The Glory of the Lord Fills Solomon's Temple

The work was finished. Every beam, every curtain, every vessel of gold and silver that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord stood complete. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and all the vessels—and placed them in the treasuries of the house of God. The temple was ready, but it was not yet filled.

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the princes of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem. The purpose was singular: to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. All the men of Israel gathered themselves to the king at the feast in the seventh month.

When the elders of Israel came, the Levites took up the ark. They brought up the ark, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. These the priests, the Levites, brought up. The ark had traveled with Israel through wilderness and war, and now it was being carried to its final resting place.

King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled to him stood before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude. The scale of the sacrifice matched the weight of the moment.

The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, covering the ark and its staves above. The staves were so long that their ends could be seen from the ark before the oracle, but they were not seen outside. And there it is unto this day.

Inside the ark there was nothing except the two tables of stone that Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. The tablets were the core of the covenant, the law written by God's own hand.

When the priests came out of the holy place—for all the priests that were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their courses—the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar. They were arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and psalteries and harps. With them were a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets.

The trumpeters and singers were as one, making one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord. They lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, “For he is good; for his lovingkindness endures forever.”

Then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord. The cloud was so thick that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of it. The glory of the Lord filled the house of God. The temple, for all its gold and cedar and cherubim, became nothing more than a vessel for the presence that could not be contained.