I also noticed for the first time how scattered things were before the temple was built. Jerusalem became the place God named as the city to dwell which was where the temple was built. Prior to that, the tent of meeting was in a different location from the ark of the covenant and people had various alters for sacrifices, probables to proximity. The temple made everything centralized again.

Solomon definitely prophesied in that prayer for the newly built temple. He spoke about the Israelites being taken captive and was already pleading on their behalf (2 Chr 6:36-39) I also love that he also prophesied about foreign nations coming to know and serve God, even at that time. It makes it so obvious that God has always been intentional about more than just Israel.

What I noticed was that Solomon prayed the Word of God back to God. His prayer was comprised of some of the Law and the promises of God, almost verbatim, from the books we've read thus far. Goes to show that we are to get our vocabulary for prayer from the Word.