By Pastor Rachel Young
Psalm 27:4 AMP
One thing I have asked of the LORD, and that I will seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD [in His presence] all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.
I love this scripture! To me it sums up the true nature of what it means to be a child of God! What an honor it is to have such a loving heavenly Father birth His love and desire within us for Himself! Apart from the effects of His supernatural mercy and grace upon our hearts we are but consumed by a myriad of fleeting, unsatisfying, and often destructive loves. But one kiss from His heavenly lips and we are never the same! Once we have tasted of Him, we live our lives in an endless pursuit of His beauty, for no other love will do!
I love how Jonathan Edwards explains the supernatural effects of His love upon our hearts: “The saint prefers what he has already of God before anything in this world. That which was infused into his heart at his conversion is more precious to him than anything which the world can afford. The views which sometimes given him of the beauty and excellency of God are more precious to him than all the treasures of the wicked. The relation of a child in which he stands to God, the union which there is between his soul and Jesus Christ, he values more than the greatest earthly dignity. That image of God which is stamped on his soul he values more than any earthly ornaments. It is, in his esteem, better to be adorned with the graces of God’s Holy Spirit than to be made to shine in jewels of gold and the most costly pearls, or to be admired for the greatest external beauty. He values the robe of Christ’s righteousness, which he has on his soul, more than the robes of princes. The spiritual pleasures and delights which he sometimes has in God he prefers far before all the pleasures of sin.”
Oh, the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur of the Lord! He is more precious than all the treasures of the wicked! A day in His courts is better than a thousand elsewhere! To have Christ is truly to have all!