Being Present in Prayer

I am blessed to have many great memories of my grandpa. I’ve had a few friends growing up who never knew their grandparents, so even though my grandpa has been gone for twelve years I am thankful for the time I was able to spend with him. He really was a remarkable man.

There’s one memory I have in particular that defines who he was for me more than any other. When we were at his house and it was mealtime I didn’t look forward to the prayer much. The reason was that my grandpa would be praying, and he didn’t say “Bless the meat, let’s eat.” When my grandpa prayed you knew you were going to be there for a while. Apparently no one ever told him that the prayer before a meal is just something you do to look like you’re a Christian, he thought you were really supposed to pray. So he would launch into what seemed like a one-hour prayer before every meal and I would sit at the other end of the big kitchen table thinking, “I want mashed potatoes.”

That all changed one day shortly before my grandpa’s death. We were sitting at that same kitchen table as we had so many times before and my grandpa started praying, but for some reason I wasn’t thinking about the potatoes, I was actually focusing on what he was saying. He prayed for the members of our family as though our wellbeing depended on that prayer, he prayed for the kingdom of God like it was the most important thing in the world, and somewhere in the middle of his prayer he began to cry. It wasn’t the first time he had cried while he was praying, but in the past I had always just thought it was a little strange. I don’t know if it was a little more maturity under my belt or just the Holy Spirit making me pay attention to something he’d want me to remember later, but this time it grabbed my attention and I was moved—I wanted to start crying too. For the first time I understood that he was crying, even weeping, because he cared about what he was praying with a depth I couldn’t even fathom at the time. His prayer was passionate and well thought out. His mind and his heart were fully engaged crying out to his father. Without realizing it my grandpa was teaching me to pray.

This is the first week in a nine-week series on the great prayers of the Bible. Over the next nine weeks we’re not going to be looking at passages about prayer, we will be looking at actual prayers. And just like I learned from my grandpa just by being there when he prayed, we will learn about prayer by being with these men of the Bible as they pray.

Today we’re looking at the prayer Solomon offered on behalf of all the people of Israel at the dedication of the temple. This is a long prayer, so we’re not going to read the whole thing right now, though we will cover it through the course of the sermon. I want to start out by reading verses 22-24 and 52-55.

When I first read this prayer I thought, “Wow, that’s long. Is it really one of the great prayers of the Bible?” But as I studied it more I realized some things that made it come alive and made it seem truly amazing. In looking at this prayer it is important to understand some things about the context of it.

This was a big day for the people of Israel. To this point in their history the Name of God had dwelled in the tabernacle with the arc of the covenant. This was the box where the tablets with the Ten Commandments were kept—it was the most sacred item in Israel’s possession. The tabernacle was a tent that could be taken down and moved around, and this was where the people worshipped God. For a long time they had to have a tabernacle because the people themselves were very nomadic—and even though at this point God has brought them into the land of Canaan the tabernacle still reminds them of their transient past.

So this was a big day because the Name of God was moving from a portable tent to a permanent temple. And this symbolized the fact that God had established his people in the land—it symbolized the fulfillment of God’s promise to his people when they left Egypt. This was the day that would symbolize the fulfillment of one of the great hopes of Israel.

The significance of this day and what it symbolized was not lost on Solomon. He had finished the temple in the eighth month and it says that the dedication takes place in the seventh month, which means he waited eleven months between the time it was finished and when it was dedicated, why would he do that? The seventh month of the Jewish calendar is when the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths is celebrated. It is called the Feast of booths because the people leave their homes and live in tents (called booths) for the duration of the festival to remind them of their time wandering in the desert after they left Egypt. Solomon wanted the transience symbolized in the Feast of Booths to be placed in direct contrast to the permanence symbolized in the dedication of the temple. This was truly a big day!

Not only is this a big day, but the person offering the prayer is Solomon. God had granted Solomon one request and Solomon had asked for wisdom. God granted his request by making him the wisest man to ever live. So the wisest man to ever live is offering a prayer on one of the biggest days in the history of Israel—this should be a great prayer!

There are three things that make this a truly amazing prayer.

First, Solomon’s prayer displays an understanding of God’s relationship with Israel and his intentions for them. He starts off by asking God to uphold the promise he had made to David to have one of his descendants sit on Israel’s throne forever as long as they were obedient to God. Of the seven sections of his prayer that follow five of them line up exactly with the covenant God made with the Israelites. Really quick I want to go through and show you how this prayer Solomon prays displays great understanding of God’s relationship with his people.

In verses 31-32 it says…now flip over to Deuteronomy 25:1. Solomon understands that being the people of God means that ultimately God is their judge. Even though Solomon has been given great wisdom by God he know that God is the only judge who is completely just and trustworthy, so he calls on him to be the judge of the people.

In verse 33 it says…and this refers to passages like Leviticus 26:14-15 and 17. God told his people that if they obeyed him he would be with them in battle but if they disobeyed then he would not be with them and they would fall to their enemies. In each of the upcoming examples this will be the formula. Obedience leads to blessing and disobedience leads to curses. The basis of the covenant was God’s love for the Israelites and in return he required that they be faithful to him and not chase after other gods—something it turns out they weren’t too good at doing.

The next one is in verse 35 and Deuteronomy 25:12 and 24. Here the obedience of the people is tied to rain coming on the land. Then in verse 37 and Deuteronomy 25:21-22 it describes plagues that would come on the Israelites if they were disobedient. Verse 44 and Deuteronomy 25:7 and 25 have to do with the Lord’s favor in battle. And finally, verse 46 and Deuteronomy 28:64 deal with the Israelites being taken into captivity because of their disobedience.

Solomon understands that God has promised to bless the Israelites as long as they follow his ways and that they will be disciplined when they don’t.

This is one of the things we can learn about prayer from Solomon—understanding gives great meaning to our prayer. It’s not that Solomon’s prayer was planned out, we don’t know whether it was or not, but he was able to pray in accordance with reality because he knew how God related to his people and how the people related to God. Our prayers will become more meaningful as we incorporate our understanding of God’s relationship with us into the prayers.

This is important because understanding shows a depth of relationship.

Illustration: Two speeches by best men at wedding receptions. The first a wedding where the speech is very general and short. The second what Ryan said at my wedding that covered our past, our present, and what he hoped for my marriage. The second clearly displaying a closer relationship because of the depth of understanding displayed.

It may sound trite, but the best way for us to have more understanding in our prayer is by studying the Scriptures. This is where God has revealed how he relates to us, his promises, and the hope we have in him. So the better we know the Scriptures the more understanding we will have in our prayer.

The second reason this is an amazing prayer is because of the passion with which Solomon prayed. I know you’re probably thinking, how do you know he was passionate? You weren’t there. Look at verse 22. It says that as Solomon began to pray he stood facing the temple with his hands raised. Now look at verse 54. The prayer is over and it says that Solomon rose from the place where he had been kneeling. During the course of his prayer Solomon was so moved by what he was praying that he sank to his knees before God.

And his understanding drove even Solomon’s passion. He understood the covenant and that the people would fail to uphold their end. In verse 46 he acknowledges that the people will sin because all people do—a lot like what Paul said in Romans 3:23. Solomon also understood the amazing faithfulness and love of God and that his mercy was unending. So because of the people’s sin and God’s mercy he was passionate in crying out to the God who would have mercy on his people.

My best picture of this is that day when my grandpa began to weep while he prayed. In both cases these men were so moved by the importance and magnitude of their prayers that it resulted in a physical expression—kneeling for Solomon and tears for my grandpa.

Both Solomon and my grandpa prayed prayers that were well informed by God’s relationship with his people and people’s tendency to be unfaithful, and they prayed those prayers with passion.

Understanding and passion are great, but without the third thing that amazes me about Solomon’s prayer neither of them would be possible. But before I tell you what that is I want to tell you about a study I read this week.

Illustration: Study where they found that people who zone out while they read have lower reading comprehension than those who don’t.

The thing that amazes me most about Solomon’s prayer is that he was there for it. I know that sounds silly, but I am amazed that he was fully present when he prayed. I know we’re physically present when we pray, but think how often our minds are far from engaged in the prayers we are bringing to God. Solomon was there physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Just like the people who zoned out while they were reading had lower comprehension, I think much of the time we’re not fully present when we pray.

There are many times where we pray and if someone quizzed us over what we just prayed about we’d have no idea. We’ve learned enough clichés to fill up a few minutes of prayer without really having to think about what we’re saying. We can appear to be talking to God while we’re critiquing last night’s movie in our mind.

Our culture also teaches us not to be present with people. I’ve noticed more and more signs at restaurants lately that ask you to silence your cell phone before ordering. We are physically present with the order taker but somewhere else mentally and emotionally.

But being present in prayer is essential to both a depth of understanding and to passion. If we are not focused we will repeat things mindlessly and there is no way we will be passionate about what we are saying.

And just like the best way to grow in our understanding is to read the Scriptures, the best way to be present in prayer is to see it as a discipline. When our minds wander we have to pull them back and force ourselves to focus on each sentence—even every word—that we utter. As we practice this it will get easier, but our minds have been trained not to focus on one thing at a time.

So in this first prayer in our series Solomon and my grandpa teach us that prayer is enriched by understanding and passion, and those are only possible through presence.