In First Kings, chapter eight, verse twenty-nine, the name of God represents His presence, character, and glory. This theme stanza is part of Solomon’s prayer of dedication that he was saying to the Lord. Solomon begins his opening statement to God in verse twenty-three and ends at fifty-three. However, the theme here refers back to First Kings eight, verse sixteen, and appears to imply all that contains in the expansion there alluded to from Second Chronicles six, verse six, that God had chosen Jerusalem as the place for His temple. This verse twenty-nine indicates His revelation of Himself with all His attributes.
The opening line in the theme verse, “That thine eyes may be open towards this house night and day,” that is, to the people that pray in it, as they are to his righteous ones, Psalms thirty-three, verse fourteen, even towards the place of which thou hast my name shall be there: there should be some displays of his presence, power, and providence, of goodness, grace, and mercy. “That thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make towards this place:” not only to what Solomon should make in it, but to what he should make in his own house, with his face directed towards this, as would be, and was the practice of good people in later times, indeed, even when the temple lay in ruins.
Solomon stood before the altar: This position was in the court on a brazen scaffold erected for the occasion, as in Second Chronicles six, verse thirteen. With uplifted hands, he performed the solemn act of consecration. This sublime prayer from First Kings eight, verses twenty-two through thirty-five, which breathes sentiments of the loftiest piety blended with humility, naturally bore a reference to the national blessing and curse contained in the law, the burden of it, after an ascription of praise to the Lord for the bestowment of the former, was an earnest supplication for deliverance from the latter.