Bunyan's Cathedral of Stone and Iron

In 1660, John Bunyan was locked inside Bedford County Gaol for the crime of preaching without a license. The cell was cramped, damp, and dark. His wife Elizabeth was pregnant. His blind daughter Mary would grow up barely knowing her father's face. The authorities offered him a simple deal: stop preaching, and walk free.

Bunyan refused — not once, but repeatedly, for twelve years.

What sustained him was not stubbornness but something the Psalmist would have recognized immediately. Bunyan turned his prison cell into a sanctuary. He prayed. He studied Scripture by whatever light crept through the narrow windows. He wrote. And from that wretched place poured forth The Pilgrim's Progress, one of the most beloved books in Christian history.

His jailers meant to silence him. Instead, they gave him uninterrupted time in the presence of the Almighty.

Bunyan later wrote that he found more of God's sweetness in confinement than he had ever tasted in freedom. The one thing he asked of the Lord — to dwell in His presence — was granted in the last place anyone would expect.

This is the heart of Psalm 27. David does not pray for the removal of his enemies. He prays for one thing: to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. When God is your light and your salvation, even a prison becomes a cathedral.