12 Then said Solomon, `Jehovah hath said to dwell in thick darkness;
Then said Solomon, `Jehovah said -- to dwell in thick darkness, and I -- I have built a house of habitation for Thee, and a fixed place for Thy dwelling to the ages.' And the king turneth round his face, and blesseth the whole assembly of Israel, and the whole assembly of Israel is standing, and he saith, `Blessed `is' Jehovah, God of Israel, who hath spoken with His mouth with David my father, and with His hands hath fulfilled `it', saying: `From the day that I brought out My people from the land of Egypt, I have not fixed on a city out of any of the tribes of Israel to build a house for my name being there, and I have not fixed on a man to be leader over My people Israel; and I fix on Jerusalem for My name being there, and I fix on David to be over My people Israel. `And it is with the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Jehovah God of Israel, and Jehovah saith unto David my father, Because that it hath been with thy heart to build a house for My name, thou hast done well that it hath been with thy heart, but thou dost not build the house, for thy son who cometh forth out from thy loins, he doth build the house for My name. `And Jehovah doth establish His word that He spake, and I rise up in the stead of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah spake, and I build the house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel, and I place there the ark, where `is' the covenant of Jehovah that He made with the sons of Israel.'
Gone up hath smoke by His nostrils, And fire from His mouth consumeth, Coals have been kindled by it. And He inclineth the heavens, and cometh down, And thick darkness `is' under His feet. And He rideth on a cherub, and doth fly, And He flieth on wings of wind. He maketh darkness His secret place, Round about Him His tabernacle, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Kings 8
Commentary on 1 Kings 8 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 8
The building and furniture of the temple were very glorious, but the dedication of it exceeds in glory as much as prayer and praise, the work of saints, exceed the casting of metal and the graving of stones, the work of the craftsman. The temple was designed for the keeping up of the correspondence between God and his people; and here we have an account of the solemnity of their first meeting there.
1Ki 8:1-11
The temple, though richly beautified, yet while it was without the ark was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. All the cost and pains bestowed on this stately structure are lost if God do not accept them; and, unless he please to own it as the place where he will record his name, it is after all but a ruinous heap. When therefore all the work is ended (ch. 7:51), the one thing needful is yet behind, and that is the bringing in of the ark. This therefore is the end which must crown the work, and which here we have an account of the doing of with great solemnity.
1Ki 8:12-21
Here,
1Ki 8:22-53
Solomon having made a general surrender of this house to God, which God had signified his acceptance of by taking possession, next follows Solomon's prayer, in which he makes a more particular declaration of the uses of that surrender, with all humility and reverence, desiring that God would agree thereto. In short, it is his request that this temple may be deemed and taken, not only for a house of sacrifice (no mention is made of that in all this prayer, that was taken for granted), but a house of prayer for all people; and herein it was a type of the gospel church; see Isa. 56:7, compared with Mt. 21:13. Therefore Solomon opened this house, not only with an extraordinary sacrifice, but with an extraordinary prayer.
1Ki 8:54-61
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, v. 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.
1Ki 8:62-66
We read before that Judah and Israel were eating and drinking, and very cheerful under their own vines and fig-trees; here we have them so in God's courts. Now they found Solomon's words true concerning Wisdom's ways, that they are ways of pleasantness.