1 Kings 8:29

1Ki 8:29 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.

Ver. 29. That thine eyes may be open.] See Psa 34:15. {See Trapp on "Psa 34:15"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki_8:29

This place.

Meditations in a new church

I. What the house of God is not.

1. In this place is no architectural type; it is no homage to the esthetics of form. Architecture is but a help and a convenience; it is not a religion.

2. This place is not reared in homage to any principle, so called, of Natural Religion; on the contrary, it is an admission that Natural Religion is not enough to satisfy the heart of the worshipper; it is true the groves were God s first temples; it is equally true that the early Persian made his peak an altar, and worshipped the Lord of nature from the tops of earths oer-gazing mountains; it may be true that our Gothic architecture is an attempt to torture the stone to the grace and grandeur of the forest aisles, but it will not do, it will not do. This place is not reared to emulate in the long-drawn aisle and the fretted vault, the mysteries of the groves and the trees; it is to point to one tree--the Cross; it is not to celebrate the mountain majesties of heaven, but to be a cleft of the rock, in which the people may hide themselves while the tempest and the wrath pass by.

3. This place is not an Ecclesiasticism; it is not the place for mere hierarchical assumption; it does not exist to symbolise any particular creed; it derives any value it may boast, not from man or men, but from God.

4. This Place is not built in homage to Intellectual Achievement, or to the consecrating efforts of Taste.

II. What the house of God is.

This place is the assertion that a new church has come to view. Hebraism was a church--the Jew was, in fact, a Christian. But he was so pictorially, and he must represent to us God as working the salvation over and independent of him. What, then, is suggested to us by this place?

1. It is Consecration. This is the stone for a memorial; and the prayers of the people and their dedication words are the holy oil poured upon the stone. This is the place of an almond-tree, beneath whose shade the weary Jacob rests, and beholds the vision of ascending and descending angels; and says, Lo, God is in this place; this is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.

2. And with that idea goes this other of seclusion, seclusion even here. But it will be said, is not every place Gods--is not every place equally Divine? To Him, Yes; to us, I must say, No, certainly not. Is not God equally diffused over all creation? To Himself, Yes; to us, No, certainly not. As well ask, Does magnetism reside equally in all substances? Is there not a loadstone, and a magnetic needle? The Sabbath is an answer to our necessities, by being a seclusion in time; the temple is an answer to our necessities by being a seclusion in space. Man needs, not only Sabbath hours, he needs Sabbath spots. Cannot man worship alone, it is said, in his own life and heart, and have there his own still Sabbath? What some may do, I will not say; but on the whole, I shall reply, Certainly not; mans true seclusion will be the temple; seclusion in such a place is very beautiful. As consecration is the act of setting apart, to and for God, so seclusion is that retiring into ourselves; we always enter into our closet when we retire into ourselves; but how large and mighty is the idea that in this place we retire not only into ourselves but into and with God.

3. But this place reveals the principle of association as surely as of seclusion or consecration. Here is revealed the unity of the Church--here is realised the image of the harmonious interworkings of countless spirits, who, though scattered over the whole globe, endowed with freedom, and possessing the power to strike off into every deviation to the right or to the left, yet preserving still their various peculiarities, constitute one great brotherhood for the advancement of each other s spiritual existence, representing one idea, that of the reconciliation of men with God, who, on that account, have been reconciled with one another, and have become one body.

4. But, again, this place is not merely emotional, it is conservative, it is the centre of doctrine, and therefore there is associated with it the idea of teaching it is the House of God; it is the home of the chosen of the living God; it is the depository of the pillar and ground of the truth.

5. Another sentiment suitable to this place is, that it is perfectly in harmony with all that has gone before; it may be naturally described as the centre of conversion. Repent and be converted, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand--this is the word which must often be uttered here, and of this man it shall be said, he was born there. These buildings exist for the purpose for which the Gospels were written; they were built that believers may have life, but they were built also that men may believe. Lessons: To regenerated hearts this place is a memory. Here we pierce back into the night of time, and the eye surveys the splendid piles of ancient days. This place is an anticipation: it is a promise from God to man of his future home, and it is the declaration to mans heart, from the deeper instincts of his being, of the great, the hallowed, and all-hallowing truth that there remaineth a rest for the people of God--our rest in this place is the assurance of our rest yonder. (B. P. Hood.)

The place of worship

I. The house of god. Our text speaks of heaven as Gods dwelling-place. Perfectly true. But where is heaven? Heaven is above us, but it is also beneath and about us. Now it was this thought that appealed even to Solomon aa he knelt with outspread hands before the glory lit altar of the new temple. For a moment he seems to have been staggered: But he recovers himself speedily, however. It was Gods house. Why was it Gods house? He Himself had selected the site; it had been built on the Divine-plan; the builders had been directed in all the arrangements. Gods own promise was in the matter, and it had been fulfilled to the letter.

II. The house of prayer. I like, however, to remember that it is, in the second title, a place of worship, a House of Prayer. Solomon used the first Temple for that purpose at the outset, and named it so from the beginning. And those who could not tread its sacred courts were to open their windows toward Jerusalem, and throw the arrows of their prayers through the lattice which looked that way. The Temple, in a word, was to be the medium and the mediator between the yearning hearts of men and the bounteous hands of the Lord God of Israel. Things have changed since then; old things have passed, away; behold, all things have become new.

III. The house of mercy.--When thou hearest, forgive. Forgive! Ah yes, yes, we shall need to pray that prayer amongst the rest. Prayers for succour and for strength, prayers for comfort and for joy, will need to be supplemented with prayers for pardon. Some nowadays profess to have got far away beyond this. I am not ashamed to confess in one sense that I have not. The Lord has taught us so to pray, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors (Thomas Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:29-51 Solomon asked God to hear the prayers of his people from the Temple. He then addressed specific instances in which they would need God’s answers.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 29. My name shall be there] I will there show forth my power and my glory by enlightening, quickening, pardoning, sanctifying, and saving all my sincere worshippers.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there] These words refer back to 1Ki_8:16, and appear to imply all that is contained in the expansion there alluded to from 2Ch_6:6 that God had chosen Jerusalem as the place for His temple. ‘My name’ indicates God’s revelation of Himself with all His attributes.

towards this place] For the king was not in the Temple but looking towards it, as would be the case with all future worshippers except the priests who were allowed to enter into the building. Hence it came to pass that in foreign lands the Israelite turned his face in the direction of Jerusalem. Cf. Dan_6:10; Jon_2:4; Psa_5:7.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That thine eyes may be open towards this house night and day,.... That is, to the people that pray in it, as they are to his righteous ones, Psa 33:14 even towards the place of which thou hast my name shall be there; there should be some displays of his presence, power, and providence, of goodness, grace, and mercy:

that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make towards this place; not only to what he should make in it, but to what he should make in his own house, with his face directed towards this, as would be, and was the practice of good people in later times, yea, even when the temple lay in ruins; see Dan 6:10 figuring the respect gracious souls have to Christ by faith in their prayers, in whom the Godhead dwells bodily, see Jon 2:4 and it is observable, according to a Jewish canon (b), one at a distance, in another land, was not only to turn his face to the land of Israel, but direct his heart to Jerusalem, and the temple, and the holy of holies; and if in the land, to Jerusalem, &c. and if in Jerusalem, not only to the temple, and holy of holies, but if behind the mercy seat, he was to turn his face to it; which was a symbol of Christ, the propitiatory and throne of grace, to be looked unto by faith, Rom 3:25.

(b) Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 94. sect. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The choice of Jerusalem as the place seems to have been made by special revelation to David. See Psa 78:68; Psa 132:13; and compare 1Ch 22:1.

Toward this place - Better (here and in 1Ki 8:30) than the marginal “in.” Wherever they were, the Jews always worshipped toward the temple. (See margin reference.)

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

My name. It shall be called the house of God. (Haydock) --- There people shall come to do homage to the Lord. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

That thine eyes may be open to behold, to wit, with an eye of favour and compassion. So it is a synecdochical expression: compare Psa 33:18; 34:15; Zec 12:4.

My name; my presence, and glory, and grace. See Poole "1Ki 8:16".

Towards this place; this temple, to which Solomon did now look, and, it may be, point; and towards which the godly Israelites directed their looks in their prayers. See Dan 6:10.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

That thine eyes may be open This anthropomorphism does not conflict with what was said under ver. 27 toward this house night and day not so much to watch over it as to see the worship and prayer offered there, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there cf. Eze_48:35, and vers. 18. 19, 20, etc. When had God said this? Never perhaps, in so many words. Keil says the reference is to 2Sa_7:13 implicite ("He shall build a house for my name"), while Rawlinson thinks the "reference is not to any single text, but to the many passages in Deuteronomy where God speaks of a place which He will choose to "set his name" there (Deu_12:5, Deu_12:11, Deu_12:18, etc.; 14:23; 15:20; 16:2, etc.) "But it is very probable that a revelation was made to David respecting the sanctuary, the terms of which are not preserved to us. This is almost implied by Psa_78:68 Psa_132:10 1Ch_22:1 passages which prove that David claimed to have Divine sanction for placing the temple on "Mount Zion." Psalm 132, is unmistakeably Davidic, and embodies some features of the message of God: (e.g., the condition, ver. 12) not preserved in 2Sa 7 that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward Marg. in, but Heb. lae. supports the A.V rendering. Now that God had revealed His presence in the temple, the Jew, wherever he might be, would, and as a matter of fact did, pray towards it, (Dan_6:10 Psa_5:7 Jon_2:4) just as the Mohammedan has his Kibleh in Mecca this place.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Open - To behold with an eye of favour. My name - My presence, and glory and grace. This place - This temple, to which Solomon did now look, and towards which, the godly Israelites directed their looks in their prayers.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

May your eyes be open toward

The eye is a metonym for what the eye does. AT: "May you watch over" (See: Metonymy)

night and day

This is a merism. AT: "all the time" or "continually" (See: Merism)

My name and my presence

These two words together emphasize that Yahweh will dwell in the temple. (See: Doublet)

that your servant will pray

Solomon speaks of himself as "your servant" to show that he respects Yahweh. This can be stated in first person. AT: "that I, your servant, will pray" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

listen to the request of your servant and of your people Israel

Solomon speaks of himself as "your servant" to show that he respects Yahweh. This can be stated in first person. AT: "listen to my request and the request of your people Israel" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

translationWords

temple

name

pray

servant

forgive

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.