Ecclesiastes 1:16
I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
Solomon looked back on his exalted standing in Jerusalem and on the surpassing wisdom and knowledge he believed he had gained beyond all who had ruled there before him. His inward communing was a self-congratulatory review of greatness attained and intellectual experience accumulated. That review marked the height from which his decline began, for eminence and learning were set in his mind as personal possessions rather than trusts from God.
Neither his unmatched wisdom nor his prosperity preserved his loyalty, because pride in what he had achieved broke his communion with God and bent his desires toward pleasure. The heart that had been gifted for fellowship with heaven was drawn aside to seek gratification for itself. Thus this self-reflection opens his account of pursuing fulfillment apart from God, a pursuit that led him deliberately to give his heart to the investigation of madness and folly.