Base Hits Win Games, part 2

One thing I ask.

If you could ask God one thing what would you ask? Would you be like Job and demand an answer to all the pain and suffering in the world? Would you be like Moses and ask to behold His presence? Would you ask to be given a wise heart, like Solomon? Would you ask for a child as Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Hannah did? Would you ask for love? Patience? Peace? Kindness? An end to war, famine, disease and poverty? That everybody on the planet be saved? That His will be done?

One thing I ask. What thing? Let's turn to that most lyrical and poetic of Israel's Kings, David ben Jesse. And what did he ask?

"One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: 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 seek him in his temple." Psalm 27:4

What one thing? To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. Why? To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

Dwell in the house of the Lord. Psalm 23:6. What does it mean to dwell in God's house?

Dwell-to live in. What do you think of as your dwelling place? For me, it's home. It's my house where I live with the wife. I reside there. It's where I have my meals. Where I entertain family and friends. Where I sleep. It's comfortable and familiar to me. The wife and I put a lot of work into our house to make it as we want it to be. I have put forth a lot of effort into my dwelling. And I put forth effort to maintain it. Which means, fixing things that need to be fixed. Mowing the lawn. Shoveling the driveway after it snows. Making sure it's locked when we're not there, to protect our stuff-kinda materialistic, I know, but hey, that's the reality of this world. The point being that I have invested a lot of time and effort in my house. I care about it and for it. It's more than a shelter from the elements. It's home.

One thing I ask-to dwell in the house of the Lord. When we say God's House, we naturally think of a place where believers gather to worship Him-temple, church, meeting house, etc. When Jesus chased out the moneychangers from the Temple, he shouted a verse from Isaiah at them: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." The obvious reference being that God's house was the Temple.

What is the point of dwelling in God's house? "To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." I find that in worship services at shul, I can gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek Him there.

Beauty of the Lord? I would submit that the beauty of the Lord is manifest when we worship Him. When we get together to praise His Name, that is a beautiful thing. And when we thank God for all the miracles He has done for us and continues to do, that is a beautiful thing. And of course I'm biased, but I think I worship in a beautiful sanctuary. I'm sure your houses of worship are beautiful as well. And this is fitting. The very best is to be given for the service of God. While it would be pefectly acceptable to worship God in a hovel or a cave or in a place that was badly in need of repair, the Psalmist did say to worship God in the beauty of holiness. The first born, the first fruits, these belong to God. An animal that was going to be sacrificed had to be tamim (perfect, worthy, unblemished). Only the best for the very best.

"Seek Him in His temple" What does it mean to seek? I would say it means to search for, to inquire, to dig in the hopes of discovering something, to follow or pursue. Why seek? Service of God is to be active, not passive. You can seek by searching the Scriptures. You can seek by going to services. You can seek by performing acts of kindness. And all these can be done in God's house. If we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might, we must show our love in these ways. Love is a verb. It's a choice. It's more than a feeling-if that. To love God, we must follow the commandments. "Love is the fulfillment of the commandments." "Let no doubt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another."

But on a practical level, can we really spend all our days in His house? What about family and friends and school and work and sports and band and dance and movies and concerts and all the myriad things that take up our days? Even rabbis and priests, whose calling is to be in God's house, don't spend all day of every day in God's house.

What are we asking for then? To be able to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in his temple. Most often, this is done in church or shul. But, why not carry that out into the world? See the beauty of God in nature, in little acts of kindness, in intimate friends who are oblivious to everyone else around them, in the love family members show one another. Seek His face through your study of Scripture. Seek His face by asking questions. Seek His face by struggling with your doubts and fears. We are not meant to know everything. We are meant to serve Him, in whatever way He calls us. And we may not be ready for that calling or know what it is. But that's why we seek His face.

One thing I ask-that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Does it have to be literal? If we go once a year, once a month, once a week, 3 times a week, 5 times a week, every day, what are we doing there? Are we gazing upon His beauty and seeking His face? If not, it matters not how often we go.

May you be granted to gaze upon His beauty and seek His face all the days you dwell in His house.