"One thing I have desired of the Lord"

(Psalm 27:4)

David wrote:

“One thing I have desired of the Lord,

That will I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord

All the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the Lord,

And to enquire in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4).

This verse conveys an atmosphere of peaceful and undisturbed focus but – amazingly – it comes right in the middle of a period of extreme tumult and danger in David’s life.

On reading the entire psalm, which is steeped in conflict with threats of cruelty and violence, we might be tempted to say to David: “Are you sure about your priorities, David? Look! You are running to save your life, pursued by Saul and the most powerful army in the land! Don’t you think that your “One thing” should be about survival just now? Shouldn’t your focus be on praying for supernatural strength and protection from the Lord of hosts?

David did not react in that way, though. Not at all – because he had learnt the secret to overcoming every situation in his life, however terrifying it may have appeared to be. He knew that the secret to overcoming every danger and every sorrow was to pursue, adore, cling to, and then to remain in, the presence of God.

It is striking that David uses the words “temple” and “house of the Lord” even though the temple in Jerusalem – which David himself had envisioned to serve as God’s dwelling place on earth – did not yet physically exist. Nevertheless, for him, these words already conveyed the very presence of God. For David, they were much more than metaphor – they expressed a profound truth that could actually be experienced “in the land of the living” (see verse 13).

The remarkable thing is that David was living under the Old Covenant when God’s people’s experience of the presence, or the Spirit, of God was strictly limited to particular places and occasions. It was not freely accessible in the way that the Holy Spirit is today, under the New Covenant (or New Testament).

So, if David could boldly declare his desire for God’s presence – above everything else – then how much more does this bold desire speak to the hearts of present-day believers! 

The situation is totally different now, because Jesus abolished every hint of separation between God and humankind on the cross and He ushered in a completely new life of union and oneness with God. Through His sacrifice and ascension, Jesus magnificently opened the way for the Holy Spirit to descend to earth and to fill believers with His radiant presence.

It is wondrous to consider that, now, those who believe in Jesus actually become temples of the Holy Spirit. We have the unspeakable privilege of hosting the very presence of the Lord – constantly and without limit: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16).

I think that, sometimes, we can become so familiar with hearing these words in our minds that we don’t ponder their awesome significance long enough for them to set our hearts on fire.  

David’s number one desire was to seek and to dwell in the presence of the Lord all the days of his life and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. Imagine what it would have meant for him to somehow leap across into New Testament days, and to discover that he himself was hosting the very presence of the one he longed for and loved so passionately.

Contemplating David’s single-eyed longing awakens us to see how gloriously privileged we are! At any moment of the day or night, whatever we may be doing or thinking, we can know that we are carriers of the most precious Life in the entire universe – the Life of God.

And David’s psalm reminds us that our prayerful awareness of God’s abiding presence in us, and our adoration of His beauty, is the secret to living the life that Jesus Christ purchased for us by laying down His own life for each one of us.

David concludes his psalm with this wonderfully encouraging exhortation. Here it is in the Amplified Bible, Classic version:

^“Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord” (Ps. 27:14, AMPC).

By Ann Shakespeare   13 July 2022

Photograph courtesy of Pixabay.