Three Facets of Intimacy with God in David's "One Thing" Prayer

Six years ago, over half of Americans reported that they always or sometimes felt like no one really knew them well. Since COVID, it’s only gotten worse, especially among younger generations. The unfortunate truth is this:

Americans are struggling to cultivate deep and meaningful relationships.

What are the implications of this for those of us wanting a deep and meaningful relationship with God?

The idea of being Jesus’ friend doesn’t carry much weight for a generation of millennials where 22% report not having any friends. How does Gen-Z experience closeness to God when they’ve possibly never felt close to anyone before? It’s hard for the Church to find significance in being “the bride of Christ” when marriages are becoming more and more rare. The invitation to know and love God as our Father has no frame of reference for the 17.8 children, one in four Americans, who are growing up without a father figure in their homes.

Yet these are the analogies used in Scripture to describe how God desires to relate to His people. God wants to be a friend, bridegroom and Father to His people. Our lonely generation needs to discover true intimacy with God. It is knowing God in a raw, vulnerable and intimate way that we will discover our sense of identity, freedom, joy and strength.

When I speak of intimacy with God, I want to be clear that I am not talking about anything sensual. This is about love in our hearts. Intimacy emphasizes the personal, emotional and relational connection that God desires to have with us in the deepest places of our being. To be intimate with God is to be fully known by God and to fully know Him. This requires a mutual disclosure of our hearts to one another.

Few Bible characters exemplified this intimate relationship with God more than King David.

David’s One Thing Prayer

This desire for true intimacy with God is what King David called his “one thing” in Psalm 27:4:

One thing have I asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

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 inquire in his temple.

For David to call this his “one thing” indicates that this verse, as much or more than any other, expresses the highest desire and longing of his heart. David’s chief priority, even as a busy king with lofty responsibilities, was to know God in an intimate way. It’s not that the “one thing” was David’s only thing, but it was his first thing. So it should be with us.

Jesus seems to reference this psalm of David in a few places, indicating his agreement with David’s “one thing” prayer. Or more accurately, what David was expressing in Psalm 27:4 is a reflection of the desire that originated in God himself for intimacy with His people.

In Luke 10:38-42, Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened to His teaching. Jesus calls it the “one thing” that was needed and the “good part.” I have to think that Jesus was considering David’s psalm and likening Mary’s devotion to David’s.

In John 17:24, in the midst of Jesus’ longest recorded prayer, He seems to mirror portions of David’s prayer as He prays for His people. David prayed “One thing I have desired” and Jesus prayed “Father I desire.” David prayed “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord,” and Jesus prayed “that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am.” David prayed “To behold the beauty of the Lord," and Jesus prayed “that they may behold My glory.”

David’s one thing prayer in Psalm 27:4 was always God’s desire. And in a generation that struggles to have close relationships, I believe we need this prayer more than ever.

What I love about David’s “one thing” is that it is actually three things (God seems to be ok with three-in-one). These are the three desires expressed in David’s one thing prayer:

1. To dwell in the Lord’s house

2. To gaze upon the Lord’s beauty

3. To inquire of the Lord in His temple

Let’s briefly explore each of these facets of the “one thing” prayer to learn how to experience deeper intimacy with God in our own lives.

1) Dwelling in the House of the Lord

No one knows when David wrote Psalm 27. The most common conjecture is that it was written while David was fleeing from Saul before becoming king. However, some scholars have proposed that it could have been penned during his son Absalom’s rebellion.

If this was the case, Psalm 27 would reflect the only time during David’s 33-year reign in Jerusalem where he was away from his tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. David’s desire to “dwell in the house of the Lord” in Psalm 27:4 could have been an expression of his longing to return to Jerusalem — to the tent of day and night worship and prayer that he and the Levites were hosting there.

Yet even when he was on the run, disconnected from his usual place of worship, David knew that it was ultimately God’s presence that provided the “tent” of satisfaction, joy and refreshing. David’s “home” was the presence of God — wherever it was that God’s glory dwelled became the “house of the Lord.” Here’s the very next verse:

For he will hide me in his shelter, in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the

cover of his tent… Psalm 27:5

It is clear that David wanted to be rooted in Zion, yet he also had a revelation of God’s abiding presence that was accessible to all those who seek the Lord at any time and place. David wasn’t just seeking a tent or temple in Jerusalem. He was seeking God. And he knew that the Spirit of God was willing to draw near to him whenever He drew near to God. This is why he said:

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! Psalm 139:7-8

Likewise, God’s presence is available to us, but is it being accessed? To cultivate intimacy with the Lord requires spending time in His presence. There are no shortcuts or life hacks when it comes to knowing God. God is a person, and you have to get to know Him. It takes time and attention. Are we willing to sacrifice other things to really dwell with the Lord in His presence — both personally and corporately?

What if we got up a little earlier to have more time in the secret place? Or waited a few more minutes in prayer before we got on with our day? What if we learned to wait on God together when we gathered? Many times in corporate worship we shift to the preaching or altar call at the most intense moment of God’s manifest presence. But what if we just stayed in those moments of glory for a little while? What if we lingered? What if we, like Joshua, did not depart from the tent of meeting?

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. Exodus 31:11

Experiencing God’s presence is not the end. It’s the beginning of the relationship. We seek Him to find Him, and when we have found Him, then we can really get to know Him. The manifestation of God’s glorious presence, whether in our secret place or in corporate worship, can be a mysterious thing. However, that is where we get to know God in an intimate way — in His presence.

2) Gazing Upon the Beauty of the Lord

Beauty is the battlefield where God and Satan contend with each other for the hearts of men.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Americans spend about seven hours a day staring at screens. We are a generation that knows how to fix our eyes. We know how to gaze. We have learned how to behold.

Yet the Lord is wooing us away from our devices to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. The Spirit of God is gently turning our heads to look at Jesus.

“Behold, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:29)

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights…” Isaiah 42:1

What does it mean to behold an invisible God? How do we gaze at Christ in heaven, while we are stuck here on earth?

First of all, we need to define the beauty of the Lord. Many understand beauty as a pleasing aesthetic. If someone or something looks nice, then we call it beautiful. Yet true beauty is much deeper and broader.

The revelation of God’s beauty comes to us as we discover the fullness of God’s nature expressed in His personality, His emotions, His plans and His ways. God’s love, mercy, justice, kindness, creativity, joy and power are beautiful. God’s story is beautiful. God’s humor is beautiful. The Gospel is beautiful. God’s word is beautiful. God’s creation is beautiful.

Because we can not see God with our own eyes, our beholding of His beauty only happens as God reveals Himself to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Gazing upon Him happens when the “eyes of our heart” are opened (see Eph 1:18).

As the Holy Spirit reveals these and other dimensions of God to us, we see His beauty.

“The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God....” - Charles Spurgeon

To see God as beautiful means more than having the right facts about the nature of God’s attributes. A theology without beauty may have correct facts, but it suffers from a cold heart. A true revelation of His beauty thrills, stuns, excites, delights and satisfies our souls. The beauty of God awakens awe and wonder!

I believe God’s beauty is revealed primarily through His word, His creation and His Son.

The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to delight in skies, stars, mountains, birds, atoms, trees and the eight billion people that fill our planet (Romans 1:20). Creation reveals the beauty of God.

The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to be stunned by the truth of Scripture. Every page is a doorway into the knowledge of God (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible reveals the beauty of God.

The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to delight in the risen Christ. His eyes are like fire, his face shines like the sun and His hair is white like wool (Revelation 1:14-16). He wears a human bodywith nail-scarred hands and feet forever. He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Jesus reveals the beauty of God.

And as we gaze upon God through His creation, His word and His Son, we become more like Him. 2 Cor. 3:18 says that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image.“ Intimacy with God means beholding the beauty of the Lord.

And as we behold Him, we become what we behold.

3) Inquiring of the Lord

David’s final prayer was to inquire of the Lord in His temple. In other words, David wanted conversation with God. He wanted to ask the Lord questions, hear God’s voice and get answers to the problems he was facing.

Intimacy with God is not just about being in His presence and beholding His beauty, it’s also about hearing His voice. While dwelling in God’s house and gazing upon His beauty might be associated primarily with “worship”, inquiring of the Lord might be associated more with “prayer”. And prayer is not talking to God; it is talking with God. This means we need to inquire, and we need to listen.

Most believers wish they could hear God’s voice more clearly, more loudly and more frequently. Yet I wonder — are we listening? Are we inquiring? Have we slowed down long enough to notice that the Shepherd is speaking to His sheep (John 10:27)? Have we waited in His presence long enough to let the storm settle so we can hear the still small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12)?

This doesn’t have to be complicated or dignified. David’s prayer life seemed strikingly conversational and informal. While in Jerusalem, he would simply walk into his tabernacle, sit down before the Ark of the Covenant and have a conversation with the Lord (I Chronicles 17:16). Inquiring of the Lord can be simple, but it must be intentional.

Perhaps David learned the importance of inquiring of God while he was leading Israel in battles against its various enemies. In I Chronicles 14, David faced two separate enemies, and each battle required a unique strategy in order to obtain the victory. The only reason David had the wisdom to succeed was because he inquired of the Lord for direction before both battles (see verses 10 and 14). After the initial victory, it would have been easy for David to assume that he had figured out the proper way of fighting. However, before the second battle began, he returned to God’s presence and sought the Lord’s voice. For the second battle, God led the army in an entirely different direction. David would have never known if he had not first inquired.

What we learn from this story is that God desires an ongoing conversation with us. Inquiring of the Lord is not only for major moments of transitions in our lives. God wants to give us the “daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) of His voice.

“...man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Deuteronomy 8:3

Intimacy with God is being a friend of God. It’s asking Him about the little things and the big things. Sometimes He will speak, and sometimes He will not. But, like David, we have to take the time to get quiet, ask questions and listen, or we will never know.

Conclusion

Deep down, we all yearn for intimacy. We were created to be close to God and others. We are designed to know others and be known by others.

Some have described intimacy as “in-to-me-you-see”. In order to be close, we have to be known. This requires vulnerability, honesty, courage and trust. Sometimes we are not experiencing intimacy because we are fearful of opening our hearts to God and others. It is hard to trust after you’ve been hurt.

But God is trustworthy. When we open up to Him, He will not hurt us or reject us. In Christ, we are accepted and loved. We can come to God as we truly are with an open heart. He already knows our sin and weakness, yet He has already chosen to love us. The Father sent the Son to deliver us from our sin, which had separated us from Him.

Jesus died and rose again so that we could be restored to that place of intimate communion with the Lord — so that we could again dwell in His presence, gaze upon His beauty and inquire of Him. He has opened His heart to us. Let’s open our hearts to Him.