Solomon Prays for Wisdom

1 "God of my ancestors, merciful Lord, by your word you created everything. 2By your Wisdom you made us humans to rule all creation, 3to govern the world with holiness and righteousness, to administer justice with integrity. 4Give me the Wisdom that sits beside your throne; give me a place among your children. 5I am your slave, as was my mother before me. I am only human. I am not strong, and my life will be short. I have little understanding of the Law or of how to apply it. 6Even if someone is perfect, he will be thought of as nothing without the Wisdom that comes from you. 7You chose me over everyone else to be the king of your own people, to judge your sons and daughters. 8You told me to build a temple on your sacred mountain, an altar in Jerusalem, the city you chose as your home. It is a copy of that temple in heaven, which you prepared at the beginning. 9Wisdom is with you and knows your actions; she was present when you made the world. She knows what pleases you, what is right and in accordance with your commands. 10Send her from the holy heavens, down from your glorious throne, so that she may work at my side, and I may learn what pleases you. 11She knows and understands everything, and will guide me intelligently in what I do. Her glory will protect me. 12Then I will judge your people fairly, and be worthy of my father's throne. My actions will be acceptable.

13"Who can ever learn the will of God? 14Human reason is not adequate for the task, and our philosophies tend to mislead us, 15because our mortal bodies weigh our souls down. The body is a temporary structure made of earth, a burden to the active mind. 16All we can do is make guesses about things on earth; we must struggle to learn about things that are close to us. Who, then, can ever hope to understand heavenly things? 17No one has ever learned your will, unless you first gave him Wisdom, and sent your holy spirit down to him. 18In this way people on earth have been set on the right path, have learned what pleases you, and have been kept safe by Wisdom."