Contemplative Bible Reading

Psalm 27:4 (New International Version)

One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
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 seek him in his temple.

These are the words of David. This is the one thing that he asks of the Lord – the he may dwell in the house of the Lord.

In today’s culture, “I want to live in your house,” doesn’t seem to make much sense. I have my own house. Why would I want to live in someone else’s house? There are some practical reasons like I wouldn’t have to clean the house as the owner would do that, or at least I assume the owner would clean the house. Another reason is that I could sell my house, keep the money, and live rent-free in another person’s house. Still, why would I want to live in another person’s house?

In David’s culture, I believe that dwelling in someone’s house meant more than just the above. Their “house” was more like what we today consider a neighborhood or community. Dwelling in the house of the Lord meant to live in a community of people who worshiped the Lord – people who considered the one true God their literal Lord, someone they revered and obeyed.

This is the one thing that David asked of God – that he live in a place where the people acknowledged God as Lord of their life. Even though David was the King of God’s people, many of the people simply didn’t acknowledge God as the one true God. There was plenty of wandering about among the man-made gods of the people who lived in the land before them.

This is much like America today. We are still a “Christian nation” in that most people think of Jesus as the Son of God. We still, however, have all sorts of other little man-made gods that attract so much of our time and attention (money, power, fame, fortune, security, retirement, etc.). This makes for an interesting time and place to live, but there are times when I want what David requested:

to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.