Seeking God Part 1

Psalm 27: 4 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.

“This is what I seek!” David says in Psalm 27.
We all have desires. We are all seekers. We have goals. We are in pursuit of happiness.
At work we have strategies, milestones, targets, assessments.
In the church we are told that we have to be purpose driven. And we are all hopeful that those dreams may one day come true.

But are the things which we seek, worth looking for? Some of them may not be according to God’s wisdom. Some of the things we seek with so much energy, may even hurt us, were we to successfully obtain them.

So we must carefully evaluate what we seek and why we have such a strong desire to own something or accomplish our goal. Part of the evaluation is the important question: “Why do I seek these things?’

All of us are involved in the living of life. All of us “want a life!” But in seeking what we believe will give us a life to enjoy, everything does not always work out the way we wished or desired. The road of seeking a life is not always smooth – it often has potholes, risks and dangers. As we grow wiser and learn a few lessons in life, we find that some things which we thought were essential, no longer seem significant anymore. We experienced that not all that glitters, is gold and that something that looked exciting and promising at first, became a source of sadness, disappointment and hurt later on.

Everywhere people are hurting and are seeking for solutions. They are seeking “a life”. Yet, what the world promise will make us at ease and will guarantee fulfilment, are often only substitutes of the real thing. And we need to find the real thing! We need to find what satisfies. We need to pursue true life and real happiness.

David was a man weighed down by his life’s challenges. Yes, he enjoyed a lot of success. Yes, he became the mightiest king in the world! But still his life was not without problems. David had personal problems, he had marriage problems, he had children problems, and he had to deal with issues of state.
More than once there were enemies seeking an opportunity to kill him – and one of these enemies was his beloved son. David struggled with serious concerns.

But David knew what was important to seek. And in Psalm 27 the poet in King David reveals what we need to seek when challenged with issues and riddles. David found a desire that would wisely direct his search and prioritise his priorities: “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.”

What should be the focal point of our search? It should be the same thing David was seeking: communion with God. Above all else, David desired to be in the presence of God. He knew that he could find strength in his presence. He knew that "in God’s presence there is fullness of joy."

(Next week – a more practical Part 2).