Dwell

Psalm 27:4 NIV: 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 on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

I don’t know about you, but if you were to ask God for just 1 thing, and only 1 thing, would this be the first thing you’d think of? Especially if you take this literally, the idea of being stuck in a temple forever, just gazing at God, might not be very appealing. 

And yet, this verse is compelling and comforting to me. David makes this statement longingly after describing three tragic situations he was facing, having just mentioned the wicked who have come to devour him, an army encamped around him, and a war that has broken out against him.  In other words, David isn’t on his porch drinking iced tea and thinking about how great his life is.  

Yet despite these hard circumstances, he deliberately makes his priorities known. His hope is simple: he desires to dwell in God’s house perpetually. For David, he’s not thinking about heaven here, or even about meeting God in the temple; there wasn’t a permanent temple yet, and David, not being a priest, wasn’t even allowed in the holy place of the tabernacle. So what was he truly longing for? The word “dwell” becomes the key, as it means to abide, remain, or settle into God’s presence. 

Second, David wants to gaze on the beauty of the Lord. The Hebrew word for “gaze” is more than a glance or an absent-minded stare. It denotes intentional contemplation, often with pleasure. I certainly don’t have much context for imagining God’s beauty. I do, however, relate to the idea of being in awe, drinking in the beauty of flowers. This metaphor of flowers helps me connect with the third part of David’s request, namely that he would seek him. 

Many translations render this word as “meditate,” but it also means “to inspect” and “to consider.” The image that comes to mind is not merely gazing at the beauty of a flower, but inspecting and meditating on the aspects that make it beautiful. The same holds true for gazing and meditating on God. Think of all his attributes that are “beautiful”: faithfulness, mercy, grace, patience, truth, compassion, refuge, etc.  

In creating my artwork, I wanted the subject not only to gaze and seek beauty but also for the overall piece to evoke beauty, using a more painterly impasto style. The darker tones outside the greenhouse represent where trouble lives, where disorder and chaos threaten the peace found in dwelling in the presence of the Lord.