Psalm 27, One Thing

Introduction

Good morning! If you have a Bible, I invite you to open with me to Psalm 27. We will be reading the entire Psalm––all fourteen verses. We’ll get an overview of the whole Psalm. However, our main focus will be on the contents of Psalm 27:4. Before we begin, let’s first read the Psalm. Then, we’ll pray and ask the LORD to bless our time in His Word this morning.

READ Psalm 27

PRAY

This morning we find ourselves gathered together on the final Lord’s day of 2025. Given that, I thought it wise for us let God’s Word be our guide in reflecting on the year that has gone by as well as looking expectantly to the year ahead. Once upon a time, I used to think that doing so at the turn of the year was a bit cliche. But, I no longer think of it in that way. With each passing year, I have come to appreciate this rhythm more and more.

There seems to be a cyclical nature and rhythm to life and I think that is, of course, by God’s design. Each year marks another trip around the sun. Each day marks another rotation of the earth on its axis. Years, months, and days gone by that remind us of the One who created times and seasons and ordained all that has come to pass and all that will come to pass. It is in and through those times that many of us, some more than others, find ourselves a bit more reflective.

We look back on the time that has passed––what happened; where we have been; what we made of the time that was given to us. We look forward in wonder, perhaps even some trepidation at what lies ahead––what awaits us in the year to come; where will we go; what will we face; what will we walk through; how will we get through it; what will we accomplish; how might we fall short. When we reach this point next year in 2026, what might we have to look back on in reflection?

In light of this, the Psalm before us this morning, which we just read, is very instructive for us. In it, David expresses great confidence in the LORD as well as his hearts desire to earnestly seek the LORD. This particular Psalm has been on my mind for a number of weeks now as I’ve done my own reflection. It has been a great encouragement to me and reminder of what truly matters through all of life’s ups and downs. It has served to be a great comfort to me and my desire is to pass that on to you for our good and joy together as a church family.

MAIN POINT––Resolve to seek and delight in God as your greatest and highest treasure.

The Setting of the Psalm

First let’s understand the overall context and contents of the Psalm. Like many of the Psalms, the author identifies himself. This is a Psalm of David, the king of Israel. That’s really about all we can be certain of in regards to the specific details. Sometimes the Psalm will tell us not just who wrote it but under what circumstances it was written. We have no indication of that here with this particular Psalm.

However, given some of the contents of the Psalm, we can draw some inferences. It reads as a sort of reflection. A reflection that expresses confidence and earnest seeking. Having some basic familiarity with David’s life, you could read this Psalm and imagine it comes at some point during his kingship. Up to that point in his life, he had certainly experienced many ups and downs.

He knew what it was to experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Whether in great victory over Goliath and the Philistines, or the hardships of fleeing from Saul, he had learned to put great confidence in the LORD. It is that latter point of experience that he seems to draw upon in the first several verses. There in verses 1-3 we see an expression of confidence in the LORD no matter the circumstances. Simply because of who the LORD is––David can confidently say that the LORD is his light and salvation. The stronghold of his life.

It is the LORD who shines light on David and his circumstances to give him wisdom and understanding in the LORD’s ways. It is the LORD in whom he will find a shelter and refuge amidst the storms of life. Therefore, David rightly concludes “whom shall I fear” or “of whom shall I be afraid?” Or to put it in Paul’s words from Romans 8:31––“If God is for us, who can be against us?” It’s a question that answers itself––no one. This much is made clear in verses 2 and 3 where David expresses confidence in the LORD no matter how dire the situation.

Fastforward to the last two verses of the Psalm, David returns to express this kind of confidence again. This whole Psalm, therefore, is bracketed by confidence in the LORD simply because of who He is and the reality that David has found refuge in the LORD Himself. There at the end he expresses confidence that he will look upon the goodness of the LORD. He will experience the LORD’s presence. Therefore, he will wait upon the LORD and he urges others in the congregation, including us as the readers, to take courage and wait upon the LORD.

What does that mean––to wait upon the LORD? Typically we think of waiting as a sort of passive activity. We wait for something to happen when there is nothing else to do. The way you wait for your kids in the carpool line, or the way you wait for the light to turn green at a stop light. Even if you busy yourself with another task, you do so waiting on the other thing.

But that’s not how we should think of waiting on the LORD. To wait on the LORD is not passive. To wait on the LORD is to actively look to Him. To look to Him with confident dependence and trust. It is a waiting that says, “LORD, these circumstances are beyond me, but they are not beyond you. Show me how I can glorify you and make much of you through it all. Lead me in paths of righteousness for your name’s sake.” Its the kind of waiting that entails actively putting yourself in the place to benefit from your waiting upon Him. What do I mean by that?

A number of you are farmers. When you’re finished planting your seeds, do you just sit around and do nothing in the months between planting and harvest? I’ve been here and known many of you long enough to know the answer is no. There’s all sorts of things you are actively doing to help cultivate and increase the success of your harvest to come. You might be spraying to help control weeds and pests that threaten your harvest. You might be doing maintenance on your equipment. You might be hauling old crops to make room for the new to come.

So it is with our waiting on the LORD. We don’t just sit back in the easy chair, throw our hands up and do nothing. While we wait on the LORD we actively seek Him. We go to His Word. We go before Him in earnest prayer. We gather with His people to worship Him. We do all these things as we wait upon Him, knowing that is where and how He will lead and guide us according to His ways for His glory and our joy in Him.

That brings us to the central aspect of this Psalm. Sandwiched between David’s expression of confidence in the LORD is David’s ultimate desire to continually seek the LORD. A desire that can be expressed because of the confidence he has. Essentially, after expressing confidence in the LORD, David now turns to further cultivate that confidence. Based on his experiential confidence, David (and all of God’s people for that matter) can and should continually cultivate that same confidence for the future.

In verses 4-6, David expresses his greatest desire––to seek the LORD and be in His presence all the days of his life. The LORD Himself is His greatest delight and treasure. To bolster that, David then follows that expressed desire with the reason he has for seeking the LORD and desiring to be in His presence continually. Again, in different words, he expresses confidence in the LORD as His refuge from those who seek to harm him as well as confidence that the LORD will deliver him such that he will be able to worship the LORD in his presence.

Then, having expressed the desire he seeks, in verses 7-12, David seeks the LORD in a prayer of petition. It’s quite remarkable, really. As you survey those verses, what David is asking the LORD for is the very thing he has already expressed confidence in. He notes that the LORD commands his people to “seek his face,” which simply means to seek the LORD’s presence. Then, in obedience to that command, he asks the LORD not to hide His face.

He asks that the LORD would not forsake him, as even those closest to him seemingly have. He asks for the LORD’s guidance. He asks for the LORD to deliver Him. All things that can be found in the expressions he has made of the LORD being his light and salvation. The stronghold of his life. All of this is found and experienced in the LORD himself. Seeking Him and His presence as our one great desire. That’s our focus this morning as we zero in on verse 4.

One Thing

I think that what David expresses here in verse 4 is the heart of all that is being said throughout the rest of the Psalm. Everything, his confidence and all that he seeks, finds its origin and anchor in this one great desire––the LORD and His presence. Let me unpack that for you from this verse.

Look there again with me. David says, “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after.” Now, you may be thinking, as I did when I was looking at this Psalm, “what does he mean one thing?” Read the whole Psalm, particularly the verses that follow as we surveyed them, he asks several things, not just one. Is David contradicting himself or being forgetful or just rambling? No, I don’t think so. All that David petitions the Lord for in verses 7 through 12, are an outworking of David’s one great desire he expresses here.

David continues––the one thing he seeks after, “that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.” When David speaks here of the house of the LORD it is a reference to the Tabernacle, which then would have given way to the Temple in Solomon’s day. This is where God’s glory and presence was manifest among His people. David simply desires to be in the presence of the LORD. Why?

David tells us why––“To gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple.” Perhaps some of your translations say “to behold” the beauty of the LORD. David wants to behold with great admiration and affection the beauty of the LORD. He wants to be totally enamored with God in all of His infinite beauty and glory. Put simply, He wants to know and delight in God and His ways more than anything.

Now, when you consider all the difficulties that David alludes to in this Psalm, that is an astounding reality. I mean just look over the Psalm and some of the things David says. He speaks of evildoers who assail him to “eat up his flesh.” That sounds pretty intense! He speaks of an army encamping and war arising against him. David’s life is in danger and rather than ask for deliverance or protection, he seeks the LORD and His presence.

As Charles Spurgeon writes, “Under David’s painful circumstances we might have expected him to desire repose, safety, and a thousand other good things, but no, he has set his heart on the pearl, and leaves the rest.” This is not the natural inclination of the human heart when facing difficult circumstances, especially the kind of danger and opposition that David alludes to throughout this Psalm.

When we’re in hard times we naturally want relief from the difficulty. We want a break. We want peace. We want an escape. We’re quicker to ask for the LORD to remove the thorn from our flesh and we’ll only be satisfied if the thorn is removed. When someone wrongs us, whether in word or deed, we want vengeance and justice. We want vindication.

Even in good times, for that matter, this is not our natural desire or inclination. We’re quicker to seek joy and fulfillment in other things. Even good things. Maybe a sense of accomplishment in the things we do and the activities that fill our calendars. The acceptance, appreciation, and admiration of others in our various sphere’s of influence and areas of responsibility. The joys that come from things we like to do in our work or recreation.

But that’s not what David sought. Amidst all the ups and downs of life, his greatest desire was not relief or vindication or escape. It wasn’t more pleasure or accolades or accomplishments. Though much of those things are not bad in and of themselves, they are not ultimate. They are not the greatest ends in and of themselves. David’s great desire is the highest good anyone could ever want––to know more of the LORD and His presence all the days of his life. It is in seeking the LORD that everything else is put into right perspective.

Elsewhere he says things like––

Psalm 26:8––O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.

Psalm 84:4,10––Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise…For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Do we talk, or even think like that? Especially when life overwhelms us. Most of us may not experience our physical lives being threatened the way David did. But there’s a lot of other challenges we have faced or will face as long as we have life and breath in us. Is our natural inclination to speak or think this way when temptation to sin seeks to derail us; when relationships are strained or when people say harsh things to us or about us, even those we once had fellowship with?

Pursuing This in 2026

This Psalm, particularly this one great desire expressed by David in verse four, has been very convicting for me lately. If I’m being honest, more often than not, my heart is far more tepid than what we see in David’s plea here. At best, I am one who will just busy myself with the next thing to do or another means of distraction. At worse, I can be much quicker to self-pity and doubt rather than the kind of self-forgetful confidence that we see in this Psalm. And I suspect that I’m not the only one.

This past year has had its share of challenges for many of us. Really, for our church family as a whole. And as surprising as some of the particular challenges may have been, the reality that there were challenges should hardly be surprising. Every year brings challenges, especially in the life of the believer. Why should we expect any different for the church as a whole? As long as we have life and breath this side of eternity there will be challenges from within and without that aim to keep our focus off seeking the LORD together.

Life does not all of a sudden become easier when you become a Christian. It certainly does not become easier when you are seeking to be faithful to the LORD and His Word. We have an adversary who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And that is reason all the more to take our cue from David here in this Psalm. That our one desire––not just individually, but corporately––would be to know more of the LORD and His presence. That we would know Him more and delight in Him all the more together.

When we’re confused and the fog of life’s challenges billows all around us, let us be a people who seek the LORD all the more in His Word and what He has clearly made known (Psalm 1; 19). When we’re feeling a sense of confidence and are tempted to self-reliance, let us be a people who seek the LORD in humble and dependent prayer, knowing that we labor in vain if the LORD does not build the house (Psalm 127).

As I think about the year that has gone by and the year that lay in front of us that is what I desperately want all of us to desire more together. There’s no way we can know what tomorrow holds for us, much less what the next year will bring. But we do know the same LORD that David expressed great confidence in. In fact, we know Him in an even greater way that David longed to see. Davids great desire––to dwell in the house of the LORD––finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of the LORD Jesus Christ.

He is the way, the truth, and the life through whom we have access to the Father. Being united to Him by faith, indwelt by His Spirit, we like living stones are being built together into a dwelling place for God. And with that, we cling to this one desire to know more of the LORD and endure all the ups and downs of this life together with the great hope that one day we really will literally gaze upon the beauty of the LORD in all of His glory and majesty with unceasing joy.

Conclusion

What’s going to be your anchor in the year ahead? What will be your greatest desire? Will it be comfort; will it be a renewed sense of purpose; accomplishments; acceptance; peace; prosperity; anything else? Or will you make your greatest desire to know more of the LORD and His presence? May that truly be our great desire in the year to come and beyond, no matter what we face together. Beloved, let us Resolve to seek and delight in God as our greatest and highest treasure.