“One thing I have asked from the LORD”

“One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.” (Psalms 27:4)

Since college, I remember crying a lot while praying a guitar and singing the gospel song “One Think I Ask” by myself.  After I was called by God in my first year in college and decided to obey that call, I came to love this song because of my own difficulties and hardships.  The difficulties and hardships that I was going through made me seek one thing.  And that one thing was "That I may dwell in the house of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord.”

In Psalms 27:5, David sought the Lord's house in trouble.  Why did he seek the Lord’s house?  What this world can give us is trouble, pain, and sorrow.  Although we may be mistaken to see this world through joy and pleasure temporary, this world can give us only trouble, pain, and tears.  But the surprising thing is that when we Christians experience the trouble, suffering, and sorrow, we eagerly ask God for "one thing".  When we see the world's ugly appearance, we are discouraged, disappointed, hurt, painful, and weeping, the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with the eagerness to see the beauty of the Lord in the house of the Lord.  It is when we experience trouble, suffering, and adversity that our hearts are burning for longing of the Lord in the house of the Lord, not in the home of this world.  The more and more the pain we get, the more and more we eagerly ask for one thing.  Why is that?  The reason was because David wanted the Lord to conceal and hide him in His tabernacle, in the secret place of His tent and lift him up on a rock (v. 5).  When our enemies, the Devil, pour out all the temptations, persecutions, and sufferings to devour us, just as the chicks dwell in the arms of their mothers or under their wings when they feel the danger of an eagle, we desperately seek to throw ourselves in the arms of the Lord in the house of the Lord.  

                So trouble is blessing for us to pray to God.  And trouble makes us to seek one thing.  And that one thing is “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord.”  The Christians who see the beauty of the Lord even in the midst of trouble are men and women of prayers who seek only one thing.  Since they saw the beauty of the Lord in prayer with their spiritual eyes, they can finish prayer after being raised on the rock.  I would like to pray like this too.

Hopping to go to the Lord’s house and to meet my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ who are in the arms of our Heavenly Father,

James Kim

(After singing the Korean hymn, “I’m Pressing on the Upward Way”)