Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 8:58

That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

58. that he may incline our hearts unto him ] Which will not happen if He leave or forsake His people.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Incline our hearts – This is a doctrine which first appears in Scripture in the Davidical Psalms (see the margin reference and Psa 141:4). Solomon in this prayer seems to be thoroughly penetrated with his fathers spirit.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

That he may incline our hearts unto him; that he may not only bless us with outward prosperity and glory, but especially with spiritual blessings; and that as he hath given us his word and statutes to teach and direct us, so he would by his Holy Spirit effectually incline and engage our hearts to keep and obey them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

That he may incline our hearts unto him,…. By his Spirit, to love, fear, and serve him; to attend to his worship, word, and ordinances:

to walk in all his ways; he has prescribed and directed to:

and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers; all his laws, moral, ceremonial, and judicial.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(58) That he may incline . . .Comparing this verse with the exhortation of 1Ki. 8:61, we find exemplified the faith which pervades all Holy Scripture and underlies the whole idea of covenant with God. It is a faith in the true, though mysterious, co-operation of the preventing grace of God, which must be recognised in all adequate conceptions of Him, as the Source of all life and action, physical and spiritual, and of that free responsibility of man which is the ultimate truth of the inner human consciousness. God inclines the heart and yet the heart must yield itself. The conviction of this truth naturally grows deeper and plainer, in proportion as man realises better the inner life of the soul as contrasted with the outer life of event and action, and realises accordingly the dominion of God over the soul by His grace, over and above His rule over the visible world by His providence. Hence it comes out especially in the Psalms, the Proverbs, and the Prophetic books. It is instructive, for example, to observe how through the great psalm of the Law (Psalms 119) the conviction again and again expresses itself that only by His gift can the heart be enabled to obey it. (See 1Ki. 8:26-27; 1Ki. 8:32-33; 1Ki. 8:36, &c.) In the New Testament, the covenant of the Spirit, the truth is brought out in all its fulness; perhaps most vividly in the celebrated paradox of Php. 2:12-13, Work out your own salvation . . . For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1Ki 8:58 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

Ver. 58. That he may incline our hearts. ] Cause us to keep his commandments, Eze 36:26-27 bend us to the obedience of his will. Lex iubet, gratia iuvat.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)