1 Kings 8:12-21--Solomon Blesses the LORD

1 Kings 8:12-21
English Standard Version

Solomon Blesses the LORD
12 Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 13 I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.” 14 Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. 15 And he said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying, 16 ‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.’ 17 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 18 But the LORD said to David my father, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. 19 Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ 20 Now the LORD has fulfilled his promise that he made. For I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and I have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. 21 And there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

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Solomon declares to all the people that the Temple that he had built was to be an exalted house for the LORD to dwell forever.  With this, Solomon then turned to and blessed the people retelling how the LORD had fulfilled all the promises He had made to them and how He had been with them all this time, even though He had chosen to live in a Tabernacle while they lived in permanent dwellings.

Solomon told of how David saw this and how it was within David's heart to build a permanent dwelling place for the LORD that was bigger and more beautiful than any other house including his own palace.  The LORD heard David's request and it pleased Him, but it was not for David to do himself, but the LORD told David that it would be David's son who would build the house of the LORD (Solomon partially fulfills this, but it is Jesus the Son of David, that will ultimately fulfill this).

Solomon is the one who has taken the throne in place of his father David, and he is the one the LORD allowed to build a Temple for Him, and Solomon indeed provided a suitable place for the Ark of the Covenant and the stone tablets that were inside it, though we can hear some pride in how Solomon says these words as he uses the word "I" so much here where if it were David saying these things, I would imagine David would have said "your servant" did such-and-such or so-and-so.  It may be nothing more than Solomon getting caught up in the moment because he changes his tune a little bit in the next passage we'll study when he realizes that the LORD is to great to be contained in all of heaven and earth, so he has no hope of the LORD being contained even in this large building that was build for Him.  The Bible shows us people the way they really were and not a perfect version of them, so I appreciate that we see that Solomon struggled with pride in this moment and then the LORD seemed to bring him around from that to realize that even this great task he accomplished was inconsequential to the creation of all things visible and invisible that the LORD spoke into existence.  Solomon is another person in the Old Testament that points us forward to Christ (in that Solomon was full of the wisdom of God and Jesus is the Wisdom of God), but Solomon is not the Christ for he battles with his own sins that we will see even more clearly in the coming chapters.