How much do you want God?
This message is the fourth in a 5-part series called “One Thing”. The goal of this series is to focus our lives on what matters. This message is from Psalm 27:4. It was preached by Ryan Rogers at the Palmer SDA Church on September 26, 2020.
I invite you to process a serious question. How much do you love God?
The Psalm declares, “One thing I have desired of the Lord. That will I 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 inquire in His temple.”
This is a desire to be in God’s presence looking at His beauty, every day of your life.
If you are honest, is there any part of you that thinks that might get a bit boring? We know, in faith, that nothing compares to the beauty of God. That would never get boring! It would be deeply satisfying! That is the correct church person response, but what is your honest experience. In our own lives we see that there is certainly more than one thing we desire. What does your life reveal about your desires? If you have 30 minutes free, how would you spend it? Napping? Entertainment? Exercise? Relaxing? Instagram? Nothing is wrong with any of those responses. But do you ever treasure those 30 minutes as an opportunity to seek after God’s beauty? When your mind wanders, where does it go? Is it gazing and longing for God? What would your cravings and pleasures say about how much you want God?
If you see in you some misplaced desires, you are not alone. Rather than feeling shame for our lame desires and making short lived efforts to weaken those desires let’s seek to experience God’s beauty and let that experience strengthen our desire for Him.
In Psalm 27:4 we see a whole lot of desire. Seeking, dwelling, beholding, inquiring. The object of all that desire is God’s beauty. These are the two concepts that will take our focus now: God’s beauty and our desire. God’s beauty is great and unchanging. Our desires are weak and variable. Alongside our one desire for God we have all these other desires. And these competing desires have entered God into a beauty contest.
Next year the Miss America beauty pageant turns 100 years old. In 1921, that first Miss America Pageant was first known as Atlantic City’s Inner-City Beauty Contest. Business owners near the Boardwalk in Atlantic City made their money from tourism. But they struggled to do any business after Labor Day. So, they gathered beautiful girls and put on a beauty contest with evening gown and swimsuit competitions for the public. Those business owners had business beyond Labor Day. Because beauty attracts attention. We are wired for desire. And there are so many things that catch our attention and get our affection. It makes it difficult to say, “One thing I desire”. No, it’s a beauty contest.
Those first two events didn’t quite make to the 100th birthday. In Miss America 2019 the evening gown and swimsuit competitions were discontinued. Miss America’s chairwoman said, “We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance.” It is no longer a pageant it is a competition. There was a certain incompatibility about it. The competition has a talent portion, they write essays and get scholarships, they pursue social impact initiative where they cast a vision about how they will change the world. They display all that inner beauty and then to confirm that they will qualify to be Miss America, to prove they have beauty worthy of scholarships, they have to put on a bikini and pose in front of live TV. Is that how we determine beauty? This highlights the incompatibility of the competing beauty contestants in our own hearts. Beauty is bigger than appearance. It is deeper that what looks good and brings pleasure in the moment. We have desires in us that are simply an appeal to the flesh. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with swimsuits or beautiful girl who wear them. But there is something wrong with the way we assess beauty.
With all our competing attractions we turn everything into a beauty contest. From classic car shows to social media posts, from the way we groom our front lawns to the way we show up for church. We are constantly assessing what is most beautiful.
To be sure, God has the competition beat! The only thing that makes it a contest at all is that the competition has some lousy judges. That’s us! Our desires and cravings for things other than God voice support for the other contestants! A perverted sense of beauty, unhealthy cravings and corrupted spiritual tastebuds have led to something tragic; we actually believe that other things are more attractive than God. It is our competing desires that keep us from saying, “One thing I desire”.
GOD’S BEAUTY
We generally reserve the term “beautiful” for physical appearance, romantic conversation, nature scenes, and expressions of art. We must remember that God is the ultimate definition and display of beauty. Humans are incapable of giving a full description of God’s beauty but here are a few attempts.
Psalm 50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
Psalm 145:3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
Psalm 29:2 Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.
In Psalm 27:4 the location of God’s beauty is specified, “in the house of the LORD” and “in His temple”. God is not confined to a specific location, but there is some special experience of His presence in the sanctuary. I just took a class on the doctrine of the sanctuary. Check out this one sentence that I heard the professor say. It’s deep! Are you ready? He said, “The function of the sanctuary is not limited to hamartiology or soteriology but it is also doxology.” I know, that just got you all fired up! It all makes sense now. It means that there is more to the sanctuary than sacrificial systems to deal with sin and to represent the plan of salvation. It’s more than timelines about judgement and details of the furniture. Before all of that, the sanctuary is about God’s presence and worship. Before it needed cleansed it was clean! It was the glorious throne room of God. Many worshippers have seen His beauty in the sanctuary.
Psalm 68:35 Awesome is God from his sanctuary
Psalm 96:6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Psalm 26:8 O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.
Revelation 11:19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
Psalm 84:10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
This is a kind of beauty that changes the one who sees it. It moves us!
Looking at God’s beauty gives confidence and strength. Psalm 27:4 is surrounded by enemies (vv1-2, 5-6). David is in a pressing situation. Many commentators believe that this was written during the rebellion of His son Absalom. It’s a hard time. But he could say, “The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (v.1) and “though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.” (v.3). Looking at God’s beauty gave him confidence and strength. It was so powerful that David confessed, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.” (v. 13). Just the hope of seeing His beauty in the future can inspire endurance in our present struggle!
It gives understanding. It corrects our perspective. Psalm 73 is a painful and honest record of being disturbed and confused. Asaph admits(v.2), “But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.” This is a stress that is about to take him down. He says(vv. 16-17), “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” There are some situations in our lives that we don’t understand, they make us stumble. But if we can see the king in His beauty our perspective is realigned.
OUR DESIRE
Beauty is what God is! The desire described in Psalm 27:4 is what our experience can be.
“One thing I have desired”– How much do you want God? Can we really say “one thing is desire”? Can we honestly claim, like Psalm 73:25, “There is nothing on earth I desire besides You?” We may have other desires that are legitimate. But any “other” desire in our lives must first be a desire for God. It must be, at its core, a love for God.
We know we need Him, but do we want Him? What we want says more about our spiritual life than what we know we need. Knowing our need is about awareness. Feeling our want is about appetite. Is it a duty or a delight? An obligation to fulfill or a desire to satisfy?
“That will I seek”– This is a desire that moves us to seek. At the center of this Psalm(v. 8) there is an invitation from God for us to seek His face, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, “’Your face, Lord, I will seek.’”
God’s beauty is something to long for!
Psalm 84:1-2 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Psalm 63:1-2 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
“That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” – This reminds us of Anna, who never left the temple (Luke 2:37). She didn’t want to miss the chance to see Jesus. God has a kind of beauty take makes us satisfied just to dwell in it.
“To behold the beauty of the Lord” – Looking at God’s beauty awakens a hunger in us for more, “Taste and see that the Lord is good”(Psalm 34:8). Often my kids decided that the food I make is yucky. Sometimes it is. But other times it is delicious. But they make their decision about how it taste before they taste it. If we will see the beauty of God, it will strip away our resistance. Any concept of Him boring or unsatisfying will be corrected.
“And to inquire in His temple” – When we see His beauty we want to learn more!
THE CONTEST IN IS BIG
Think of the entire Great Controversy narrative as a beauty contest. There was a times when there was not contest. But then Lucifer entered into this beauty contest with God. You have heard these verses before. Notice the concepts of beauty and desire.
Ezekiel 28:12 “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.”
Ezekiel 28:17 “Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.”
Isaiah 14:12-14 ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
Satan entered himself in the beauty contest and judged himself to be the winner.
Then there was war in heaven and Satan was expelled (Revelation 12:9) and the beauty contest became a war on earth (Revelation 12:17).
Notice how the contest got started with humanity.
Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
After the Fall, the Old Testament history is one scene of the beauty contest after another. Which is more attractive? Bringing the offering God has asked or bringing the one you like? The riches of Egypt or suffering with the people of God? God’s law or a Golden calf? Purity of heart or Bathsheba? Standing in the fire with Jesus or staying out of the fire without Him? Being a light to the pagan world or being just like the pagan world? The familiarity of the dessert or the promise of Canaan? One king would do right in the eyes of the Lord and the people would seek His face. Another would to evil in the eyes of the Lord and their hearts were turned away to serve other Gods.
Then Jesus entered the contest in human form. He had a strange way of competing in the contest.
Isaiah 53:2 “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”
How are you going to win a beauty contest like that Jesus? It is like refusing to compete in the swimsuit competition and still, somehow, being crowed the sinner of the beauty contest. Satan is not afraid to pull out the swimsuit. He will use anything flashy to get our attention and feed our appetites. Jesus could appear with unquestionable beauty. He could blind us with radiant splendor. He could force us to confess His beauty but, instead, He compels us with love. Which is more attractive, the glamor of sin or the gentleness of the one who died to take your sin? His gentleness amplifies His beauty. The Bible is not filled with declarations by God about His own beauty. He would be right in doing so. But it means more when your beauty is expressed by the one you love. He let’s us declare it!
There will be a day when every knee will bow. Eventually the beauty contest will crown a winner. And for eternity there will be no contest. We will join those who are captivated by His beauty.
Revelation 4:8 Day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation 5:13-14 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
We experience the truth of the hymn, “Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay.”
You may not see His beauty from where you are at. We can trust that those who do see His beauty, unveiled, unanimously vote him as the winner of the contest. We can know in faith that nothing compares to the beauty of God.
I do as much of my sermon preparation as possible outside. I was preparing this sermon on the side of Lazy Mountain. The fog set in. There is was a valley below me and a mountain on the other side. But I couldn’t see it. Then the fog cleared and the mountain was there. The fog didn’t make the mountain disappear, is only blocked my view. There my be some things blocking your view. You may be at a place where you are not sure God is even there and if He is your not convinced that He is beautiful. You may be dealing with some other desires in your life that are so appealing you cannot stop going to them. It may seem impossible to you that God is more to be desired than the things you crave. This is fog. The fog doesn’t make the mountain disappear. It just blocks your view. What we need is a soft wind to clear the fog and give us a glimpse of the beauty of God.
Each of us experience other desires and unhealthy cravings in our lives. I hope to expose them as the lies they are. We try to squeeze satisfaction out of low level desires, perverted pleasure, and they are failing us. They are incapable of giving the joy they promise. C.S. Lewis was right in observing that “we are far to easily pleased.” Our feelings tell us we want it, but our faith tells us it will never satisfy. It is not about how desirable the other things are, it is about how much more desirable the One Thing is. When we see His beauty our competing defective affections don’t even make honorable mention in the contest.
How much do you want God? The beauty contest pulls at our hearts. We wish we could go back and plead with Lucifer to never enter into the contest, warn Eve that the fruit would do the opposite of satisfy, and go to that palace with David and say, “I know you feel desire for that woman, but trust me, this is not what will make you happy.” If only there was someone there to help them see the beauty of God in that moment and expose the lie of their desires. But we cannot enter the contest there. And we cannot yet enter it with those gathered around God’s throne. We can only enter the contest here. In each moment we live our desires declare the beauty of the One Thing or the other things. How will you desire and seek and dwell and gaze and inquire after the beauty of God in a way that will declare, “He is the winner of the contest!”. May we live lives so oriented to the beauty of God that we might honestly say, “, “One thing I have desired of the Lord. That will I 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 inquire in His temple.”