Everything Until . . .

Everything Until . . .

The one thing I ask of the LORD—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, delighting in the LORD’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. Psalm 27:4

DAVID’S “ONE THING,” his deep desire, is Exhibit A in the case that he was a man after God’s own heart. He wanted to live in God’s house for all his days, delighting in God’s perfections and meditating in his Temple. It’s a beautiful expression of worship and an example for God’s people to follow. Our highest goal is to enjoy his presence.

Often missed in sermons and reflections on this verse is the fact that the Temple did not yet exist. David had wanted to build it, but God deferred it to the next generation. David’s son Solomon would be the one to build and dedicate this monumental house of God, yet David still set his heart on meditating in it. The promise may have been deferred, but it was still his. He wrote a psalm of dedication for it (Psalm 30), gathered up materials, collected offerings, designed the blueprints, called the nation to pray for it, and offered God praise for it (2 Chronicles 29). He did everything he could do up to the point of stacking the first stones. Even though God had said yes to this prayer but no to its fulfillment in David’s lifetime, David still insisted that he would see God’s goodness in his lifetime (Psalm 27:13). Regardless of God’s response to his deepest desire, he would not allow his vision of God to be clouded by disappointment.

Whatever your deepest desire is, your faith will pursue it as far as possible, whether God has said yes to it in your time or in his, now or in eternity. God values that response. He loves it when his people refuse an all-or-nothing approach to his answers and persist in what he has allowed. Faith may ask for the stars, but it still accepts crumbs from the Master’s table, though he offers much more than that. Hearts of faith are grateful for his goodness in whatever form it comes. Focused not on his gifts but on him, they are therefore satisfied.

God denies a Christian nothing but with a design to give him something better.