“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; 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 purpose of David may sound like three, but a closer study of the verse reveals that, in essence, it is “one thing.” David is making what amounts to his declaration of faith.

The “house” of the Lord is His family. A believer, indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit, becomes a dweller in the house of God. “LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations” (Psalm 90:1). David next states his desire to behold the beauty of the Lord. The “beauty” of Zechariah 11 was the “word of the Lord” weighed for the price of “thirty pieces of silver.” Our Lord Jesus Christ, the living word, also sold for thirty pieces of silver, is the object of the believer’s “longing gaze” (as “behold” can mean). Becoming a member of God’s family begins a lifetime, and an eternity as well, of “contemplating with pleasure” (beholding) the Lord Jesus Christ through His word now, and then, at last, when “we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2).

David then says he will enquire in God’s temple. Enquire is to break forth and inspect. God’s temple in the wilderness had a heavy veil that hid the Holy of Holies, God’s presence. No one entered here but the high priest, by sacrifice once a year, and the people were warned at Mt. Sinai that they would die if they broke through the cloud cover while God met with Moses (Exodus 19). When the Lord Jesus Christ finished our redemption at Golgotha, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain” (Matthew 27:51). We now have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19).

With these thoughts in mind, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4) takes on a new depth. CJH