1 Kings 8:22-30: a reflection

22Solomon stood before the LORD’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; 23and he said, “LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keeps covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart; 24who has kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today. 25Now therefore, may LORD, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ 26“Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father. 27But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can’t contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 28Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant and for his supplication, LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you today; 29that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there;’ to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place. 30Listen to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

Solomon dedicates the temple with a prayer that holds two enormous truths together. On one hand, he confesses God's immensity: will God really dwell on earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built. He knows no building can hold the God who overflows the universe. And on the other hand, in the very same breath, he pleads: yet have regard for the prayer of your servant; hear the cry your servant prays before you.

Notice how those two sit side by side. The God too vast for the heavens to contain is asked, and trusted, to bend down and listen to the prayer of one person. Solomon does not let God's greatness make him distant. Precisely the God who cannot be contained is the God who, Solomon believes, will incline his ear to a cry offered toward this place. Transcendence and attentiveness, held together.

That is a steadying thing to remember when you pray. The God you are speaking to is not small or near your own size; he is beyond the reach of the highest heavens. And that same immense God stoops to hear you, attends to your particular cry, and, as Solomon prays, when you hear, forgive. Your prayer is not lost in the vastness. The God the heavens cannot contain bends down to listen to you. Pray to him with both truths in mind: how great he is, and how attentively he hears.

Lord, the highest heavens cannot contain you, and yet you bend to hear the prayer of one person. Help me hold both truths as I pray: how vast you are, and how attentively you listen. And when you hear me, in your mercy, forgive.