to pass over the grand and distinguishing feature, which marks every form of prayer and praise, in which it is expressed. But this is not all. I hope the Reader is so far under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, that he instantly beholds Jesus himself, as the one glorious object the pious Israelite is supposed to have in view, in all his prayers and supplications which he made with his eye towards the temple. And I hope that the Reader is no less alive to behold the fullest testimony to that precious doctrine, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, when he hears Solomon say, that thine eyes may be open toward thy house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there. Never, surely, was there more clear gospel, or the Lord Jesus more sweetly looked to with an eye of faith, and the Father's perfect approbation of redemption by him, than in what these verses express in the prayer of Solomon.