Psalm 27:8, "You have said, 'seek My Face."
What does God want us to do today? "You have said, 'seek My Face.'"
What does God mean by "seek"?
"Seeking" involves looking for, hunting, searching. It involves a consideration of where God's face might be found--picture Holmes in his armchair, fingers steepled, deep in thought. It involves leg-work, chasing after sightings and clues, likely locales and reliable contacts. In a basic sense it means to give God our attention, our thoughts, to put His presence ever before us. To seek God means to be about Him. He becomes our object, our direction, our destination.
But how can we "seek" God in this way, and still live our lives!? After all, life is full of other pursuits, other sought-after objects. We are "driven," and have "drives," and are propelled down courses of action. Goals, To-Do lists, Action Plans, Visions and Missions, Calendars and daily Schedules: we live by these things--it's just the way we function! So now how does this "Seek My Face" fit in? Do we add it to our list or calendar?
No; consider, in all we do, what are we really after? We're after... peace, joy, prosperity, comfort, protection, security. We hustle and organize, create and clean-up, but what we want is... God's Face. It's Him we want in all our wantings. He calls us to seek Him because He knows that it's Him we want. And He should know, right? After all, He made us and we are His.
Results and checked-boxes fill us with delight. But their delight fades. As Jesus says, "tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." Tomorrows to-do's and troubles impinge on today's successes. But when our pursuits are self-consciously submitted to The Great Pursuit--"seek My Face"--then things-done, and even things-undone, can fill us with solid peace. All our different kinds of work become a pressing-into the shining of the face of God. The struggle, the suffering, the surprises and upsets, the sudden stillness, these all become ways we encounter Him. We see His face, everywhere, in all things. We live with God. We live.
What is "God's Face"?
Faces express us. To some extent they are us. Like our words, our names, they represent us; they are ways people experience us. So God's face expresses Him. It is His self, present. His attention, His love, seen in His face.
Why is this good to seek? What is there for us, in God's face? God's face is a face at peace. God's face is a loving face. God's face is an ever-towards-us face, always with us and attentive for good. God's face, Paul would say, is the face of Jesus: "Christ is the image of God... [and God shines] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor 4:4, 6) Seeking God's face means finding Jesus, luminous and present, throughout our lives. It means to see God-With-Us in all things, and so be at peace. And even enter sufferings or discomfort with a kind of anticipation--after all, who knows what can happen when He's around!?
But why must we seek God's face? Isn't it always "shining" on us? The Psalmist says: "Hide not your face from me." We experience God as hidden. Now, really, it's us hiding--the toddler "disappearing" in plain-view by burying his face in his blankey. God is not hiding, but we experience Him as if He were hiding because our attention is absorbed elsewhere. Suddenly we wonder, "Where's God?! GOD!" He's here. But in a world of sin, sinners, selfishness, foolishness, systemic evil, noise, hurry, anxiety, greed, and fear, it's easy to get fixated elsewhere.
Here is what God says to us today: "Seek My Face." The plain fact is that to see God in this world, we must seek Him.
To Consider and Discuss:
How will you seek the LORD today? What can you do to better see Him? What, perhaps, ought you to look away from?
How can we seek God together? Could we better see His face together than apart?
Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash
