Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Psalms+027

 

Psalm 27 (ESV)

 

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.

³ Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.

⁴ 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.

⁵ For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

 

REFLECTION:

1. “One thing I ask from the Lord” (v4). How many things have you asked God for?  A hundred, a thousand things? We all have prayed and asked God for many things from the simple to the serious. Yet, the psalmist asked for only one thing.
2. Here is a person who has discovered the immensity, the attractiveness, and the accessibility of God. He desires one thing, but it’s expressed in three ways: to live in the house of the Lord, to gaze (contemplate) on the beauty of the Lord, and to seek (study) Him in his temple.
3. This single desire that absorbs all other desires is to be where God is, to see what He reveals, and to learn what He teaches. The troubles the psalmist faced didn’t drive him into trying every solution the world offers in hopes that something might turn up that worked.  His troubles drove him to one thing: to God.
4. Read this passage again slowly as your own prayer and plead to God. How does it feel to ask God for the one single request? What does that mean to you?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

God is My Light – www.youtube.com/watch?v=LicMlPlGxPU