Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said. “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face LORD, do I seek.” Psalm 27.7-8 (ESV)
David is here in two-way communication with God. He cries out to God and God answers him! The communication here is simple and direct and is an example we do well to follow.
The implication, at least to me, is that there had been and would continue to be many occasions when David would ‘cry aloud’. Many occasions of joy and wonder at God’s goodness and faithfulness; as he saw the glory of God in creation; as he was given victory over those who opposed him. Then occasions, and the reading of 1 and 2 Samuel would indicate that there were again many of these, when he cried out in great need and anxiety.
In each and every one he was seeking God’s gracious intervention in his life and above all that he would hear God’s answer to his pleas and praise. As he longs for these, he calls to mind that God has said “Seek my face” and that encourages him to continue to ‘cry aloud’.
He is confident in doing this because he is able to say that in response to God’s “Seek my face” his response has been “Your face LORD, do I seek.”
Do you enjoy that rich and personal relationship with God that David enjoyed? It is truly yours for the asking! Hear Jesus’ words “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened.” Matthew 7.7-8
That is indeed a great and precious promise. But its fulfilment is dependent upon our actions as we ask, seek and knock. The resources of heaven are available to God’s people, to you and me as believers but are we confidently drawing on them? James in his letter writes this:
When you ask you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4.3
What is the antidote to this? It is to immerse ourselves in God’s Word so that increasingly we might have ‘ the mind of Christ’ 1 Corinthians 2.16. Then we shall ask what is in accordance with his will and confidently expect his answer.
May our lives today, and every day, be focussed on seeking God’s face and like David praying ‘O LORD, be gracious to me and answer me.’