1 Kings 8:11

Could not stand. So great was the overpowering glory of God’s presence that the officiating priests were forced temporarily to withdraw. So also when the tabernacle was first set up, Moses was not able to enter because of the glory of God which filled the sacred tent (Ex. 40:35). When Isaiah had his vision of God, the train of divine glory filled the Temple, and Isaiah felt himself undone because of having come so near to the presence of the Lord (Isa. 6:1-5). The disciples of Jesus likewise trembled as the cloud of God’s glory overshadowed them on the mount of transfiguration (Luke 9:34). Why do men experience such reactions when in the presence of God? It is because of the very nature of God, His greatness and His holiness, His grandeur and sublimity, His majesty and might. Even in the presence of the great forces of nature men often stand in awe. But the God of heaven is so infinitely holy that sinful man cannot come into His sublime presence and continue to exist. God is like a consuming fire, which unholy men cannot approach without being destroyed.

The cloud in the Temple was not God, but it was a means by which the Lord veiled His presence to the end that man might not be consumed. So great was the divine glory on the occasion of the dedication of the Temple that in spite of the enveloping cloud, the ministering priests were forced to draw back in holy awe. Perhaps it was a similar consciousness of the divine presence that drew forth from David his words of wonder and praise when the ark was brought into the tent of the Lord (1 Chron. 16:25, 27, 34).