Psalm 27:4, David's threefold mission statement

The more I study David's life the more I long to be like this guy. He is really so right on so many crucial things. I would like to address David's faults first because this topic comes up often when I engage people in conversation about David. So I would like to vindicate the "man after God's own heart" before I begin on His mission statement.

The biggest accusation I encounter when bringing up the topic of King David is his grievous sin of murder and adultery. The enemy has done a swell job in discrediting David's life, and often he uses our own sin as an idea of disqualification for our lives. But what we find in David's life is the glory of our own life. David's sin did not disqualify him from being the man after God's own heart. If sin ever disqualified us the cross of Christ was in vain. What we see so clearly in David's life was that he did in fact sin, yet his desire and longing was not to dwell in sin, and not to be separated from God by sin. Psalm 51 describes in great detail David's repentance and desperate hope for forgiveness. The introduction to Psalm 51 tells us "A psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba." So we know this is David's heart after His fall. David did not allow his shortcomings and previous failure to knock him out of his pursuit of God. Because David understands the heart of God, "Have mercies on me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitudes of Your tender mercies." Psalm 51:1," he is able to repent and resume the pursuit of God.

The second thing we must remember is that we are all equally guilty of murder and adultery. Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 6:21-26 that murder begins in the heart, and also in vs 27-28 adultery begins in the heart. Humanity acts on wicked thoughts according to the amount of power we have. In other words, if we have little power to control the physical repercussions of our actions our murder is expressed through slander, manipulation and the attempt to destroy any character, image or reputation of another person. King David had unlimited power according to the minds of men, and simply acted on his wickedness according to his power. We also act on our wickedness based on what we can realistically get away with in the physical realm. We fear the punishment of prison so we would not commit murder but we will launch attacks by any means possible that will not damage our reputation or status. With this in mind, knowing that God is looking at this heart reality, not the full growth of our sin, we know that we like David have also murdered, committed adultery and done all other forms of wickedness within the confines of our thoughts.

This leads us to the question; How could David be a man after God's own heart?

The answer I believer lies in Psalm 27:4, I think of it as David's threefold life mission statement

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 really is a statement of what David wants to do with his life in three expressions. He says;

- I want to be close to You

- I want to gaze upon Your beauty 

- I want to hear from You

Could it be that this is the basis of why we exist at the very core of our being? What if in our attempt to maintain the activity of Christianity we have discarded the breath of our existence? God did not call David the man after His heart because of his works, leadership, or moral standing, it was based solely on the internal desire of David to be with God, to gaze on His beauty, and to hear from God. David was so dead on with God's intended purpose for Humanity,( See Our Created Purpose) he was desperate for these three things. And in his desperation to be close to the Lord, God blew his mind with revelation and prophetic knowledge of who He is. God brought David into the depths of His heart and unveiled His love to David because of His desire to know God personally and deeply. The Psalms are littered with David's cry to know God and the expression of what he found in the encounter. 

O God You are my God; Early I will seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will praise you. -Psalm 63:1-3

I want my life to center around this theme of being close to God, gazing on His beauty, and hearing from Him. It is the source of life, and the only thing that will sustain the human heart.