A “Bucket List” is a relatively new term, as I understand it. It is a list of things someone wants to get done or to experience before they die. It was made popular in a movie of the same name, where a wealthy but terminally ill man set about completing his “bucket list” in the time he had left, and found a friend to help him out with his quest.
Such a list is really a window on a person’s heart, isn’t it? We can say many good and uplifting things to those around us about our desires and aspirations, but in the end it is what we most want to do, or even actually do if we are able (as in the bucket list) that speaks more loudly about who we are. At least, I think that has to be the case.
I read this Psalm this morning, and these verses stood out to me. David had more than his share of close scrapes during his life. At one level, he could have woken up on many mornings and wondered if it would be his last day alive on the earth. And in a way, the verse above is a bit like his bucket list. “David, what is the single most important thing you desire from the Lord, the thing you ask for above everything else before you die?” you ask - and he answers you in verse 4 above - it is to dwell in God’s house and to gaze upon His beauty. In other words, to be as close to the Lord as possible, to admire Him, adore Him and to seek after Him.
He realized, he tells us in the rest of the psalm, that if he had this, he would have courage, safety, joy, gladness, guidance, patience and hope. In other words, by having God as his God and putting him first, he would receive many, many blessings in addition to the one he sought.
Solomon discovered the same thing when he asked not for long life, wealth or victory over his enemies, but rather for wisdom to govern God’s people. God gave Him what he asked for but added all the other things to them as well (1 Kings 3:7–14)
Our God is generous and lavish towards us! Here are a couple of New Testament verses that seem to establish this as a pattern for the way God deals with His children:
Matthew 6:31–33 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Romans 8:31–32 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Of course, we have to desire the Giver here, and not simply the gift. We can’t seek after God with the primary motive to get what we can from Him! David just wanted to be near Him and to adore Him. But God is no man’s debtor, and so he received far more abundantly beyond all he could have asked or imagined (Eph 3:20).
So now let me ask all of us what is on our bucket list - whether the deepest desires we have are for our own pleasure and satisfaction, or whether we can say with David, from the depths of our hearts, and with lives that show it is true “I want to be near to God and to adore Him in His house”?
