Seek His Face

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
1        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? 

2        When the wicked advance against me

to devour me,

it is my enemies and my foes

who will stumble and fall.

3        Though an army besiege me,

my heart will not fear;

though war break out against me,

even then I will be confident. 

4        One thing I ask from the Lord,

this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

and to seek him in his temple.

5        For in the day of trouble

he will keep me safe in his dwelling;

he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent

and set me high upon a rock. 

6        Then my head will be exalted

above the enemies who surround me;

at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make music to the Lord. 

7        Hear my voice when I call, Lord;

be merciful to me and answer me.

8        My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”

Your face, Lord, I will seek.

9        Do not hide your face from me,

do not turn your servant away in anger;

you have been my helper.

Do not reject me or forsake me,

God my Savior.

10      Though my father and mother forsake me,

the Lord will receive me.

11      Teach me your way, Lord;

lead me in a straight path

because of my oppressors.

12      Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,

for false witnesses rise up against me,

spouting malicious accusations. 

13      I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

14      Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27, NIV)

 

REFLECTIONS:
Look for him and wait for him.

Those are the two key Lenten messages that come out of this Psalm. “Come on,” the psalmist says to his own heart, “seek his face!”

Isn't this strange? Isn't God always available? Why do we have to work hard at looking for him?

God is gracious, and longs to be found by people of all sorts and at all times. But God does not put himself about as a mere item of curiosity, a show for the spiritual tourists, so that anyone can pop in and glance at him, shrug their shoulders and walk away. You have to want to go looking for him, so that when you find him and know you're in his presence it's a thing of awe and joy and wonder, a demanding and challenging but also warming and healing presence that gives you the strength you need.

And looking for him takes time. You have to wait as well as look.

I remember an analogy I read in a book not long ago. (For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the book.) The author was recounting a story of an eager European explorer setting off into the African bush, followed by Africans carrying his baggage. As the story goes, after two or three days the African baggage carriers refused to go any further for a while. They weren't tired, they explained. No, they were waiting for their souls to catch up.

As I remember, the author went on to point out that God is a bit like that. He has no problem waiting. But, we want results now. A few years ago a Samsung mobile phone advertisement shouted “Impatience Is a Virtue!” But, impatience is not a virtue. It's a vice. A damaging one to human relationships, and still more damaging to our relationship with God.

Looking for God and waiting for God are important not least because we are surrounded by enemies. That may sound almost paranoid to our modern ears. We want to ask the psalmist: “Who are these ‘enemies’? What's the problem? Why don't you thank God for your friends instead of worrying about people out to get you?”

Part of the answer is that David, the original psalmist, spent much of his life surrounded by all sorts of enemies—Philistines, Saul and his followers, other foreign nations and then, darkly, enemies within his own family. But David's experience acts as a signpost to the fact that anyone who wants to seek God and wait for him will face struggles of various kinds. Sometimes other people will resent what you're doing, or criticize you. Even in our supposedly “free society” some people so hate the Christian message that they make it nearly impossible for Christians to hold down particular jobs.

Then there are the other enemies: the accusing and cajoling and mocking voices within our own heads and hearts. These often become just that much louder when, in Lent and at similar times, we set ourselves to seek God and to wait for him.

Psalm 27 is just what we need when those voices start to become threatening. Today, let us remind ourselves where our real stronghold lies.


PRAYER:
Almighty God—Tender Father, Compassionate Savior, Comforting Spirit—be my light and my salvation, today and forever. 


WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and it seems I made a major boo-boo when making the devotional schedule for Lent. Apparently, I left an entire week out of the schedule. D'OH! Thankfully, Dorene Froese noticed the mistake and alerted me. So, as we continue our way through the Gospel of Luke, I'll intersperse a few Psalms in order to make up for my mistake. The handful of Psalms that we will look at are of the sort that Jesus would have likely memorized and repeated to himself as he journeyed to the cross. We'll reconvene our trek through Luke on Monday.