When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
Solomon having made a general surrender of this house to God, which God had signified his acceptance of by taking possession, next follows Solomon's prayer, in which he makes a more particular declaration of the uses of that surrender, with all humility and reverence, desiring that God would agree thereto.
Commenting on 1 Kings 8:22-53
When heaven is shut up,.... As it may be said to be when the air is quite serene, and not a cloud in it: and there is no rain; in its season, neither the former nor the latter, as it was in the times of Elijah: because they have sinned against thee; want of rain was threatened in case of sin, and was always the...
HIS PRAYER. (1Ki. 8:22-61) Solomon stood before the altar--This position was in the court of the people, on a brazen scaffold erected for the occasion (Ch2 6:13), fronting the altar of burnt offering, and surrounded by a mighty concourse of people.
Commenting on 1 Kings 8:22-61