September 15, 2017
Psalm 27:7, 8(All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
In the last blog, I gave three examples of how people in the New Testament sought the Lord Jesus:
• “…Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome….” (Mark 16:1) “…came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.” (Matthew 28:9).
• “…a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment…..” (Matthew 9:20).
• “…five thousand men, besides women and children…” (Matthew 14:21) were fed by Jesus’ hands with “…five barley loaves and two small fish…” (John 6:9).
But we discovered that…
• …in the first instance, the women wanted to keep Jesus unto themselves by hanging on to His feet!
• …in the second, the woman was seeking to be physically healed – and that’s all she wanted!
• …in the third, the people wanted to have their wants and desires met by the miracles of Jesus’ hands!
But now we finally get to our featured Scripture, Psalm 27:7 and 8:
Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me,
and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,
“Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
This is what God really wants – “Seek My face…”! What does He mean by “Seek My face…”? It is an expression that means to seek the whole person! When interacting with another person, we are to taught to concentrate on their face, especially looking into their eyes. That’s because it is said, “The eyes are the windows into the soul of a person.” The face of a person can tell us more about that one than any other part of the body! To seek the Lord’s face is to seek…
• …His way – The way of the Lord is the path He takes!
✡ Proverbs 10:29 – “The way of the LORD is strength for the upright, but destruction will come for the workers of iniquity.” (See Isaiah 40:28-31; Revelation 21:8).
✞ Matthew 3:1 through 3 – “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah [see Isaiah 40:3], saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness; “Prepare the way of the LORD, make His paths straight” ’ ” John the Baptist was the forerunner of the Messiah. Because the King was arriving, so the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! (See also Malachi 3:1; 4:5, 6; Matthew 17:12, 13).
• …His will – The will of God is spelled out in the Bible in several Scripture passages, often expressed in the negative:
✞ Matthew 18:14 – “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” The Lord said this immediately following the parable of the lost sheep (see Matthew 18:12, 13). Jesus was implying that all believers are important to Him – and He seeks even one to bring him or her back if they go astray!
✞ John 4:34 – “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” Doing God’s will should be as important to our lives as properly eating is to our physical bodies!
✞ John 6:40 – “…this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Everlasting life is forever! It starts when one spiritually sees the Son and believes in Him, and includes our physical resurrection when we will be fully made into His image! (See I Corinthians 15:49-54; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I John 3:2).
✞ II Corinthians 8:3-5 – “…according to [the Macedonian Christians’]…ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.” God encourages our financial giving. But He delights in the giving of ourselves first to the Lord ! This is where all our giving should start!
✞ Galatians 1:3, 4 – “…our Lord Jesus Christ…gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father….” It was the Father’s will that Jesus Christ the Son suffer and die bearing our sins on the cross (See Luke 22:42; II Corinthians 5:21). But within that plan it is the will of our God to deliver us from this present evil age! Remember, Satan is “…the god of this age…” (II Corinthians 4:4) who controls “…all the kingdoms of the world…and their glory…” (Luke 4:5, 6). So the Lord prayed in John 17:14 through 16:
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because
they are not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out
of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They
are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Even though we are still “…in the world…” (John 17:11), the Lord, in calling us to Himself, is even now delivering us from this present evil age!
There are more Scriptures concerning God’s will, but we will stop here and continue on Monday’s blog, What Are You Seeking? – III.