3 The Lord said to him, " I have heard your prayer and your supplication , which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever e , and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually e . 4 "As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked , in integrity of heart and uprightness , doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances , 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever , just as I promised to your father David , saying , 'You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel .' 6 " But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name , I will cast out of My sight . So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples . 8 "And this house will become a heap of ruins ; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say , ' Why e has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house ?' 9 "And they will say , ' Because e they forsook the Lord their God , who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt , and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore e the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.' "
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Kings 9:3-9
Commentary on 1 Kings 9:1-9
(Read 1 Kings 9:1-9)
God warned Solomon, now he had newly built and dedicated the temple, that he and his people might not be high-minded, but fear. After all the services we can perform, we stand upon the same terms with the Lord as before. Nothing can purchase for us liberty to sin, nor would the true believer desire such a licence. He would rather be chastened of the Lord, than be allowed to go on with ease and prosperity in sin.