Word of Encouragement (03/12/2024)
And Solomon said, "You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 7 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" (1 Kings 3:6-9)
What is the request Solomon brings to God? “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people” (v. 9).
When God announced to him that He would grant him one wish, Solomon did not ask for any material blessing for his personal happiness and pleasure. He asked for “an understanding mind” (wisdom), and a particular kind at that. It was the wisdom he needed “to govern your people, “to discern between good and evil.” He wanted this kind of wisdom so that he could carry out his duty as king over God’s people. This shows that his main concern was not his personal well-being and happiness; it was the calling God had extended to him. The LORD was delighted by Solomon’s approach to his life: “It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this” (v. 10). Not only did God grant this wish but also what he did not ask, “both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days” (v. 13).
This interaction reaffirms that meaning is what gives happiness (a sense of well-being), not vice versa. Happiness is not bad. We all desire happiness because our good God wired us that way. The question is where we draw our happiness from. The things that God commended Solomon for not asking is instructive: “long life or riches or the life of your enemies” (v. 11). People think that long life will give them happiness. Does it? “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10). How about riches? If we don’t know how to be content, no amount of riches will give us happiness. Others think that they will finally be happy when all their problems are removed (as represented by “the life of your enemies”). Will we ever be free of problems in this fallen life? Have we not thought that, if we paid off this debt or got over this illness, we would be happy? Did it? Does happiness imply the absence of trouble? Solomon wisely chose meaning over happiness.
Let us also notice God’s generosity. Pleased with Solomon’s request, God granted him not only his wish but also other blessings. We know what that is like. When our children obey us readily with cheerfulness, our hearts open wide toward them and desire to shower them with gifts. That is precisely what we see here. But what God did for Solomon is only a small fraction of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. We read in Rom. 5:8, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We did not do anything to open God’s heart wide toward us. Yet, He did out of His gracious mercy. So, we can have this assurance: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Rom. 8:32)? Should we not rejoice in the Lord?