⁴ One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
⁵ For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock. – Psalm 27:4-5 (ESV)

David was a man who today would be celebrated by the media as an amazing success story.

He was the lowly slingshot-yielding shepherd boy who slayed the mighty Goliath.

He was the military leader who was forced into hiding by the paranoid King Saul, ascending to the throne after Saul’s death.

He had the hot wife, the royal life… the ultimate rags-to-riches success story.

But David’s legacy isn’t so cut and dry. His story is riddled with troublesome details: poor choices, lust, lies, a murder plot, family dysfunction that these days would make for popular reality or trash talk show TV.

And failure. The crowning achievement of his life should have been building the temple. After all, it was David who brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. He designed the temple, chose its location, ran to the hardware store to get the building materials needed.

Yet God wouldn’t allow David to actually build His holy palace. He had shed too much blood.

Despite all his flaws and failures, God never abandoned David. Instead, the Lord corrected him, redeemed him, restored him. Like Moses, who God allowed to see – but not enter – the Promised Land, the Lord prohibited David from building the temple.

But David learned the true worth of this life. He may have been the Eric Clapton of harpists, the ultimate slingshot sharpshooter, the poetic ruler who could have any beautiful roof bathing woman he wanted…

David learned that only one thing matters. None of the trappings of this life satisfy. All we need – all David came to desire – was God.

God is everything. Without Him we have nothing.

We are nothing.

Without God we are consumed by our wants, our lusts, our ambition, our troubles. Life has no true meaning or satisfaction apart from God.

It was true 3000 years ago.

It’s still true today.

Paul was truly correct when he told his protege Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33 (ESV)