Let us turn to God's Word in
the portion of Scripture we've just read in the first book of
Kings. Here in chapter 8, as I said,
we have a detailed account of the prayer that Solomon prayed
at the dedication of the Temple of the Lord. We just read the
opening part of the chapter. The prayer really continues right
the way through. As I say, it concludes there
at verse 54, and after that we're told how the king stood and blessed
all the congregation of Israel. But turning to the former parts
of the chapter, and I have two verses that I want to mention
as a text. Verse 15 and then verse 24 the
same truth is really to be discerned in each of these verses 1st Kings
8 15 Solomon says blessed be the Lord God of Israel which
bake with his mouth unto David my father and hath with his hands
fulfilled it and then again at verse 24, who has kept, as he's
praying now to the Lord God, having spoken of God, he speaks
now, begins his prayer, who has kept with thy servant David,
my father, that thou promisedest him, thou spakest also with thy
mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this
day. And so, not so much Solomon's
prayer, but Solomon's God, and what Solomon is saying here with
regards to his gods. And the language that we have
in each of these verses, to use the technical term, is what is
called anthropomorphic. It's a language in which God
is being spoken of as if God himself was like unto a man. We know that man was made in
the image and created after the likeness of God, but the image
of God in man is seated of course in the soul God is a spirit and
the Lord Jesus says that true worshippers worship the Father
in spirit and in truth but here we see how God is pleased as
he reveals himself to be spoken of in human terms again in the
cause of the prayer there at verse 42. They shall hear of thy great
name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm.
As if God has a body, as if God has arms and hands, as if God's
a physical being. But God is condescending here
really to make himself known by revealing himself in terms
of what we would understand as men and women. We know that as
a spirit, as the infinite one, there's that sense in which God
is altogether unsearchable. the language that we have there
in Job 11. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find
out the Almighty? Unto perfection it is high as
heaven. What canst thou do deeper than hell? What canst thou know
the measure thereof is longer than the earth, broader than
the skies. Oh God is altogether incomprehensible,
so great, so glorious. When Paul writes to Timothy he
says of God who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto whom no man hath seen or can see. God does not then have a physical
nature and yet he speaks of himself in these terms in order that
we might begin to understand something of his of His greatness
and His glory, as He is pleased to reveal Himself. Again here
in verse 27, in the prayer of dedication, we see how Solomon
utters the words, Will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, the heaven
and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this
house that I have built it, or the infinity that belongs unto
God. And yet, ultimately, of course,
we know that God has revealed himself in the person of the
Lord Jesus. God manifests in the flesh. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He is the image of the invisible
God. Now, Last Thursday I sought to
preach from those words at the beginning of the 127th Psalm
except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build
it and we spoke of that house in terms of the of the temple
of the Lord and I spoke then also of how in many ways Solomon
is the type of the Lord Jesus. Solomon is the one who is building
the house, he's doing it, of course, under the mighty hand
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is the anti-type of Solomon
is the one who will build his house. I will build my church,
he says, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and we
read that remarkable passage in the second book of Samuel
where we see how David was minded to build the temple and he is
encouraged initially by the prophet Nathan but then the word of God
comes to Nathan and Nathan has to convey that message to King
David that he's not the man who is to build the temple. He was
a man of blood. He was a great warrior king.
His son Solomon, of course, his very name means peace. And he's
a type of the Prince of Peace. And so the faithful prophet Nathan
utters those words there in 2 Samuel 7 at verse 12, When thy days
be fulfilled, Speaking to David, When thy days be fulfilled, and
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after
thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish
his kingdom. He shall build a house for my
name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he
shall be my son, and so forth. We know, without any doubt at
all, that those words really apply not to King Solomon but
to King Jesus, because those words at the beginning of verse
14 are quoted specifically and pointedly by Paul there in Hebrews
chapter 1, where he speaks of Christ's deity, where he speaks
of the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus, and he actually quotes
those very words. and applies them then to the
Lord Jesus, that He is that One who is truly God's Son, the Son
of the Father in truth and in love. But having taken that theme
last week from the Psalm, Psalm 127, my thoughts then went to
this scriptural fulfillment really
of what Nathan says to David. It is Solomon who historically
is the one who builds the house of the Lord, the temple of the
Lord. But coming to consider the God
that he's addressing, and I want to consider this anthropomorphic
language that is being used where we see this mention of God's
mouth, of God's ear, and of God's hands. The prophets, of course,
are those who are very much the mouthpiece of God. And here in
verse 15, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which spake with
his mouth unto David. And then, as I say again, in
verse 24, "...who has kept with thy servant
David, my father, that that thou promisedest him, thou spakest
also with thy mouth." But God doesn't have a mouth, because
God doesn't have a physical body. God is a Spirit. What are we
to understand here then? Well, of course, it's the prophets
who, as I said, are the real mouthpiece of the Lord, who speak
the words of the Lord. And that was what we saw Nathan
doing in that portion that we read. Although we were considering
the psalm, we did read parts of that seventh chapter. in 2nd
Samuel, and we see how the Lord comes and speaks through Nathan
there in verses 4 and 5. And it came to pass that night
that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell
my servant David. Thus saith the Lord, Shalt thou
build me a house for me to dwell in? Here is the message, you
see, he's not to build the house. But as we saw later at verse
12, when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy
fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee. And there is a reference
to Solomon, he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish
the throne of his kingdom. But the kingdom is forever, it
really is applying to the Lord Jesus, it's Christ's kingdom,
not Solomon's kingdom that is an everlasting kingdom, but the
prophet is God's mouthpiece, and how the prophets time and
again would utter those words, thus and thus saith the Lord. Peter reminds us how those holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God, referring
to the Old Testament prophets. They spake as they were moved,
and the word that he uses there in 2 Peter 1.21 is a strong word literally having the idea of
them being carried along, borne along, by the Spirit of God. It's the selfsame word, and I've
said this on previous occasions, the same word as we find in Acts
27, verses 15 and 17. That great storm, Eurocliton,
when Paul is making that journey from Jerusalem to Rome, and there's
a great storm brews up in the Mediterranean, And the mariners,
they can have no control of the ship and it says in those verses
how they let the ship drive. They let the ship drive. It was
moved by the waves and the waters. They strike sail and so were
driven. The mariners, they had no control
of the vessel. They had to leave it in the hands
of the elements. And that's the word that Peter
is using in that first chapter of his second epistle. Those
holy men, they were simply carried along by the Spirit of God. They spake as they were moved
by the Spirit of God. Not their own words, although
they're speaking out of the depths of their own souls and their
own experiences, but they're speaking God's words, all scripture,
is given by inspiration of God. And as I'm sure you're probably
well aware, given by inspiration of God is a single word in the
original there. Literally all scripture is God
breathed, all scripture is God's breathing. So we in order to
speak we have to breathe in order to aspirate certain words. It's
as we breathe that we're able to make those sounds. And so
these prophets, they're God's mouth, God speaks. And in scripture
then we have the word of God and this is why we appeal to
the authority of God's word. We have a high doctrine of scripture
because this is how God has revealed himself how he has condescended
to speak to men as if he has a mouth and so we say with Isaiah
to the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to
this word it is because there is no light in them here is our
soul authority it's the word of God it's the word of God which
has come by the Spirit of God, the breathings of God. And now
the Spirit must come and open our understandings, enlighten
our poor, sin-benighted minds that we might understand the
Word, and receive the Word, and believe the Word. So God's mouth,
as the King is saying here, He blesses God which spake with
his mouth, he says, unto David my father. And as God has a mouth,
so we also see that God has an ear, because God also hears. Isaiah 59 and verse 1, Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened that he cannot save, nor is his
ear heavy that he cannot hear. As God speaks, so we speak. And God hears us
when we speak to Him. This is quite clear. There's
communion between God and man. That's the wonder of Scripture,
isn't it? God has come and revealed Himself to us that we might come
and converse with Him and commune with Him. And it's really God
who indicts prayer in us. There's words in the 27th Psalm
in verse 8, When thou sayest, Seek ye my face, my heart said
unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. God speaks, Seek ye my
face. And as God speaks that word,
and He makes that word, an effectual word in us, we respond in the
language of the psalmist, my heart says. Or He makes us willing
to come to seek His face, to speak unto Him. He encourages
us to pray to Him. Prayer is His own ordinance.
men ought always to pray and not to faint says the Lord Jesus
himself and many times in the concluding part of his epistles
how Paul is always giving exhortation to prayer we're to pray without
ceasing we're to give ourselves constantly to prayer And that
remarkable word that we have at the end of it, Ezekiel 36,
that, Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. Or the Lord God
will do it for His people, but He will have His people come
to make the inquiry, to ask. Oh, we're bidden, aren't we,
again, in the language of Hosea the prophet, take with you words,
turn to the Lord, and say, take away all iniquity, and receive
us graciously. We are to speak, and we don't
speak to the air. We speak to a God who hears.
And in that sense, we have to recognize that God doesn't simply
have a mouth, but God has an ear. And we are favoured, we
have the very ear of God when we speak in our prayers, He will
hear us. Into the words, the exhortation,
the encouragement that we find in the language of Hebrews 4.16,
let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Or we're to come boldly. And again, it's a word really
so pregnant, so full in its meaning, that word rendered boldly, because
it literally means to come with all speech. That would be a very
literal rendering of what we have there. We're to come with
all speech. We're to speak freely. Now, we
recognize there's a certain tension in God's Word at times, because
whilst we're bidden to take with us words, and we're to come and
pour out our hearts, yet we have those words of the preacher in
Ecclesiastes 5, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house
of God, Be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of
fools, for they consider not what they do. Be not rash with
thy mouth, let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before
the Lord, because God is in heaven, thou upon earth, therefore let
thy words be few." Oh, there is that tension if we might use
the word. Surely what we're being reminded
of there that we must guard against all presumption, we're not to
come foolishly or irreverently into God's presence. When we
address Him in prayer, what is the first petition that Christ
teaches us to ask when we use that pattern prayer? The first
petition is, Hallowed be thy name, O let thy name be holy. He is the Holy One of Israel. And so, when we come before Him,
there should be that sense of awe in His presence, that recognition
of who it is that we're approaching. We're not to come foolishly before
God. We're not to presume with Him.
We are to approach in that fear of the Lord, which is really
the beginning of wisdom. ought to be wise and yet God
gives us so much encouragement to pray open thy mouth wide he
says and I will fill it or we can come we can come we have
this this prayer of Solomon's and as I said it stretches through
really the the principal part of the chapter it begins there at verse 23 and
it runs right the way through to verse 54 30 verses really
a detailed account of that prayer that the king prayed and time
and again there's that assurance that God hears prayer He says
at the end of verse 30, Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place,
and when thou hearest, forgive. And then again in verse 39, Then
hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and
give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest.
for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children
of men. Verse 43 Hear thou in heaven
thy dwelling place and do according to all that the stranger calleth
to thee for. This assurance is there time
after time. Verse 49 Then hear thou their
prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place
and maintain their cause. He has such an assurance that
The prayer will be heard. God hears prayers. God answers
prayers. And of course, not surprisingly,
we see it so clearly in the Book of Psalms because so many of
the Psalms are really prayers. Thou heardest the voice of my
supplication when I cried unto thee. We read there in the 31st
Psalm verse 22. Thou heardest the voice of my
supplications when I cried unto thee. All God does hear, and
God remarkably answers the prayers of His children. That's the wonder of God. That's
the promise of God. Again, we have the record of
this prayer, not only here in the book of Kings, but it's repeated
in the second book of Chronicles, in chapter 6. And then in the
chapter following that, we have these words at verse
15, Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the
prayers that are made in this place, that's God's assurance
as God answers the prayer recorded there in the second book of Chronicles
God's eyes are open, his ears attend to all the prayers that
are made towards his house, towards the temple of the Lord all God
has given prayer and God will not have it that his people pray
to him in vain. He does not say unto the seed
of Jacob, Seek him, I face, in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
How remarkable it is that when God gives such a promise as that,
that he does not say to Jacob's seed that they can seek him in
vain. He is that God who speaks righteousness. He is not a man
that he should lie. We have that assurance. that
praying breath is never wasted breath none seek him in vain
and so here in verse 15 King Solomon says blessed be the Lord
God of Israel which spake with his mouth unto David my father
and hath with his hand fulfilled it and so as God speaks and God
therefore has a mouth and as God will have his people speak
in return and pray to him and he has an ear so also we see
that God has a hand God has a hand and that with his hand fulfilled
it again in verse 24 Thou spakest
also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand,
as it is this day. And so, in the third place, to
say something with regards to God's hands. Oh, what a hand
it is. Again, think of the language that we have there in
Isaiah 59. We've already made some reference to those words at the
beginning of that chapter, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened,
that he cannot say, neither is ear heavy, that he cannot hear,
but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Oh,
the solemnity of our sin and the consequence of our willfulness
in sinning. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the psalmist says the Lord will not hear me. And yet, how we
trifle with sins. And so, we find that our communion with
God is cut off because of our following. We regard iniquity
in our hearts. But God is a merciful God, a
gracious God, and we see how that God will hear the poor penitent
when he comes in that spirit of real repentance when he comes
to seek the forgiveness of God those are remarkable words in the verses 38 and 39 we referred
to verse 39 but look at the language in the previous verse also verse
38 what prayer and supplication so ever be made by any man or
by all thy people Israel which shall know every man the plague
of his own heart and spread forth his hand toward this house then
hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and
give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest
For thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men. Or
man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart.
And we have to be those who are wholehearted. Ye shall seek me,
he says, and find me, when ye shall search after me with all
your heart. Oh God, preserve us from half-heartedness
in prayers, that we might be those who come sincerely, that
singleness of mind, that wholeness of heart, as we come to call
upon his name and the assurance that he will he will hear us
he hears the poor penitent who comes grieving over his sins
and crying again and again for the mercy of God remember remember
the prayer of Jonah disobedient Jonah so willful in his disobedience
going in the very opposite direction to that that God had commanded
in the opening chapter of his book and then how God pursues
him God in all that happens, read
through that chapter it's a remarkable book, the book of Jonah how God
as it were takes a wind out of his treasuries and hauls it after
that vessel in which Jonah is fleeing from the presence of
the Lord and the men The mariners cast him overboard, and the Lord
has prepared a great fish. He is swallowed by the fish. He is cast out of the sight of
God. We have his prayer. Just as we have King Solomon's
prayer, so we have Jonah's prayer from the fish's bellows. I am
cast out of thy sights, yet will I look again toward thy holy
temple. Now in this prayer, King Solomon
is praying for all those who will look to the temple of the
Lord, wherever they are, whatever circumstances they are in, read
through the prayer. And there is Jonah, obviously
mindful of these things. Cast out of God's sight, he says,
yet will I look again toward thy holy temple. Now, he could
not look in a physical sense towards the temple. because he
didn't know where the temple was. He's in the very depths
of the sea. He's in deep trouble. He gives evidence of that in that prayer that's recorded
in the second chapter. Verse 5, the waters compass me
about even to the soul The depth closed me round about, the weeds
were wrapped about my head, I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.
The earth, with her bars, was about me forever. Yet hast thou
brought up my life from corruption. O Lord my God, when my soul fainted
within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee.
into thine holy temple. Previously, he speaks of looking
again toward God's holy temple. Obviously, he was a man of prayer
before he was a rebellious prophet, because he's looking again towards
the Lord God, but now he speaks of how his prayer has come in
to God. My prayer came in unto thee,
into thine holy temple. And here he is, he's still in
the belly of the fish, he's still in the depths of the sea, and
yet he speaks as if he's already delivered. Yet hast thou brought
up my life from corruption? Or before they call I will answer,
whilst they are yet speaking I will hear. It's a remarkable
prayer. And what is Jonah doing? He couldn't look towards the
temple because of his physical situation. He's in the fish's
belly. But Jonah is looking to him of whom the temple was a
type. Because as King Solomon is a
type of the Lord Jesus, so also is Solomon's temple. Solomon's
temple. There's that remarkable book
of John Bunyan, Solomon's temple spiritualized. And think of the
language of the Lord Jesus whilst he was here upon the earth there
in John chapter 2 when he says to the Jews, destroy this temple
and in three days I will raise it up. And what do the Jews say? Forty and six years was this
temple in building and we'll now raise it up in three days,
they ask. But he spake of the temple of
his body. All the temple is a type of the
incarnation. It's a type of the God-man, it's
a type of the Lord Jesus. And so what is Jonah doing? He's
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we do when we
come to pray, of course. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence. by the
faith of Him. All through Him, Paul says, we
both, that is Jew and Gentile, have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. He only is the mediator between
God and man. We have the mediation of the
Lord Jesus, but there's also that gracious ministry of the
Spirit. We have access, it says, by one Spirit. Oh, how the Spirit
helps us in all our infirmities. We know not what to pray for
as we ought, Paul says, but the Spirit makes intercession for
us with groanings that cannot be uttered. O no wonder then that the King can utter such
words as we have here at verse 15. Blessed be the Lord God of
Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and
that with his hands. fulfilled it. God has a hand. And God is that one who is able
then to answer all the prayers of his people. Nothing is impossible
with him. Has he given his promise? Well,
will he not also fulfill that promise? Who has kept with thy
servant David, my father, that thou promisedest him? Thou spakest
also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand,
as it is this day. How time and again in his epistles
doesn't Paul turn from addressing the churches and he begins to
address the Lord God and to pray, to pray for those that he's addressing
in his epistles. The prayers of Paul in the epistles. I remember
in some of the writings of A.W. Pink when he expounds scripture
he expounds what he calls the prayers of Paul and we have one of those prayers
at the end of Ephesians 3 and we often refer to those words
right at the end of the chapter now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, worlds without end. Oh, this God, the God of King
Solomon, the God of the Apostle Paul, is he not the same God
that we come to address in our prayers every time we gather
in this fashion, every time in our own homes, when we go into
the secret place, wherever we are, this is the God that we
come to. This is a God that we are favored to speak with. A
God who condescends to speak to us in such human terms. Oh
God, He has a mouth, He has spoken, He has spoken here in His Word.
God has an ear, He hears all our poor prayers, and He has
a hand. Oh, and what a mighty hand that
is. He's able to do exceeding, abundantly,
above all that we ask or think. Well, the Lord help us to come
and pray to Him tonight. The Lord bless His Word to us.
Let us, before we pray, sing our second praise, the hymn 1056,
the tune is Blockley 304. See a poor sinner, dearest Lord,
whose soul, encouraged by Thy Word, at mercy's footstool would
remain, and there would look and look again 10 56 2 3 0 4