1 Kings 8:54-61
Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, "Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day."
What if in heaven there was loads of money,
and comfort and happiness but without God, will that be heaven? Heaven would
only be heaven because of the presence of God. It is God Himself who is the
blessing. There is a strong delusion of the devil today for the world to
embrace materialism as the greatest blessing. Christians are made to believe
that what they need is things that they can see, touch and handle. But the true
blessing is God.
- God gives
the true blessing of rest (v.56)
Because God is blessed, Solomon began by blessing the people. He told
them that they already had blessing from God of rest from battles but also in
the Son of David, the Prince of Peace. Solomon was only a type of Christ as his
name suggests ‘shalom’.
Solomon recognizes that the peace and rest they had in the Promised Land
was a direct action of God. In giving them rest from their enemies the Lord was
only showing in a picture form the token that He has for His people in glory. When
you become a Christian you are granted a measure of rest from the condemnation
and misery of sin. But it is not until it will be provided for you that rich
entrance into the eternal kingdom in glory that you will finally enjoy the full
realization of rest, peace and joy in the Beloved.
It is in glory that we will be absolutely free from sin and its misery.
Then there will be no sin, no tear, no pain, no sickness, no scorching heat of
the sun, or coldness of winter to bring discomfort to us. This is what the Lord
has for those who are in Christ – rest from sin, rest from misery, rest from
death, and rest from all weary.
The rest that is true rest is not inactivity and inertia. It is not
promotion of laziness. Rather it is the state of laying every human activity
and effort to fully capitulate oneself to God. It is the absolute surrender and
worship offered to God. This is why the Sabbath rest is for private and public
worship. This is why the Sabbath rest that remains is to offer acceptable and
pleasing worship to God in all eternity with all heavenly hosts. The eternity
will be spent in rest that involves worship!
I believe that there is no better rest on this earth than communion with
God in prayer. We should look at the time of prayer as a time when we enjoy
rest that God gives us in Christ. That there is no enmity between us and God
because Christ has destroyed the wall of hostility and has made us acceptable
before God.
- God keeps
all His promises faithfully (v.56)
God is faithful and so fully dependable and
trustworthy. Just as He promised the patriarchs and Moses, He had given rest to
Israelites. He does everything “according
to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all His good promise.” This is the most comforting thing on earth –
in a broken and fallen world, the Lord has given promises that He will keep
faithfully. It is most reassuring that the Lord will not be unfaithful. His
faithfulness does not depend on any factors outside of Himself. His
faithfulness is unchanging because He is the one who was and is and is to be.
He is the same yesterday and today and forever more. He is God who is immutably
faithful so that He will remain faithful even when we are faithless – for He
cannot deny Himself (2Tim. :13). Christ is the anchor upon which the promises
of God rests and the Spirit is the tray upon which these promises are
appropriated.
Solomon makes reference to the promises given by the hand of Moses
just as he had earlier on (cf. v.15, 24), reminded them of the promises
made to David. You must not just think that God gave Moses only commandments.
Clearly He gave him promises too.
Those who put their faith in God enjoy the blessings promised by God.
The Lord never makes an idle or empty promise. When He promised that the seed
of a woman who will crush the head of the serpent, He delivered and sent His
Son who triumphed over the devil and made a public spectacle of the devil and
principalities, delivering the seed of Adam from the curse and misery of sin.
This then shows that the Lord will fulfil all His promises which we
should know so that our prayers are informed by them. Unless your prayers are
an appropriation of the promises of God, you can know that they are not in
accordance to the will of God. If your prayers be not according to the will of
God, then will not be answered.
- God’s
presence is what we must always desire (vv.57-58)
Solomon’s plea then is just like our plea today. He felt like their
forefathers had enjoyed a closer fellowship with God than they had. And so He
prayed here saying, The Lord our God be
with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us or forsake us, that He
may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways and to keep His
commandments, His statutes, and His rules, which He commanded our fathers.
There is no question that God has not set a machine that will
automatically work outside of Him. God is a very personable Person so that He
designed a way of salvation that brought Him to His people so that He became
Immanuel, God with us. In this we see a display of His grace and glory. We
would be wise if our greatest need becomes the presence of God. I don’t hear
enough of, Lord please make me more aware of your presence in my life in this
church.
However, we are not often conscious of God’s presence because of our
sinfulness as well as our finiteness. This is the reason why the author of
Psalm 139 is so deliberate in reminding himself that the Lord is everywhere –
where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
Would it not be terrible if we prayed to a god who is away, or sleeping
or dead? God who cannot hear is no god at all, he no more than man’s folly and
depravity. The Lord that we have trusted has promised that He will never leave
us nor forsake us and we can confidently say that the Lord is my helper I will
not be afraid – for what can man do to us? His presence has been the blessing
of men for all time. But this relationship was so impaired by the fall into sin
– God is light and there is no shadow of turning with Him - too holy to behold evil. Therefore, though
He has revealed Himself to those who have found favour in Him, yet He has
particularly made Himself known to men by His Son. It is by being in Christ
that we will enjoy the full benefits of this wonderful promise of God’s
presence. All eternity await those who are in Christ.
That God is near or rather that God has brought us near to Himself, is
the greatest encouragement to prayer.
4. God’s listens to the prayers of His people
(vv.59-61)
The greatest encouragement to
prayer is that God will listen. Why should a holy God listen to the prayers of
sinful men? First because it is upon His own invitation that we pray. Secondly
because He has provided us with the confidence based on:
1) His
Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ who has provided us with the access by His death
and His perpetual high priestly work on the right hand of God where He
intercedes for us,
2) His
Spirit, who helps us in our weaknesses so that although we do not know what to
pray for, yet He aids us by searching the mind of God and indwelling us and
giving us the mode of prayer
3) His
word, that gives us not only the will of God but also the content of prayer,
and
4) His
help in the time past. He heard the Christians of the last centuries and we
would be wise to go to Him as well.
Solomon is very thankful that God
listens to people – His own people Israelites as well as the Gentiles. God has
His people in all generations from every nation, every language, every race and
every people. And our delight is that our God is not deaf, nor mute, nor
incapacitated like the idols of men. He is God who hears, and answers our
prayers.
Solomon’s petition was, Let these words of mine, with which I have
pleaded before the Lord be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may He
maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each
day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God;
there is no other.
Solomon’s petition is for the
Lord to bless His people and to keep the flow of the blessings be in constant
supply. His petition is not just for the Israelites, it is also for all the
peoples of the earth – Gentiles. He well understood that the blessing promised
to Abraham was to make him a father of many nations. The Lord God reigns on all
the earth and His gospel commission to His disciples is to go to the end of the
world. Many times you will notice, your prayers are just too confined to the to
the people that you know, the circumstances that you know, so that you fail to
acknowledge the purposes of God in all the earth and time – God is not under
the limitations of space and time.
Unless you are committed to being
wholly true to the Lord our God, by walking in His statutes and keeping all His
commandments, you cannot enjoy and realize the blessings that the Lord has
promised.
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