My readings today took me to Psalm 27, a prayer of David at a time when he was apparently under assault by his enemies. I want us to look at just one portion of his prayer—the central portion it seems to me—and consider the character of prayer itself.
“One thing I have asked of the LORD, that I shall seek;
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD
And to meditate in His temple.”
Prayer, in terms of its essential character, is communion with the living God. Prayer is not so much a method as it is a meeting. It is the highest privilege of the creature. It is an approach to, a fellowshipping with God–a “drawing near,” as the writer to the Hebrews says (Heb. 4:16; 7:19; 10:22). Issac Watts described prayer as that exercise “where the creature holds correspondence with his Creator and where the soul . . . gets near to God, is entertained with great delight, and, as it were, dwells with his heavenly Father for a short season before he comes to heaven.”
The Chief Desire. David will make his petitions known in the later verses, but the chief desire of his heart is God Himself.
This communion is the preeminent desire of the Psalmist. It is the “one thing” above all things that he desires. It is highly prized by him.
This communion is the earnest pursuit of his soul, “that I shall seek.” It is his soul’s preoccupation and pursuit. This desire leads to resolute action. “My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee,” David writes in Psalm 63.
This communion is the perpetual desire of his soul. “[A]ll the days of my life.” This is what he desires above all, the uninterrupted, intimate fellowship and favor the LORD.
David is simply responding to the LORD’s own desire. It is He who first calls, “Seek My face” (v. 8). He loves to be sought.
Above all, beloved, the LORD Himself is prayer’s chief blessing!
The Chief Delight. This communion is expressed by David as a “behold[ing] the beauty [delightfulness, gracefulness] of the Lord and [meditating] in His temple.”
Prayer, as it is often practiced, is a mad rush to unload our burdens–to get in and get out–rather than a meditative reflection on our Burden-bearer. Our God is so gracious so often with us as we barge in and seek His benefits apart from seeking Him. Such perfunctory prayer is surely a grief to Him that He is regarded simply as our “cosmic bellhop” poised to jump and run at our call. Surely it is a disgrace to us. Prayer is more, much more, than unloading our burdens. It is enjoying our God. Did I say “enjoy”? Fanny Crosby, like David, thought so,
O the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer and with Thee my God,
I commune as friend with friend.”
Prayer–a “pure delight”?
I do not deny the fact that prayer can be one the most difficult of all spiritual exercises, but I affirm that it is also the most delightful.
Oh dear saints of God, may we not spend our whole lives in prayer and yet remain strangers to God! May prayer cease to be an impersonal transaction like ordering by email–a point and clink function–with no personal, conscious engagement with the living God! May we seek to cultivate, as we pray; may we consciously know, as we pray; may we be able to say, when we have prayed–that we have met with God and have beheld by the eye of faith His inestimable beauty.
Blessings in the One who opened the way into His glorious presence.
