In worship, it’s better to have heart without words than words without heart. But why not both?
The climax of Solomon’s prayer is an invitation from a little man on a little planet that’s like a grain of sand on the shore of trackless space. The God of whom he said, “Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You” (2 Chron 6:18), he now invites to move into the temple. “Now therefore, arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place” (v 41). What happened?“When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple” (2 Chron 7:1). Is it any wonder “the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled” it (v 2)? If He overflows heaven, surely He’d overflow the house. But it didn’t stay that way. The Lord made room for the priests to work (v 6), just as He allows us to serve in His presence today. And speaking of overflowing, “Solomon consecrated the middle of the court…because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the…offerings” (v 7). On this occasion, there wasn’t enough room. In the days of Hezekiah, “the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast another seven days” (30:23), because there wasn’t enough time. There we read, “since the time of Solomon…there had been nothing like this” (v 26). Even greater than that, in Josiah’s time, there weren’t enough priests. So the Levites “prepared portions…for the priests, because the priests…were busy in offering burnt offerings…until night” (35:14). Of that feast we read, “There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel” (v 18). Imagine doubling the time for our worship, or making more room for sacrifice, or encouraging more people to join in praise! Lord, please give us larger thoughts and hearts for worship.