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.
What is the one thing you desire in all your life? The truth is, God demands and expects that we will desire Him, above all things. In the above verse the writer of this Psalm composes it simply and succinctly: We are to desire God above all things and hunger to dwell with Him and "gaze" upon His beauty. We may not understand that last phrase: To gaze upon His beauty. People travel all around the world to "gaze" upon beauty. This word is used nine times in the Psalms and almost exclusively in this way ... gazing or beholding the glory of God. One example if found in Psalm 62:3
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Does the thought of "gazing" at God and the beauty of the Lord, for all eternity, excite you? Our hearts are so depraved!! We have a hard time in a church setting with "gazing" upon the Lord. For that one hour or one and one-half hour we have the privilege of gazing upon the Lord's Body, the Church. Yet, we are ready to bolt to our cars to make sure we are at the restaurant on time, we have a game to watch, or we have an activity to perform. Yet, King David, the writer of this Psalm, wants to "inquire" in His temple and gaze upon the Lord all the days of his life. David is in Love with God and he only wants God. Jesus, when asked about the Law, summed it all up into two commandments: To love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To love God with heart, soul and mind is to have the same desire as David has in this verse. He wants to gaze upon the Lord and take in His full beauty. We will have all eternity to gaze upon the Lord and we still won't be able to capture the awe of Him. Today, in our flesh and depraved hearts, we are capture by the beauty of a car, or a home, or model, or a landscape. We might be captured by the red sunrise or the orange sunset or the white, large moon in the sky on a cool October night. A wild animal might collect our glimpse, but it is God who should collect our gaze. We are taken in by an electronic device and will often wait in line to be one of the first adapters of a new thing. But, how many would wait in line to gaze at the Lord? Elijah desired to see God and had to be hid in a cave to gaze upon just the backside of God (1 Kings 19:9-15). When Moses spent 40 days on the mountain with God and returned to the camp of the people, he had to put a veil over his face because it shone so bright. Imagine what it will be like to gaze upon the beauty of God ... for eternity!!
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