Solomon now makes a declaration to the people and a prayer of dedication to the Lord.
The temple was a place for God to "dwell for ever", though later it becomes apparent that Solomon realised that this temple of stone could not contain God. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and God will dwell with us forever. The Old Testament gives lots of details on keeping the temple holy, and maybe we get rather bored reading all about these things. However, it should teach us to take good care of our bodies (above all spiritually, but also physically) for we are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Solomon then reminds the people of David's desire to build a temple and God's response to him. Now that promise has been fulfilled.
Solomon then prays to the Lord. There are two key features of the prayer. The first is the recognition that God cannot dwell in a temple built by human hands (v18). The temple is only a shadow. The second is the problem of sin and the need for mercy. In a sense this is the great theme running throughout the Bible. God wants to bless mankind beyond measure, but our sin gets in the way. It is in Christ that this dilemma is dealt with.
The prayer is both practical and forward looking. People will sin, and for society to work at all there needs to be proper judgement on sin. When a society stops judging sin it is heading for collapse. Then he calls on God to be merciful when the people repent of their sin.
Solomon also calls on the Lord to hear the prayer of the foreigner who turns to the Lord (32, 33).
Note the recognition that sin is serious and deserved God's wrath. Any concept of God or presentation of the Bible that ignores this is seriously in error.
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