Psalm 27:6

Psalm 27 opens with David’s confidence in the LORD as his light, his salvation and the strength of his life (Psalm 27:1), so that he can face an army camped against him without fear (Psalm 27:1–3), even when his enemies and foes came upon him. Verse 4 is the heart of that confidence, because it tells us what David wants most. With danger all around, the thing he asks for is the LORD’s presence, which he knows is his refuge and his strength.

The word translated “desired” is shâʼal, the ordinary verb for asking or requesting, so David is telling us what he has asked of the LORD in prayer. “Seek after” is bâqash, to search out or seek. He has made his request, and he means to keep pursuing it. The two verbs side by side show a prayer he will carry for the rest of his life.

A king might ask for many things: safety, success, victory, a long reign. David names one, and every other concern takes its place beneath it. The Lord Jesus said the same to Martha: “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42). Paul counted everything he had once valued as loss for the knowledge of Christ (Philippians 3:7–8), and he wrote, “this one thing I do” (Philippians 3:13). The greatest good David can name is the LORD himself, near him and known by him.

For David, “the house of the LORD” and “his temple” are two names for the same sanctuary, set side by side as Hebrew poetry often does. The first joins bayith, “house”, to Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD’s own name. The second word, hêykâl, means a palace or temple, a great building fit for a king. In David’s day the LORD’s house was a tent: the Tabernacle, and the tent David pitched for the ark of the covenant in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:17). Solomon built the permanent Temple later. This tent was the centre of Israel’s worship, and God had given it for one purpose: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). To be near it was to be near God himself, in the fellowship of his covenant, where he made himself known and where his people were safe.

“Dwell” is yâshab, to sit down, remain and live somewhere. David wants a settled home in God’s presence, a lasting place where he belongs. “All the days of my life” uses yôwm, “day”, and chay, “life”, and it makes the desire as long as his life. David ends Psalm 23 the same way: “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever” (Psalm 23:6).

The word for beauty, nôʻam, means pleasantness, delightfulness and graciousness. It names what makes God himself delightful: his character, his ways and the goodness of his presence. Moses prays with the same word, “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us” (Psalm 90:17). To “behold” is châzâh, to look at something and take it in. David wants to gaze on the LORD and delight in who he is, his holiness, love, justice, mercy and power, and to let that sight satisfy him.

We behold the LORD’s beauty when we read and think over his word, where he shows who he is. We see it in his works in creation, in worship and prayer, and in his hand at work in our own lives. Looking at him changes us. Paul writes that “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

“Enquire” is bâqar, to look into something, to consider it and to seek counsel. David wants to learn God’s will and receive direction in the place where God made himself known. The God whose beauty he delights in is also the God whose guidance he asks for. Scripture pictures that wisdom calling out to all who will listen in Proverbs 8. For us, Christ “of God is made unto us wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:30), and in him “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). We enquire of the LORD today through his Scripture, through the leading of his Spirit and through godly counsel, and we let his guidance come first in our decisions.

Verse 5 begins with “For”, and it gives the reason for the longing of verse 4. The house David wants to live in is also the place where he will be safe. “In the time of trouble” is plain realism. David’s life was full of war, intrigue and flight, from King Saul and later from his own son Absalom, so a hiding place was something he knew he needed.

Each word in the verse pictures shelter. “Pavilion” is çôk, a booth or hut, the kind made from entwined branches, a covering that closes around whoever is inside it. “Tabernacle” is ʼôhel, a tent. Strong’s traces it to a root meaning to be clear or to shine, a tent as something seen from far off, and it is the word for the tent of meeting where God dwelt among his people. “The secret of his tabernacle” uses çêther, a covering or hiding place, and points to the innermost part of God’s dwelling, perhaps the Most Holy Place. David pictures himself sheltered at the very heart of God’s house, where only God can bring him.

The two verbs for “hide” are different. The first is tsâphan, to hide by covering over, and so to treasure something up and protect it. The second is çâthar, to hide by covering, the verb behind the noun çêther. The LORD hides David the way a person keeps a treasure. David uses the same pictures in another psalm: “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues” (Psalm 31:20). Psalm 91 speaks of the one who “dwelleth in the secret place of the most High” (Psalm 91:1), David says, “Thou art my hiding place” (Psalm 32:7), and Proverbs says, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).

The verse ends with the LORD lifting David up. “Rock” is tsûwr, a rock or cliff, and Scripture uses it as a title for God himself: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect” (Deuteronomy 32:4). In the rugged land of Judah, high rock formations were natural strongholds against attackers. David knew them well. When Saul hunted him in the wilderness of Maon, David “came down into a rock” (1 Samuel 23:25).

“He shall set me up” is rûwm, to be high or to lift up. The same verb returns in verse 6 when David’s head is lifted up. God first covers David, then places him high and firm, above the reach of danger, on ground that holds. Jesus told of the wise man who built his house upon a rock, so that it stood when the rain, floods and winds beat on it (Matthew 7:24–25). To be set upon a rock is to have our life, faith, hope and identity resting on God’s unchanging character, his promises and his power. He often gives that firm footing while the storm is still blowing, and it lets us stand and endure.

“And now” speaks of something still ahead as though it were already sure. The enemies are “round about” David, all around him, and he says with certainty that his head will be lifted above them. Rôʼsh, “head”, stands for the whole person, his honour and standing. In Israel a lifted head meant vindication, honour and restoration after shame, and a bowed head meant defeat, disgrace or mourning. So David expects God to protect him and also to show his victory openly, restoring David’s standing before those who wanted to bring him down.

David says this elsewhere of the LORD: “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head” (Psalm 3:3). The LORD lifts up the meek, and he establishes the just. David’s “shall”, “will” and “will” in this verse all look forward, and he speaks each one with the confidence of a man who trusts God’s character to keep what he has promised.

“Therefore” ties David’s worship to what God is going to do. “Sacrifices” is zebach, from the verb zâbach, to slaughter, and it means an animal offered to God. “Joy” is tᵉrûwʻâh, a loud shout or blast, which could be an acclamation of joy, a battle-cry or the sound of trumpets. These are sacrifices offered with shouting, the sound of celebration and victory. Israel was told to “blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings” (Numbers 10:10). David’s offerings belong with gifts of thanksgiving, given freely out of gratitude, apart from the sin and guilt offerings made for atonement. Another psalm calls for them: “And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing” (Psalm 107:22).

He will offer them “in his tabernacle”, the same tent where the LORD hid him in verse 5. The place of shelter becomes the place of praise, among God’s people. Then he adds, “I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.” The first verb is shîyr, to sing. The second is zâmar, to sing praise or make music in praise of God, with instruments or without them. Saying it twice makes the vow emphatic. The same pair closes Psalm 21:13: “so will we sing and praise thy power.” Israel was called to “come before his presence with singing” (Psalm 100:2), and believers now offer “the sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Hebrews 13:15).

David vows this praise before the victory has come. The psalm then turns to urgent prayer for help (Psalm 27:7–12) and ends with hope in the goodness of the LORD and a call to wait on him (Psalm 27:13–14). His worship in verse 6 is faith giving thanks ahead of time for what God will surely do.

All three verses come to their fullness in Jesus Christ. David longed to dwell in the LORD’s house, and “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The Greek verb there, eskēnōsen, means to pitch a tent, so the Son of God tabernacled among us. He is the true temple and the place where God is present with his people. By his blood we have “a new and living way” into the holiest (Hebrews 10:19–20), the very secret of God’s tabernacle. He promises that he and the Father will come to those who love him “and make our abode with him” (John 14:23), and he says, “Abide in me, and I in you” (John 15:4). He gives his own peace in the time of trouble (John 14:27).

David wanted to behold the beauty of the LORD, and the Son is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). In him we see the delightful nôʻam of God. The rock David stood on points to him as well, for Paul writes, “that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).

Christ’s own head was lifted up above his enemies. He was crucified in shame, and God raised him from the dead (Acts 2:24) and set him at his right hand, far above all principality and power (Ephesians 1:20–21). “For the joy that was set before him” he endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2), and by it he spoiled principalities and powers and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). We share his victory, and our sacrifices of joy and songs of praise go up through him, the High Priest of our profession (Hebrews 3:1), as we worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). David’s longing to dwell with God for ever will be met completely in the New Jerusalem, where “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22).

David’s prayer asks us what our own one thing is. Many good things compete for our hearts, and he shows us the one that gives the rest their place: being with God, delighting in him and asking his guidance, every day of our lives. The same God who is the object of that desire is our shelter when trouble comes and the one who lifts our heads. So the right answer to his care, even before we see the end of our trouble, is the answer David gives: to come into his presence with joy and to sing praise to the LORD.