"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."
Psalm 27:4, ESV
Can you think of something you would want to do for the rest of eternity? As in, something that would keep you preoccupied all seven days of the week, all year round, for the rest of your life? Maybe a hobby, a job, or a relationship?
The psalmist David surely knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. To say that David was a busy man is probably an understatement. Being the king—the president, the monarch, the prime minister—of the most powerful nation of their day surely would have kept him completely preoccupied. But in all of that, David did not ask for more time to govern, more time to lead, or more time to work. He asked God for time to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.
I believe David looked to the beauty of God because it meant something to him and because it affected everything he did in His life. You must know what it's like to work in a beautiful office, with a beautiful scenery, or during a beautiful day. You've seen what that does for you. It's no different with the beauty of God, only you multiply the inspiration and motivation a gazillion times!
God's beauty can affect your life, but that's putting it lightly. It has the power to transform you completely. God is infinitely beautiful because of His perfection, holiness, majesty, and glory. While we may not be able to gaze upon Him physically, we see God's beauty all around us. We see His beauty in His creation, in the way He takes care of us and provides for us, in the presence of God as we worship, and in the way His Word speaks about Him.
God's beauty is completely unfathomable, and many of us think that it's a beauty that cannot be reached. But we are reminded of what Christ has done and how, when He gave His life up on the cross, it tore the veil to the holy of holies, signifying that we all can now enter into God's presence to experience His beauty.
That's what the psalmist David was talking about when he spoke of gazing at the beauty of the Lord. The beauty of the Lord, to David and to us, is not just a luxury but a necessity we must seek every day. And as we do that, we receive His power to live life with absolute motivation and inspiration as we are moved by the beauty of our God.
