Article April 22, 1985 Issue

The prayer that heals

DILYS MORRISON

Nearly three thousand years ago, a man lifted up his arms before a congregation of people and prayed. The man was Solomon, and the occasion was the completion of the great temple, the house of the Lord.

The graphic account that follows in I Kings illustrates an approach to prayer. Solomon started his prayer by declaring, "There is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath." He went on to acknowledge God's presence and to ask for the fulfillment of the people's righteous petitions. In his benediction that followed the prayer, he asked God to incline the hearts of the people to keep God's commandments and statutes. He asked that his prayer be constantly before the Lord, to maintain the cause of himself and his people as the occasion should demand, "that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else."^{I Kings 8:23, 60.}

Solomon's prayer was offered at a time of thanksgiving for work accomplished. But it has elements similar to those found in the prayer of a later king, Hezekiah of Judah, who asked God for immediate help. The king of Assyria had attacked the walled cities of Judah and taken them. His spokesman had boasted to the Jews that they could not expect Hezekiah to deliver them out of the hand of the Assyrian king, nor could they trust in their God to help them. When Hezekiah heard of this, and later received a threatening message from the same Assyrian spokesman, he prayed. And he began as did Solomon by acknowledging God's greatness. Then he put the case before God. He asked God to save the people of Jerusalem and to do it so that all might "know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only."^{II Kings 19:19.} The prophet Isaiah assured Hezekiah that God had heard his prayer. And he gave the king God's answer: "Thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return .... For I will defend this city, to save it."^{II Kings 19:32-34.} What an answer to prayer!