Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


9.05.2008  

Twenty-Seven's Fourth

In the fourth verse of the twenty-seventh psalm, the psalmist declares, "One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: 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 meditate in His temple."

My immediate response to the psalmist's plea is this: I'm not like that...that's just not me. I think, however, that my knee-jerk reaction is simply not true.

David, the king of Israel, the man after God's own heart, is declaring His singular passion for the LORD in this psalm. I sometimes find David's declarations to be far too holy for my bruised reed of a soul, far too pure for my weak and wayward desires. Do I long to dwell in nearness to the LORD, in His presence? Do I desire to see the LORD, to look upon Him with intimate joy and reverence? Do I delight to think about Him, to ponder anew His the wonders of His glorious grace? My answers to all of those always seem to begin, "Yes, but..."

I love God, I do. But you know what? It's not that I love Him at all that I question; no, it's the degree to which I love God that I find lacking and so daunting. I suppose it's the single-minded, single-hearted cry for God that I find to be so not...me.

I sin, I fail, I don't care, I disappoint, I weep over my weakness, I want to give up for lack of joy: that's who I am.

Or am I?

David was a man that knew failure. He knew victory, yes, but he was also deeply acquainted with failure. In this psalm, David's cry is not one that says he has already reached heaven, but one that speaks of a day to come. Does he love God and love Him truly? Yes. Does he love him so perfectly that he is never daunted by failure, never beaten down by sin? No, for that's clearly not the account of David's life that God gives us in the bible.

I find that I have far more in common with David than my instinctive reactions tell me I do. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, when I've pondered everything I've done and all that I still want to do, at the heart of all I want or all I don't want, I hear in my soul a cry that echoes the king of Israel's:

One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: 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 meditate in His temple.

I'm keenly aware that I don't deserve such a lot. Yet, I'm also aware that there is no way such a desire would be within me unless God had put it there first, and as such, it is His delight that I should seek Him.

posted by Bolo | 7:08 AM
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