Meditation: Gazing on God (Ps 27)

One of the best ways to learn and live the Scriptures is to meditate on them. Biblical meditation is taking a word, truth, or doctrine, and steeping it like tea leaves in your mind, allowing those biblical realities to flavor and transform your spirituality.

Meditation on the Bible takes a little bit of time. You can rush making tea, but it won’t be very good. Weak. Diluted. In meditation, you grab a word and draw out its implications. All you must do is pause, reflect, and consider how this particular word changes things, what it’s communicating, and why it matters.

Let’s begin.

Read: Psalm 27:4

I have asked one thing from the LORD;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the LORD
and seeking him in his temple.
— Psalm 27:4

Meditate: “I have asked one thing from the LORD; it is what I desire”

One thing + desire. How many things do we truly want in life? How often do we say, “What do you want?” Whether it’s an order at Starbucks or something from the store, we have many micro-desires. And then there are macro-desires: “What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want out of life? What do you want to do after college? Where do you want to live?” Macro-desires are much broader, bigger, life-rooting desires.

But David is talking about something bigger in Psalm 27.

David talks about a mega, ultimate, all-encompassing want. What is the meta-desire voiced in Psalm 27?

Meditate: “to dwell…gazing on the beauty of the LORD”

Is this your meta-desire? To dwell/fellowship and gaze/enjoy God? Is fellowship with God the wrap-around, foundational, oxygenating want of your life?

Reflect with me on the word gazing. This is not a glancing at God. You would never glance at a sunset on the beach. You pause. You marvel. To truly look at the sunset, you drink it in for a while and invite others to see it. God is infinitely more gaze-worthy than a sunset.

There is far too much glancing Christianity—no reading of the Bible beyond vibey images shared on Instagram, only shout-out prayers before a meal, and shallow thoughts of God pretending to be deep. The Bible invites us to drink in the beauty of God.

King David Playing the Harp in The Ormesby Psalter (14th Century)

Beauty. This doesn’t mean romance or physical attractiveness in the way our culture thinks of beauty . This beauty is how we speak of a beautiful rose garden, painting, or a wild athletic feat. It’s jaw-dropping, wonder, wow-ness, impressive, inspiring, affecting. God delivers on this beauty to an infinite degree.

Gaze upon his beautiful attributes—holiness, eternality, omnipotence, sovereignty, and more.
Gaze upon his beauty in the gospel—Christ’s dying for our sins, rising from the dead, forgiving us, reigning for us, coming back for us.
Gaze upon him in the Scriptures. Enjoy him as creator, deliverer, helper, leader, shepherd, king, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and more.

God, you are the meta-desire of your people. We want to enjoy you, fellowship with you, and exalt you. Teach us to gaze upon you.

Amen.