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Joseph Charles Philpot Bevindelijke geschriften & prediking

365 Days with Philpot

March 13

Het gebed van Salomo

Vandaag

3 min. read

Moreover concerning the stranger, which is not of Thy people Israel, but is come from a far country for Thy great Name’s sake, and Thy mighty hand, and Thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; then hear Thou from the heavens.
2 Chronicles 6:32-33

There are people who cannot say much about God’s dealings with their souls, but who still cannot say that they know no desire after God, that they feel no sensibility, no conscience, no prayer, no supplication, no hungering and no thirsting after the blessings of God. That they dare not deny, but much more they cannot say. Well, these are “strangers from a far country,” who come “for Thy great Name’s sake, and Thy mighty hand, and Thy stretched out arm.” They come to receive the mercy proclaimed in the gospel, and, if it please God, to be blessed with a revelation of His love.

They “come and pray in this house,” that is, in the Name of the Lord Jesus and looking to Him alone. Their heart is full of prayer. The Lord has taught them to fear His great Name, and He has put a cry and a sigh for mercy into their hearts. Will the Lord refuse to listen to their cry? “Then,” prays the king of Israel, “hear Thou from the heavens, even from Thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for.”

The “stranger” cries to God for mercy, for some sense of pardon, and for the knowledge that he has a personal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ; that his conscience is sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, and that he can say without fear or doubt, “The Lord is my God.” He does not come defiantly and presumptuously, but humbly and brokenly, as a “stranger.” He makes no demands, he shows no misplaced pride, he puts no confidence in the flesh. He comes as he really is, as a “stranger,” and asks the Lord to show him some particular mercy and to give him some particular blessing, purely for the sake of His abounding and sovereign grace.

Solomon, as a type of the Mediator, prays the Lord to do “according to all that the stranger calleth to Him for.” And that He will surely do; He must do it for His own Name’s sake. For every prayer that is offered in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the teachings…

Reading: 2 Chronicles 6:29-42

To the reader…

When you feel yourself a stranger from a far country, you may not be able to say much about God’s dealings with your soul, yet you dare not deny either that there lives in you a hunger, a thirst, a sigh for mercy. Then you are not forgotten in this petition of Solomon. It is for just such people that he prays: “Then hear Thou from the heavens, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for.”

So come as you are: not demanding, not presuming, with no confidence in the flesh, but humbly, as a stranger who has nothing but his need. Come in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and ask for pardon, for the sprinkling of the blood of the Lamb, for the word, “The Lord is my God.” Those whom the Lord has taught to fear His great Name, and in whose hearts He has put a sigh, He will not turn away, for His own Name’s sake. His grace is greater than your strangeness.

With warm regards,
The compilers of jcphilpot.nl