"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.
 "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."
"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." (Ps 27:1-6)

One thing. Having declared that the LORD (Yahweh) is his light and salvation, David responds with the one thing he knows he wants - to dwell in the house of the LORD, that he might gaze upon His beauty and to meditate in His temple.

As we saw earlier (part 1,) the passion to be in intimate relationship with God gave David the conviction that he, in God, could face any obstacle and not fear! He goes on with more reasons why he feels this way:

 "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..”

David knew God would hide him, conceal him and lift him high upon a rock! (Ps 40) And this, along with his knowledge of God, gave him confidence over fear. He had experienced God’s protection and care so much in the past that he could declare he would not live in fear! He took God at his word - and so can we.

Our fears are always pointing to a hopeless or disappointing future, but with God we can replace our fears with the reality of His presence, the promises of God’s protection, stability, peace and love - things He gives us when we dwell in His presence.  

"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.”

This is amazing. Not only is he saying he will fear nothing but that his head will be lifted above his enemies and he will offer worship to the Lord, making sacrifices of praise, joy and worship. He is saying nothing will stop his worship of the Lord - not his enemies, his circumstances, or anything else. Nothing! 

Is this our experience today? Do we let nothing stop our worship of the Lord, whether in our intimate “spirit and truth” times or worship (John 4:23) or our acts of “spiritual service?” (Rom 12:1)

We should strive to set the bar this high for our good and God’s glory!

Oh, but we let so many things interfere don’t we?

We get distracted or tempted and stop living a life of worship. I need not go into detail here. But let’s always remember the action we must take when we realize we’ve sinned. We must to go back into God’s presence in repentance and confession, asking Him to restore our fellowship with Him and to be filled again with His Spirit. (Ps 51, Eph5:18) 

It gets back to the ONE THING. Living fearless lives is only possible as we make living in His presence our one thing, letting nothing else interfere. I think David learned this the hard way too - just like me and you. When we don’t make living in God’s presence - in His Spirit, our primary focus, we miss a multitude of blessings He has for us and those around us miss that chance to see Christ in us.

How different the world would be if we walked as men and women of God’s peace (Phil 4:7) rather than of anxiety, fear and worry.

Holy Spirit, revive your people to pursue this ONE THING.
Let us declare against our fears, "The Lord is my light and my salvation." Amen

Tags:worship, anxiety, prayer, fear, peace