1 Kings 8:59

Solomon asked God to stay with his people and help them become obedient and faithful. With God's grace and their faithfulness, Israel could experience God's justice and show everyone that the Lord alone is God.

Solomon's prayer of dedication for the temple praised God and blessed the people. He highlighted God's faithfulness to His promises and his own part in building the temple. Solomon prayed for God to keep answering their prayers (1 Kings 8:22–30). He then made seven specific requests to God (1 Kings 8:31–53) and ended with a blessing (1 Kings 8:54–61).

Solomon's building efforts peaked when he moved the ark to the new temple. The king prayed (1 Kings 8:22–53) and offered praise and blessings (8:56–61) to dedicate the temple to the Lord. After the dedication, the people celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. The story highlights Solomon praising God and blessing the people (1 Kings 8:12–61).

HIS PRAYER. (1Ki. 8:22-61)

Solomon stood before the altar--This position was in the court of the people, on a brazen scaffold erected for the occasion (Ch2 6:13), fronting the altar of burnt offering, and surrounded by a mighty concourse of people. Assuming the attitude of a suppliant, kneeling (Kg1 8:54; compare Ch2 6:24) and with uplifted hands, he performed the solemn act of consecration--an act remarkable, among other circumstances, for this, that it was done, not by the high priest or any member of the Aaronic family, but by the king in person, who might minister about, though not in, holy things. This sublime prayer [1Ki. 8:22-35], which breathes sentiments of the loftiest piety blended with the deepest humility, naturally bore a reference to the national blessing and curse contained in the law--and the burden of it--after an ascription of praise to the Lord for the bestowment of the former, was an earnest supplication for deliverance from the latter. He specifies seven cases in which the merciful interposition of God would be required; and he earnestly bespeaks it on the condition of people praying towards that holy place. The blessing addressed to the people at the close is substantially a brief recapitulation of the preceding prayer [Kg1 8:56-61].

Solomon, after his sermon in Ecclesiastes, gives us the conclusion of the whole matter; so he does here, after this long prayer; it is called his blessing the people, Kg1 8:55. He pronounced it standing, that he might be the better heard, and because he blessed as one having authority. Never were words more fitly spoken, nor more pertinently. Never was congregation dismissed with that which was more likely to affect them and abide with them.
I. He gives God the glory of the great and kind things he had done for Israel, Kg1 8:56. He stood up to bless the congregation (Kg1 8:55), but began with blessing God; for we must in every thing give thanks. Do we expect God should do well for us and ours? let us take all occasion to speak well of him and his. He blesses God who has given, he does not say wealth, and honour, and power, and victory, to Israel, but rest, as if that were a blessing more valuable than any of those. Let not those who have rest under-value that blessing, though they want some others. He compares the blessings God had bestowed upon them with the promises he had given them, that God might have the honour of his faithfulness and the truth of that word of his which he has magnified above all his name. 1. He refers to the promises given by the hand of Moses, as he did (Kg1 8:15, Kg1 8:24) to those which were made to David. There were promises given by Moses, as well as precepts. It was long ere God gave Israel the promised rest, but they had it at last, after many trials. The day will come when God's spiritual Israel will rest from all their labours. 2. He does, as it were, write a receipt in full on the back of these bonds: There has not failed one word of all his good promises. This discharge he gives in the name of all Israel, to the everlasting honour of the divine faithfulness, and the everlasting encouragement of all those that build upon the divine promises.
II. He blesses himself and the congregation, expressing his earnest desire and hope of these four things: - 1. The presence of God with them, which is all in all to the happiness of a church and nation and of every particular person. This great congregation was now shortly to be scattered, and it was not likely that they would ever be all together again in this world. Solomon therefore dismisses them with this blessing: "The Lord be present with us, and that will be comfort enough when we are absent from each other. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers (Kg1 8:57); let him not leave us, let him be to us to day, and to ours for ever, what he was to those that went before us." 2. The power of his grace upon them: "Let him be with us, and continue with us, not that he may enlarge our coasts and increase our wealth, but that he may incline our hearts to himself, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments," Kg1 8:58. Spiritual blessings are the best blessings, with which we should covet earnestly to be blessed. Our hearts are naturally averse to our duty, and apt to decline from God; it is his grace that inclines them, grace that must be obtained by prayer. 3. An answer to the prayer he had now made: "Let these my words be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, Kg1 8:59. Let a gracious return be made to every prayer that shall be made here, and that will be a continual answer to this prayer." What Solomon asks here for his prayer is still granted in the intercession of Christ, of which his supplication was a type; that powerful prevailing intercession is before the Lord our God day and night, for our great Advocate attends continually to this very thing, and we may depend upon him to maintain our cause (against the adversary that accuses us day and night, Rev 12:10) and the common cause of his people Israel, at all times, upon all occasions, as the matter shall require, so as to speak for us the word of the day in its day, as the original here reads it, from which we shall receive grace sufficient, suitable, and seasonable, in every time of need. 4. The glorifying of God in the enlargement of his kingdom among men. Let Israel be thus blessed, thus favoured; not that all people may become tributaries to us (Solomon sees his kingdom as great as he desires), but that all people may know that the Lord is God, and he only, and may come and worship him, Kg1 8:60. With this Solomon's prayers, like the prayers of his father David, the son of Jesse, are ended (Psa 72:19, Psa 72:20): Let the whole earth be filled with his glory. We cannot close our prayers with a better summary than this, Father, glorify thy name.
III. He solemnly charges his people to continue and persevere in their duty to God. Having spoken to God for them, he here speaks from God to them, and those only would fare the better for his prayers that were made better by his preaching. His admonition, at parting, is, "Let your heart be perfect with the Lord our God, Kg1 8:61. Let your obedience be universal, without dividing - upright, without dissembling - constant, without declining;" this is evangelical perfection.

And let these my words - This and the following verse is a sort of supplement to the prayer which ended Kg1 8:53; but there is an important addition to this prayer in the parallel place, Ch2 6:41, Ch2 6:42 : "Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Lord God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember the mercies of David thy servant."

And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord,.... At this time:

be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night; be continually remembered and regarded by him, that so gracious answers might always be returned to those who supplicated in this place:

that he maintain the cause of his servant; of himself and his successors in the throne, that they may continue to possess it in peace, to the glory of God, and the good of the people:

and the cause of his people Israel at all times: that their rights and privileges might be continued, and they supported in them; and both his cause and theirs be regarded:

as the matter shall require; as they should stand in need of assistance, direction, and protection.

Of his servant, i.e. of me, as , their king, and consequently of all my successors.

And the cause of his people Israel, according to mine or their various necessities and exigencies.

May these my words, which I have prayed (vv. 25-43), be near to Jehovah our God day and night, that He may secure the right of His servant (the king) and of His people, as every day demands. בּיומו יום דּבר, as in Exo 5:13; Exo 16:4. - For Kg1 8:60 compare Kg1 8:43.