Today’s reading: 1 Kings 8; 1 Thessalonians 1
I don’t remember if I have talked about this on here before or not, but 1 Kings 8 brings up something that I have been wondering about for a little while now, and that is what, if anything, we should assume about the prayers we come across in the Bible.
This question first came up to me with regard to the Psalms, but from how I have heard this prayer of Solomon taught before, I think the question would equally apply here. In terms of the Psalms though, they seem to be elevated by a lot of Christians above the rest of the biblical texts and held up is as necessarily good examples of prayer. I don’t mean held up as good models of prayer, but necessarily righteous prayers in and of themselves. So when David prays, in Psalm 109, for example, for God to curse the children of his enemies, that’s not taken as just a good model of prayer in that we should be open and honest with where we are at with the Lord, not feeling the need to hold back or sugar coat our prayers, but as a righteous prayer, leaving us trying to justify why it is good and righteous to ask for God to judge someone’s children even though God declares that a child shall not be liable for his father’s sin or vice versa. So I don’t question whether such prayers should be in the Bible, or whether they are good examples for us to look to to learn how God desires us to relate to Him in prayer, but I do question the assumption that, just because it appears in the Bible, it is necessarily a good/theologically accurate prayer.
This prayer of Solomon here fits the same bill for me. This is a great prayer and I think there is a lot to be gleaned from how he prays, his active recognition that God is not confined to a house on earth, his expectation that God will hear and answer the prayers of His people, etc. But does that also mean that everything in Solomon’s prayer is a good thing for him to be praying, or a proper/righteous desire?
The main thing about this prayer that leads me to say this is Solomon’s continuous focus on prayers directed at the temple. He talks about the man’s oath made before the altar, the prayers of repentance of the people made in the temple, prayers made facing toward/directed at the temple, etc. So while he acknowledges that God is not confined to the temple, all his focus is on prayers made in/toward the temple, as though that somehow makes their prayers more effective or something. The way he prays makes it seem like he is treating the temple like an antenna of sorts such that regular prayers may or may not make it through, but prayers funneled through the temple will actually make it to God with greater power or clarity or something.
Here’s the thing, none of us has perfectly proper theological knowledge and understanding in every area, and the biblical authors were no different. Just because God gave Solomon great wisdom doesn’t mean every idea and thought he had about God was always proper or spot on. Just like when I listen to my children pray sometimes wildly inaccurate things, but don’t feel the need to stop and correct them because they are young, have plenty of time to learn, and I bet God is just thrilled that they love talking to him, so too all of us have things that we think we understand and may not realize for years, or even at all on this side of heaven, that we are wrong or off about. So I’m not suggesting Solomon’s prayer is bad, or that it shouldn’t be in the Bible, only that with prayers in the Bible in general, I don’t think we should be elevating them or assuming they are necessarily more “perfect” than other things people say. 1 Kings is a narrative describing what happened, not a prescriptive letter detailing what we are supposed to do. We can glean a lot from such a narrative, but I also think it’s important that we not lose sight of what it is and start treating it as though everything Solomon prays is good and proper for us to believe or seek to apply in some way.
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