The One Thing We Have Asked For (Psalm 27:4–5)

“One thing I have asked 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 gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple, for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock.”
– Psalm 27:4–5

Psalm 27:4–5 are some of my favorite verses in all the Psalms. And Psalm 27:4, one thing I ask of the Lord. This is the one thing I want. Think about it. If you were to be asked the question, what is the one thing you want from God? What’s the one thing you want from him? What’s the one thing you want most in your life? And this is the Psalmist’s answer, “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”

Oh, do you get it? This is the one thing we need most, to be with God, to know God, to see God, to behold God, to gaze upon his beauty, and to inquire in his temple. So follow that. There’s so many other things we need in our lives, right? We need breath. We need water. Need food. We need love and relationships with others. We were made by God to need all of these things, but don’t miss it.

God is the fountain from which all of these things we might need flow. He’s the one from whom they all come, and then the reality is once we get to a point in our lives where we don’t have breath anymore, where our relationships are gone, this is the one thing we will need. We will need to be with God because he is the source of eternal life. He’s the source of every thing good.

God Is The Source Of Our Satisfaction

And so the one thing we need most in our lives is to gaze upon him, his beauty, to be with him, dwell in his house all the days of our lives, knowing, this is why I read verse 5:2, knowing that he is our refuge in the day of trouble. He will hide me in his shelter, conceal me under the cover of his tent, lift me high upon a rock. He is our satisfaction and our security. Do you see that? So in Psalm 27:4–5, God is the source of satisfaction for our souls. And he is the only true rock of security in our lives.

So we pray right now together, Oh God, amidst all kinds of things that are our souls desire or want, all kinds of things that we inquire of you and we ask for according to your word, this is the one thing above all. And God, to the extent with which this is not true in our hearts that we would not say Psalm 27:4, we pray that you would teach us to say this.

Teach us to pray this. Make our hearts long for the one thing that the Psalmist longs for here, that we might say, “Oh God, one thing we ask of you, this one thing we want more than anything else we want to be with you.” We want to dwell in your house all the days of our life. We want to walk with you. We want to enjoy you. Want to exalt you. We want to worship you. We want to gaze upon your beauty because there is no one more beautiful than you.

There is no one who compares to you, oh God. In fact, you are beautiful beyond description. You are glorious beyond our comprehension. We want to know you more. Therefore, we want to love you more. Want to know your love more. We want to gaze upon your beauty. We want to inquire in your temple. Want to ask for all kinds of other things that flow from your goodness. Above all, we praise you as the source of satisfaction for our souls today and tomorrow and the next day and all the days of our life, even beyond death.

Psalm 27:4–5 Prays For Presence With God

And we praise you as our security. We praise you for the rock that you are in our lives. We know the only way we can stand today and stand tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and the only way we can stand when we die, the only way we can live is with you as our refuge, with you as our rock, with you as our security in our lives.

So we love you, God. We praise you because Psalm 27:4–5, to be true of our hearts, that it would be true of each of us. We pray that there’s one thing we’re seeking after all the days of our life, that’s to be with you, to see you and know you and love you and enjoy you and ask of you and find our refuge in you. Even now, as this podcast episode closes, would you just spend a few moments, praising God for his beauty and enjoying being in the presence of God and worshiping him and, yes, asking him for other things all out of the overflow of a heart that is saying one thing?

If I ask of the Lord, this I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. So we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. In the name of the one who makes gazing upon your beauty, oh God, and knowing you and walking with you and enjoying you and dwelling in your presence possible. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.

David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.

He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.

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