As Solomon is praying, we hear that He knows the truth. He knows that if he wants his son to sit on the throne he needs to walk in God’s law. We also know he knows the truth that he will sin. He says that there is no one who does not sin. That includes himself. He goes on to to ask God to receive the repentant and heal and restore what was harmed because of His people’s sins.

Solomon knows the truth, but he seems to forget it at some point. There is a long list of problems that Solomon knows sin can, or maybe I should say, will cause.

They include being defeated by an enemy, drought, famine, pestilence, plague, sickness.

It’s a shame that God has to go to such extents to get His people’s attention to wake them up to realize they have walked away from Him.

But we know He does. We need to recognize His hand in our lives and in the world. Our lives aren’t accidents. Our lives aren’t at the whim of bacteria floating in the breeze.

In Christ we have victory over our enemies. When our enemies, such as temptation, have triumph over us, we see our sinful heart.

When the enemy triumphs, we should realize we’re not walking with God as we might have presumed. There’s something amiss in our heart that was willing and able to turn aside. And we turn back to God and cry out and He hears and heals.

Solomon is spared much of such trouble during his reign, giving the kingdom rest. His trouble came in a different package.

His wisdom doesn’t save him from sin, but it drives him mad in a way, pursing wisdom, pursing knowledge. It all left him empty until he realized there was nothing worth pursuing other than keeping God’s commandments.

There is where salvation lies, in keeping God’s commandments. That’s not salvation by works because we can’t keep the commandments on our own, but we can do it by the power of His Spirit at work in us.