God whose face shines on us
(WARNING:
In this meditation today there are many Scriptural references. if
you wish to get the most from it, you may wish to simply copy it to
your computer and look the many references up when you have the time)
Psa
4:6
Let the light of your
face shine upon us, O LORD
Here
is an interesting phrase to meditate upon, ‘the face of the Lord'.
This raises various questions about God. What do we know of Him? The
Scriptures refer to his arm (e.g. Num 11:23), His eyes (e.g. Gen 6;8),
and His face, but in every case we are given the impression that this
is personification, ascribing to God human characteristics so that
we may understand His activity. After all, all we are really told
about God in respect of His entity, apart from the amazing revelations
to the prophets (e.g. Ezek 1:27,28, Rev 4:3) which really don't tell
us much, is Jesus' assertion that “God is Spirit” (Jn 4:24).
Sometimes
we find the Lord saying, “I will set my face against that person”
indicating a sense of rejection (e.g. Lev 17:10 , 20:3, 26:15-17).
Similarly He says, “I will hide my face from them,” meaning
He will distance Himself and not be found (e.g. Deut 31:17, Job 34:29,
Psa 13:1). More positively there are calls to “seek His face”,
e.g. 2 Sam 21:1, 1 Chron 16:11 , 2 Chron 7:14 , Psa 24:6. And now
we find, “the light of your face” (also Psa 4:6, 31:16, 44:3,
67:1 etc.).
What
we can say is that often, when there are references to God, there
are also references to His glory, or the brightness that shines from
His presence. Yes, when His presence is expressed in our earthly world,
it seems that it was accompanied by this amazing brightness or glory.
Israel first encountered this glory at Sinai (Ex 24:16,17) and after
Moses met with God, when he came down the mountain, his face shone
with the same glory (Ex 34:29). In fact every time he went into the
tent to the Lord's presence his face shone (Ex 34:34,35).
Thus
for God's glory to shine on someone, they had to be in His presence,
so when David uses this expression, Let the light of your face
shine upon us, O LORD, it was a call for the presence of God
to be revealed to him. It was like David was saying, please Lord,
turn to me, come to me, make yourself known to me, come close to me
please.
Why?
Well in this psalm David seems to give indications of difficulties
that they were experiencing. For example, Give me relief from
my distress (v.1) indicating his anguish, How long will
you love delusions and seek false gods (v.2) indicating that
others were seeking other answers to their distress, and Many
are asking, "Who can show us any good?" (v.6) indicating
they were in trouble and looking for help that did not seem to be
coming. The actual nature of the trouble is not spelled out. The fact
is they were in difficulties and they weren't getting help because
until now the people have not turned to God. David knows the answer
is the Lord's Presence. They need to know the glorious presence of
God in their midst as they had done in the past, because David knew
from what had been passed down to him that Israel had a history with
God that revealed that when God turned up to help, they were helped!
Thus
again here, we find an indirect testimony to the goodness of God,
the God who does not stand at a distance, but a God who can be relied
upon to draw near to His people and bless them. Of course there is
also significance in ‘light'. As we have previously noted, Paul said
we have been rescued from a dominion of darkness and lifted into the
kingdom of the Son (Col 1:13) which, by implication, is a kingdom
of light. Light shows us the way, reveals what is. Jesus said, “I
am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12). Do we need him to shine
on our circumstances today?
Response?
Pause up and catch a sense of looking into God's face. Let His glory
shine on you as you do this and let that glory shine through you in
the day.