Scripture Daily

Context No. 1876 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 8:37-43: in context

37“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, 38whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread out his hands toward this house, 39then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men); 40that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers. 41“Moreover, concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake 42(for they shall hear of your great name and of your mighty hand and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, 43hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

In his prayer at the temple's dedication, Solomon asks God to hear the prayers of his people in every kind of trouble, famine, plague, blight, siege, sickness. And he describes the one who prays in a striking phrase: whatever prayer is made by any person who knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven, and forgive, and act, giving to each according to his ways, whose heart you know; for you alone know the hearts of all people.

The phrase worth pausing over is the plague of his own heart. Solomon pictures a person who knows the affliction within, the particular trouble, sin, or sorrow of his own heart, and brings that specific, self-known thing to God in prayer. It is not a generic petition, but the honest bringing of what we alone know about ourselves, the plague of our own heart, laid before the God who, Solomon says, alone knows the hearts of all. There is something important here about honest, self-aware prayer. We can pray in generalities, vague requests and confessions that never touch the real, specific trouble within us. Solomon's picture is of a prayer that knows the plague of its own heart, that is honest about the particular affliction we carry, the specific sin we struggle with, the real sorrow or fear we bear, and brings that to God rather than a generic version of it. Each of us knows something of our own heart's plague that no one else knows; and God invites us to bring precisely that, the honest, specific, self-known trouble, into his presence. And notice the ground of this honesty: God alone knows the hearts of all. We need not hide or generalize before God, because he already knows our hearts fully; the plague of our heart is not hidden from him. So we can bring it honestly, the real thing, not a sanitized version, because he already sees it and invites us to name it. This is an invitation to a more honest prayer: to know the plague of our own heart, to be truthful with ourselves about what afflicts us within, and to bring that specific, self-known trouble to the God who knows our hearts and can forgive and act. Search me, God, and know my heart, the psalmist prays; and the God who already knows the plague of our hearts invites us to bring it honestly to him.

Do I pray in generalities that never touch the real, specific trouble within me, or can I bring to God the plague of my own heart, the particular sin, sorrow, or fear I alone know, honestly and by name, trusting that he who alone knows the hearts of all already sees it and invites me to lay it before him?

Sources