The One Ultimate Thing

Assume you can have any one wish you ask for in life, unreservedly given and that money is no object, what's the one thing you'd ask for?

If you're given only one arrow and are guaranteed to hit any target you desire, what would it be?

What would you do? What would be your pursuit? Your ultimate goal? Where would you be?

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a millionaire friend who's looking for a job (he owns companies and properties!), just to keep himself engaged in his daily life, to rescue himself from boredom and uselessness. Nobody would offer him a job because no one takes his request seriously! With all the 'success' and everything that he has, he doesn't know what's his life's ultimate aim is. And I also personally know many who could only wish they can make enough money to free themselves from the oppression of their employments. Who is worse off? I mean, what do these people live for anyway?

Three thousand years ago, there was a renown king, who had everything and more, wrote this immortal request:

"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." (Psalm 27:4)

Why on earth would a famous king who owns great palaces to have this unconventional desire to dwell in the house of the Lord? Why would someone who could have anything beautiful in the world would long to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord anyway? And to inquire in his temple? He had all the best men in his kingdom ready to die for him. What did he really mean? What drug was he on?

I began to grasp a little of what King David meant when reading the preceding and subsequent verses in Psalm 27. I've never understood this Psalm in my life the way I'm experiencing it now. What a beautiful Psalm! It's so beautiful because David wrote it under the most intense and darkest of circumstances. After all, he had an enemy army encamped against him to his left and right, evildoers who were thirsty after his blood.

What was the secret of his unshakeable confidence and fearlessness? What gave life to his song?

Ah, like a heat-seeking missile locked unto its target, the king had his ultimate prize fixed firmly in his sight. The once shepherd boy had never outgrow his one ultimate desire in life, especially not in his most pressing hour. The man after God's own heart (this is what God called him) was seeking after God's presence!

In another Psalm (probably the most famous of all poetry), he wrote,

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." (Psalm 23:5,6)

I've been meditating on the famous twenty third Psalm all week, and I could never have understood it in circumstances different from the one I'm in right now.

I need to go back to the times when I used to love spending time at the green pastures and still waters. By that it doesn't mean I've to live a "quiet" life, although that would be very nice! Because only there will I find my ultimate one thing. Or maybe....I'll truly learn how to say..."I shall not want"!