Seeking the LORD's face at his request

David asks questions about fear at the start of Psalm 27. In the middle of confessing his faith in the LORD, David has a request: “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” It becomes more focused in this verse: “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’ Hide not your face from me.”

The heart of this Psalm is about desire, about what we seek. David seeks the LORD’s house, the temple. The LORD responds, “seek my face.” David’s response in Psalm 27 is, “My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me’.” This will be third and last Psalm about seeking the presence of God in our devotional life before we begin to examine the role of the heart in our devotional life, as described in the Psalms.

Last week in Psalm 16 we considered “setting the Lord always before us.” This week we will explore how we “seek.” Both setting and seeking are acts of the Psalmist. David first uses the image of the house of the LORD and then the temple of the LORD, that is, a place entered after sacrifice and the spilling of blood, the Holy of Holies entered only once a year by the High Priest. The LORD’s response is about seeking the LORD’s face at his request or command. This is grace and love by the LORD, who like the seeking-after Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, now seeks after David. This seeking is not just to restore walking together, but from the Psalms’ perspective is to seek the very face of the LORD at his invitation. 

This Psalm reminds us that there will be conflict and disappointment in life in so many ways. Jesus, in John 15, reminds us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you…If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” David starts Psalm 27 with his battle flag – “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Seeking the LORD’s face is not something just for quiet times. It is also for times of disruption and conflict. David’s poet states: “When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, … For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” Today eating of the flesh is the stuff of Zombie stories. Generational family break-ups are almost too common to be noticed. Sadly this is almost normal and expected.

Seek speaks to our heart’s desire. Psalm 27 is about what God desires. Seek, not just his house or his temple. The LORD’s expressed desire in Psalm 27 is that we seek his face. We seek his face through seeking Jesus Christ his incarnate son, the son of David, whom he sent.

This week we will consider how this seeking in Psalm 27 shapes, encourages and helps us describe our devotional life experiences.