Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
That's a great verse and a great call to us. The context here is that David is writing this psalm and celebrating the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. He is thankful and excited. The scene is that the people are gathered together, worshiping and praising God. Then in the middle of all this, David issues what we just read, a command to the people and to us. The way the ESV puts it is "Seek the Lord and His strength."
Notice that David doesn't just say seek the Lord. He doesn't just say pursue God. He says, "Seek the Lord and His strength." In other words, you're not just to acknowledge that God exists—you're to seek His strength, support from Him, His power and His help.
Seek His Face
Then David says something very interesting. He uses this phrase, seek His face. Seek Him continually. What does that mean? To seek someone's face, including God's face, means to seek their presence. It means I want to know, I want to see, I want to be near them. It's like a couple of weeks ago, my daughter was out of town for about five days. She got a little homesick and wanted to FaceTime me. She had been texting me, she had called me a couple of times—but this was next level. She wanted to FaceTime, and I wanted to FaceTime her. We wanted to see each other. It wasn't quite being in each other's presence, but it was a way of being nearer to one another when we were apart. That's the same idea David is trying to communicate. To seek the face of God is to want to get into the presence of God—to be near Him, to commune with Him.
Continually—Not Just in a Crisis
Here's the key word that shows up in our text: "continually," or "always." The idea is I don't want to just be in God's presence on Sunday morning. I don't want to just be in God's presence when some sort of crisis makes me remember, oh, that's right, I really need God. No, to seek His face, to want to be in His presence continually, is an ongoing desire for the Christian. Richard Baxter wrote, "He that will find God must seek Him, and he that would find Him in the end must seek Him in the beginning and seek Him continually."
Think about it—what if your life was marked by this constant, continual, ongoing pursuit of the presence of God? What would that look like for you? What if your life was like a compass, and that compass was always pointing toward God? Your heart always oriented toward seeking God's face. It doesn't mean being weird. It doesn't mean being obsessive. It simply means that throughout your day—at work, with your family, with friends, in traffic, in those quiet moments whenever you can get them—your heart is tuned to the heart of God. You're aware of His presence. You know He is always present. It's being aware of His presence, seeking His direction, and pursuing His strength.
What is distracting you today from that continual pursuit? What has become more important than pursuing God? Identify that. Tune your heart back to God today. Because we learn here in 1 Chronicles chapter 16, verse 11: "Search for the LORD and for His strength, and continually seek Him."
