Word of Encouragement (5/14/2026)
One thing have I 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. (Ps. 27:4)
David confesses that the sole desire of his heart is to dwell in the house of the Lord. That he desires to dwell in the house of the Lord “all the days of my life” is already implied in the word, dwell. But he mentions it nonetheless lest anyone should miss the point. What he desires is not just occasional interactions with the Lord whenever he needs something from Him. He desires the Lord for Him. Why would he want to dwell in His house all the days of his life?
Indeed, David tells us why he wants it so badly—“to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” There is something profoundly satisfying and revitalizing about beholding (or listening to) a thing of beauty—be it a masterpiece in art, a virtuoso performance, or a breathtaking landscape. So, we pay money or travel long distances to take in the wonder of beauty with our eyes and ears. Sometimes, the beauty is so sublime that our hearts feel like they are going to burst.
But we also know how ephemeral the beautiful things of the world are. Even as we marvel at the beauty, we know that we must move on and eventually go back to our mundane existence at home. So, we take pictures to remind ourselves of the beauty. But pictures can’t do justice to being there in person. They are good when we tell others about the good times we had on our trips, but they cannot recreate the sense of wonder we had when we were there. We also know how we can get used to anything, even the things of exquisite beauty. If we consider our life in San Diego mundane, it is because we have gotten used to its charms and beauties, which so many tourists come from all over the world to see. But such is the transience of worldly beauty.
Not so with the beauty of the Lord. David wants to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life because he knows he will never get used to it. For God is infinite in His beauty; we can never get tired of it. Even a sunset displays a myriad of variations throughout the evening before the darkness erases them. When we behold the beauty of the Lord, one breathtaking sight of it will be followed by another throughout all eternity, each one as spectacular as all the ones before it. What a great blessing!
But David is not satisfied with merely beholding God’s glory. He also desires “to inquire in His temple.” Some see this as a description of prayer, and I agree. You see, David does not just want to behold God’s beauty as tourists marvel at a beautiful landscape; he wants to have an intimate, heart-to-heart communion with this God of ineffable beauty. It was God who planted this desire in him and us. We know that God delights to satisfy this desire in His giving of His Son for our salvation and adoption into His household. May the Lord cleanse our eyes to see His beauty in Christ and value it above all things!