We’ve all asked this question as kids and in some cases as adults: If you could be granted one wish, what would it be? Of course the shrewd responder would say, “To have all my wishes granted!”
Yet in Psalm 27, David doesn’t deal in abstracts. He writes down one specific request for all the world to see:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that 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 [meditate] in his temple. [Psalm 27:4-5]
Of all the things David could have wished for, he desired above all to be in the Lord’s temple. The context of Psalm 27 indicates that David was prevented from going to the temple because of his enemies. So David prayed for deliverance so that he could return to the Lord’s temple.
In Old Testament times the temple was a physical structure in Jerusalem. But ever since Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave to save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), the temple of God has been his redeemed people gathered to worship him. Paul wrote to the church, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). The Greek word for “you” in that verse is plural.
God’s temple is his people.
When the church is gathered together, we “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” as we explore his word together, sing praises to his name, speak the truth in love to one another, and celebrate the visible portrayal of the gospel through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. When we are gathered with the people of God to worship him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24), we are in essence saying, “There is no other place that I’d rather be!”
Is that the desire of your heart? Is that the “one thing” that you desire?
Just like David was prevented for a time from going to the temple because of his enemies, maybe you have been hindered from going to church due to certain circumstances. But if you are a believer in Christ, the cry of your heart should be to gather with God’s people once again as soon as possible. Notice again what David said: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after….” In commenting on this verse, Matthew Henry wrote of David,
Having fixed his desire upon this as the one thing needful, he continued to pray for it, and contrived his affairs so as that he might have this liberty and opportunity. Note: Those that truly desire communion with God will set themselves with all diligence to seek after it.
Do you earnestly desire to worship the Lord with his people? Are you praying for it? Are you purposefully pursuing it? Is it the “one thing” you desire?
May God make it so.