I found this summer’s sermon series on the Psalms very enriching. I was encouraged by the different preachers as they taught from their favorite Psalm while sharing the impact of that Psalm on their personal journeys. While I was unable to participate in the sermon series (I was busy writing our Roman’s study manual), I did spend some time thinking about my favorite Psalm. I admit that it’s difficult to come up with just one. In fact, I discovered that I find it virtually impossible to choose one. However, there are two verses from two different Psalms that I say almost every single day.

Each morning, for at least the last fifteen years, as soon as I wake up and get out of bed, I say Psalm 27:4, which reads,

            One thing I ask from the Lord,
               this only do I seek:
            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 seek him in his temple. (NIV)

Why this verse from Psalm 27 and what is the significance? What does it mean to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives? Surely it doesn’t mean remaining in a physical structure, like a church all the time.

It is helpful to remember that the temple, like the tabernacle before it, was understood to be God’s dwelling place on earth (Exodus 25:8; 1 Kings 8:13; 2 Chronicles 6:2). We might call the Old Testament temple the place of sacred overlap. It is the place where heaven and earth meet.

In the New Testament, John’s Gospel tells us that the eternal Word of God “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” in the person of Jesus (John 1:14). The literal translation is that the Word “tented” or “tabernacled” among us. John is letting us know that Jesus, the eternal Word of God, is the true dwelling place of God. In Jesus, God has brought His presence to us. The Apostle Paul would later write, “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ” (Colossians 1:19, NLT). In Jesus, God came to dwell in our presence making it possible for us to dwell in His presence.

What does all this have to do with Psalm 27:4 and why do I say it every morning? It is my prayer that I may dwell in the presence of Christ, orienting my life toward Him. In other words, I’m praying for Jesus to have my life’s full attention. I like Old Testament scholar John Goldingay’s insights on Psalm 27:4. He comments, “We’ve gotten used to multitasking … We think we can keep adding one more thing to our schedules without asking what we are going to abandon to create room, and we aren’t very good at standing and asking what has priority.”[1] Praying Psalm 27:4 clarifies what needs to be my true priority at the beginning of each day.

The second verse that I pray each day from the Psalms is Psalm 4:8, which reads,

            In peace I will lie down and sleep,
               for you alone, Lord,
            make me dwell in safety. (NIV)

I breathe this prayer when closing my eyes to go to sleep. It is a verse I would sometimes pray with my children whenever they felt scared at bedtime or woke up from a bad dream. However, it is not a prayer just for children. This is a prayer for all people, impressing upon our hearts and minds that the Lord’s presence is not only with us throughout the day, but also, all through the night. We can rest, because the Lord keeps watch over us. We dwell in safety because He dwells with us and we with Him.

Several years ago, author and pastor J.D. Walt wrote a book titled First Word, Last Word, God’s Word. In the book, he states that the two most important words of the day are the first word and the last word. Oftentimes, the first and last words of our days come in the form of news cycles, social media, and shows from streaming platforms. While those can be entertaining, the habit of allowing those to provide our first word and last word no doubt shapes our lives. J.D. says, “Our lives consist not in the big decisions and banner events dotting our calendars but in the little things we consistently do day after day after day. We are what we do … every day.”[2]

My great temptation is to allow my attention to be captured by the “lesser things” than by “the one thing” of God’s presence. In fact, I recently confessed to a couple of other men of my struggle with attentiveness to God. This is why I return to Psalm 27:4 each morning and Psalm 4:8 each evening. I simply must. These prayers draw me back to my heart’s true desire to dwell in God’s presence each day and each night.

[1] John Goldingay. Psalms for Everyone, Pt. 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), 86.
[2] J.D. Walt, First Word, Last Word, God’s Word. (Franklin: Seedbed, 2020), 1.

Tags: god, christ, temple