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Will You Seek the Face of the Lord?
Psalm 27 is a powerful psalm of dependence on God. The writer, King David of Israel, sees and acknowledges God as the one who provides protection and guidance in his life. David reflects on moments of deliverance God has provided and concludes that as long as God is with him, “whom shall I dread?” (vs. 1). David knows that the only thing He needs is God.
It’s this very idea, the idea that closeness with God is sufficient, that many struggle to build their lives on. Why? Psalm 27:8, provides a helpful insight into this struggle.
“When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”’
This verse reveals two fundamental and critically important truths. That God wants you to seek His face and that God lets you decide whether you will or not.
To seek God’s face is not about trying to find the spot that God has placed Himself in space, because that would be impossible (He’s placed Himself everywhere according to Psalm 139:7-12). It’s about God enabling you to know Him intimately and you pursuing that knowledge. For instance, when Moses spent time in the presence of God hearing the counsel of the Lord it was said, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.” (Exodus 33:11). When you speak to a friend, you do not address his or her knees or back. You address his or her face. “The face is the ‘relational gate’ into a person’s mind and heart.” (Timothy Keller). To know each other in this way is what God wanted with Moses, it is what God wanted with David and it is what God wants with you.
This leads to the second insight regarding the failure of so many to build a life of closeness with God—personal choice. You have a choice. God did not force Moses to have a relationship with Him. He did not force David to have a relationship with Him. David decides for himself that, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
Sometimes Moses’ face would shine due to the time he spent talking face-to-face with God and due to the overwhelming glory of it, he was forced to cover his face with a veil when he spoke to the Israelites (Exodus 34:29-35). God has enabled you to have a relationship with Him by making Himself available through Jesus. Jesus is the complete and final expression of God’s desire to know us face-to-face.
“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)
Will you seek the face of the Lord?
