To Gaze Upon the Beauty of the Lord - Psalm 27:4

18th March 2026

Bible stories are so powerful and moving in their own right. The exodus, Daniel in the lion’s den, the story of Esther or the adventures of Paul - quite apart from the Gospel accounts of the ministry of Jesus. But sometimes I am moved even more by beautiful poetry in the scripture. I believe that David and Isaiah were certainly the greatest and most influential poets of all time.

Among those glorious stanzas of poetry, is v4 of Ps 27.

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 enquire in his temple.

There are potentially two reasons why David wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord given in the wider psalm: firstly there is the cry for the Lord’s protection in David’s life, surrounded as it was by mortal enemies. Some believe the psalm may relate to the time when David was fleeing from Saul in the wilderness and had no access to the Tabernacle which might have been a place of refuge for David.

But there is a second reason why David wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord which is given here in v4 - To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. What he wanted most of all was to spend time with God, in his presence. Under the old covenant that meant spending time at the Tabernacle and later the Jerusalem temple, in worship and prayer, mediated through sacrificial offerings.

There can be a misunderstanding that the religious Israelites were trying to bribe God with their offerings and worship as pagans do even today, in order to get goodies, blessings and victory over enemies. But when God commands worship, he is not on an ego trip: God is not an insecure despot needing reassurance from his people that he is great. God needs neither our sacrifices to feed him, nor our money to achieve his purposes. No! It is in our worship that God reveals more of himself to the worshipper. David wanted to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.

David was not imagining seeing the Lord face-to-face, but he was looking forward to learning more about God: who God is and what he has done for Israel as he remained in God’s presence. As David or a pious Israelite worshipped, how would he “… gaze upon the beauty of the Lord?” In the Old Testament the beauty of God relates to his holiness. Before the gift of the Holy Spirit to all believers, God’s holiness would have been on view in the temple furniture: the altars, the sacrifices, the lamps, the separated priesthood. All crying out that Yahweh is a holy God.

This is highlighted in our own worship. Our worship is a real spiritual transaction. It is not just ‘singing’ or performance. That is why the Devil distracts us as we try to worship privately or even in church, because worship is the place of revelation. And incidentally why our church worship leaders must themselves not be a distraction as they lead worship.

What might dwelling in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, look like? Well we have a unique insight into this in the life of someone who lived nearly all her life in the Jerusalem temple - the prophetess Anna, mentioned in Lk 2:36-38, who lived in the Jerusalem temple until she was 84 years old, as told in Lk 2 …

Lk 2:36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of [Jesus] to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

At this meeting of old and new covenants, as Anna lived in the temple her life was one of worship, prayer and fasting, and she was there when Joseph and Mary came to present the baby Jesus, a few weeks old, in the temple. After a lifetime of worship in God’s presence, Anna received the ultimate revelation of God - His Son.

How do we apply this verse to the 21st century Christian? Under the new covenant we become a temple of God by Christ’s indwelling. This is a theological truth and the reason why the real Christian feels miserable when he or she is out of fellowship with brothers and sisters, or allowing sin in their lives - when our temple of God is defiled. We all have the opportunity to: worship, pray, fast and evangelise as Anna did, and as we do these, God reveals more of himself to us. As v4 says, we gaze on the beauty of the Lord.

The study of theology and the Bible is important, but the truths we learn with our heads need to make that ‘18 inch drop’ to our hearts where they can truly bear fruit as revelation. So we really can gaze on the beauty of the Lord. Mere attendance at a Bible college or church, or passing an academic programme is no guarantee of spiritual understanding.

So don’t let these be barren years for you here. Worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness and ask of the Lord:

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 enquire in his temple.