1 Kings 8:50

Forgive thy people. This prayer of Solomon, offered three and a half centuries before the Exile, is very similar to the prayer of Daniel at the time the captivity in Babylon was drawing to its close (Dan. 9:2-19). As the Temple was being dedicated there seemed little need for such a prayer as this. But with inspired foresight, Solomon envisioned an hour when that splendid Temple would lie in ruins, when the Land of Promise would be a land of bitterness and distress, and the children of Israel would be outcasts in an alien land. There is a touching pathos in the fact that at the hour of Israel’s greatest glory, Solomon prayed the same kind of prayer that Daniel prayed at the hour of his nation’s greatest shame. Both prayers were needed and both were heard. The first was not only a prayer, it was also a message of warning that would help to avert the doom that transgression would bring. The other would rise to a God in heaven who waited only for a genuine repentance on the part of His people before permitting their return from captivity.