Psalms 27:8

Psalms ‘SEEK YE’-’I WILL SEEK’Psalm 27:8 - Psalm 27:9 . We have here a report of a brief dialogue between God and a devout soul. The Psalmist tells us of God’s invitation and of his acceptance, and on both he builds the prayer that the face which he had been bidden to seek, and had sought, may not be hid from him. The correspondence between what God said to him and what he said to God is even more emphatically expressed in the original than in our version. In the Hebrew the sentence is dislocated, at the risk of being obscure, for the sake of bringing together the two voices. It runs thus, ‘My heart said to Thee,’ and then, instead of going on with his answer, the Psalmist interjects God’s invitation ‘Seek ye My face,’ and then, side by side with that, he lays his response, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’ The completeness and swiftness of his answer could not be more vividly expressed. To hear was to obey: as soon as God’s merciful call sounded, the Psalmist’s heart responded, like a harp-string thrilled into music by the vibration of another tuned to the same note. Without hesitation, and in entire correspondence with the call, was his response. So swiftly, completely, resolutely should we respond to God’s voice, and our ready ‘I will’ should answer His commandment, as the man at the wheel repeats the captain’s orders whilst he carries them out.

Upon such acceptance of such an invitation we, too, may build the prayer, ‘Hide not Thy face far from me.’ Now, there are three things here that I desire to look at-God’s merciful call to us all; the response of the devout soul to that call; and the prayer which is built upon both. I. We have God’s merciful call to us all. ‘Thou saidst, Seek ye My face.’ Now, that expression, ‘the face of God,’ though highly metaphorical, is perfectly clear and defined in its meaning. It corresponds substantially to what the Apostle Paul calls, in speaking of the knowledge of God beyond the limits of revelation, ‘that which may be known of God’; or, in more modern language, the side of the divine nature which is turned to man; or, in plainer words still, God, in so far as He is revealed. It means substantially the same thing as the other Scriptural expression, ‘the name of the Lord.’ Both phrases draw a broad distinction between what God is, in the infinite fulness of His incomprehensible being, and what He is as revealed to man; and both imply that what is revealed is knowledge, real and valid, though it may be imperfect. This, then, being the meaning of the phrase, what is the meaning of the invitation: ‘Seek ye My face’? Have we to search for that, as if it were something hidden, far off, lost, and only to be recovered by our effort? No: a thousand times no!

Psalm 27:8 . When thou saidst — Either by thy word commanding or inviting me so to do; or, by thy Spirit directing and inclining me; Seek ye my face — Seek my presence, and favour, and help, by fervent, faithful prayer; my heart said unto thee — My heart readily and thankfully complied with the motion; and upon the encouragement of this command, or invitation, I resolved I would do so, and I do so at this time. As the words, when thou saidst, are not in the original, and as the verse is rather obscure, some think that the word Elohim, God, should be inserted, and then it may be rendered, To thee, O my heart, God said, Seek ye my face; thy face, Lord, will I seek. Dr. Waterland and Houbigant render it, To thee, said my heart, Seek ye my face; thy face, Lord, will I seek.