Psalm 27

⁰⁴          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,

                        [there]: to behold the beauty of the Lord

                                    and to meditate in His temple.

⁰⁵          For in the day of trouble;

He will hide me in His shelter.

                        In the secret place of His tabernacle,

                                    He will hide me.

                        He will lift me high upon a rock.

 

⁰⁶          [Therefore], my head shall be exalted

above my enemies all around me,

                        and I will offer in His tabernacle

                                    sacrifices with shouts of joy

                        I will sing and make music to the Lord.

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In The Lord’s House

For the Lord’s Day:  the 15^th of May  2005

 

Introduction:  There is an old story, fictional of course: of a man without a country, sentenced to spend his life aboard naval craft and never allowed to view again his native land.  All of his mail and news were censored since he had acknowledged to the court that he never wanted to hear of his country ever again.  And so he had his wish and what a terrible sentence it was to live without any sense of belonging.

 

For a few short years, I knew well the fictional fellow’s suffering, but not for loss of country, but rather for the loss of church.  Three years at a denominational seminary convinced me that the church of my fathers was no longer worthy of the name.  It took me a decade or more to find my new home within the Presbyterian Church in America.  It was a long absence from any proper spiritual home.

 

Some scholars, Calvin among them, speculate that this Psalm is written during one of several occasions in David’s life when he could not attend worship in the Tabernacle.  And so, in the heartfelt confession of his desperate loneliness we sense the yearning for his favorite abode: the house of the Lord God.

 

Many people yearn for a happy home, and memories of many people are full of the images, furniture and happy times spent in the place where they grew up.  One popular proverb is that one you have grown up and taken a life of your own, you cannot go home again.  Well, I disagree – five years ago, my family took apart the old homestead and disposed of the furniture and fixtures were we grew to adulthood.  And within the last month, the old house, which was suffering from dry rot was put to the torch to serve one last purpose in the training of two local fire departments.

 

After it was all said and done, the foundations seemed so small in comparison to the house once standing there!  And yet, just as C.S. Lewis envisions heaven – the reality is bigger on the inside than you can ever imagine.  And so, many, many memories etched in the extended family’s minds are just as real as the old building once was.  Yes, we can go home again – all we have to do is close our eyes and stroll through the various rooms.

 

And just thus so is David’s heart focused on the spiritual beauties of attending the Lord God in the Tabernacle of Israel.  Yes, of course, the pagan, the unbeliever had no notion of the reality that David knew – but the personal relationship with the Lord God was more real than the temporary tent where God was to be met and worshipped on a regular basis.

 

Christians of course, read these few verses and know better than David that heaven’s home will be bigger and wider and better than the small tent and eventual temple that would inhabit the sacred precincts of Mount Zion.

 

Development:  And so, in the same heartfelt attitude enjoyed here by David, let us too consider the grand and subtle nature of knowing the God of heaven when He deigns to speak to us through His word and by His Spirit.  And yes, like David, there are places for all of us – where the Divine Presence is better known – because there we are more in the habit of knowing God than when we go about our daily life.

 

“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,

[there]: to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.”

 

There are three thoughts in these lines of verse four.  Let us begin with the last and work our way back to the first.  The Gospel of John reports that when Christ tabernacled among us, then was His glory beheld: “Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. … And from his fullness we have all receive , grace upon grace.”

 

John’s Gospel as we all know is not only intellectually challenging, but also personal and heartfelt even as were the Psalms of David.  When I took Greek in Seminary, we spent most of our time translating the Gospel of John.  And every verse was pregnant with meaning and purpose so that I learned to treasure the text ever more and more.  But, of course – you have to spend time in the word and meditate well upon it to realize the incredible beauty of the Gospel of Grace.

 

The second line of verse four shows us the earnest desire that the ongoing relationship be continued for ever and ever.  Limited as they were with the homeland of Palestine as their best hope, still the children of God could have hoped even as we would read into David’s poetry the final home intended by all of the promises and structures of the faith once given to the elect of the Old Covenant Church.  And of course, we can realize the legitimacy of the hope when David shows us his fondest desire in the first line of verse four:  “One thing have I asked of the Lord.”  What is that?  Why the continued company of the Lord God of Israel of course!

 

It is the continuing comfort of the presence of the Most High God that gives the life of David any meaning day to day and beyond the grave to come.  Even in the worst of times, David remains secure:

 

“For in the day of trouble; He will hide me in His shelter.

                In the secret place of His tabernacle, He will hide me.

                He will lift me high upon a rock.”

 

I have used the old King James ordering here, since the sacred poetry intends to leave every trouble behind as quickly as possible.  Yes, of course – there are many kinds and times of troubles that afflict us day by day.  And yet, trouble can not always find us, because we are safe in the arms of Jesus, as the old hymn goes.   Not only are we sheltered, but also the hidden place where we remain His cannot be found or fathomed by the worldly wicked of this old world.  And their in the sanctity of God’s loving kindness, we have been lifted high above the common conflicts.  “He will lift me high upon a rock,” David writes – knowing the many kindnesses of the Lord through trials and troubles.  And that rock, which accompanied the people of Israel through the trackless desert is as timeless as the certain providence of the Lord to lead His people to their promised land: even heaven as we comprehend it.

 

Application:  To David perhaps – it is the fond hope of visiting the precincts of the tabernacle once again and there to compose a Psalm and sing it in the presence of the people and to their Lord God of heaven and earth.

 

“[Therefore], my head shall be exalted above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in His tabernacle sacrifices with shouts of joy

I will sing and make music to the Lord.”

 

I have stretched the ordinary conjunction “and” to a stated purpose in David’s mind.  “[Therefore]” he may observe:  that in the safety of the “rock” he and we and all the saints of God have been lifted up and are thereby safely established beyond the ordinary habitations of the worldly.

 

Sweet will be the music of heaven, happy will be all the reunions of the elect and like David we may sing and make music to the Lord of all the earth.  May we look forward week by week to the worship we gather to give and especially may we share the Puritan hope of the final world, one without end: even heaven above where the Divine presence known and praised by David will be better known for all eternity.  Come quickly Lord Jesus, Come quickly.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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