In today’s reading of 2 Chronicles 6 we have Solomon’s remarkable prayer at the dedication of the wonderful Temple he had just completed. It was constructed of cedar, but just about all the interior had been overlaid with gold. Imagine it! The greatest focus of the gold was on the Most Holy Place where Israel’s God was to dwell between the cherubim above the ark.

Solomon “knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly … and spread out his hands toward heaven” (verse 13). He was on a raised bronze platform about 1.4 metres high. In his humility he is aware of the unimaginable greatness of God. His words include, “but will God indeed dwell with man on earth? Behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you …” (verse 18). Solomon then enumerates the various situations which will cause men and women to offer prayers here.

Verse 29 (and onwards) is noteworthy. “Whatever prayer, whatever plea is made … each knows his own affliction and his own sorrow … then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you, you only know the hearts of the children of mankind”.

There is much food for mediation here. God can access all hearts and He has a relationship with some of them to “know” them! This perception of Solomon reflects the words of his father David in Psalm 11, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of men. The LORD tests the righteous … he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face” (verses 4,5,7).

To those who were critical of him Jesus said, “I know that you do not have the love of God within you” (John 5:42). God and Jesus know our hearts! Does that affect your living and the way you think?