The Face of God

I’m continually stirred by the variety in the Psalms. There is so much in them to draw us into the place of worship, and so much material to help us worship. In the last few days I’ve read 14 with its message that there is no one who does good, not even one, which directs our thoughts to Romans and the grace of God in Christ. Then 15, which could be straight out of the book of Proverbs. And 16, a Messianic psalm with David’s prophetic statement “You will not let your faithful one see decay”, quoted and explained in Acts 2:27 and Acts 13:35.

Today, in Psalm 17, I kept being encouraged by the face of God, and the Biblical body parts of the Lord! In 17:15, David says “I shall be vindicated, and I shall see Your face”. Just in this one psalm we have references not only to the face of God, but specifically to His ears (v6), lips (v4), and eyes (vv2,8), as well as to His right hand (vv7,14), His wings (v8), and His “likeness” (v15). Mention of His sword (v13) also suggests an arm and a hand, although we know from Revelation 1:16 that Jesus can wield a sword with His mouth!

Eyes. David first appeals to God to see what is right. The context is that his enemies are lying about him, saying that he hates King Saul and wants to kill the king, slanders that we see proved wrong (most notably in 1 Samuel 24). He appeals to God to see and take note of the truth of the situation. God always sees the truth, the whole truth. He can see our thoughts and our hearts, as well as our words and our deeds. He can see us no matter how far we might try to go to get away from Him (Ps 139:8,9). And He can see as well in the dark as He can in the light (Ps 139:11,12). David also understands that God is not looking at us to judge us, rather He is looking at us in love. We are the apple of His eye (v8), and connected with this expression of God’s love is the phrase ” hide me in the shadow of Your wings”, implying God’s protection from the sun, and shielding us from our enemies.

Ears. Many times in the psalms, we hear David crying out to the Lord to hear his prayers, and here in Psalm 17 this is seen in the first verse and again in verse 6. David prays in the confidence that God always hears, that He “turns His ear towards him”, implying careful or thoughtful attention to what is being prayed. And finally David has faith that God will answer, in other words that prayer is not a waste of time, not a one-way process but a two-way conversation and relationship.

Lips. Which leads us nicely on to God’s lips, mentioned specifically in verse 4 and also implied in verse 6, “for You will answer me”. Considering God’s lips and mouth leads us to consider the voice and the words of God, His responses, His answers, His directions and His commands. In this psalm they are contrasted with the lips of David’s enemies, which are deceitful (v1), and their mouths which speak with arrogance (v10). God’s words to us are never deceitful or arrogant, always loving and kind; even if He has to rebuke us we know this is always being done for our benefit, to help restore our relationship with God.

Hands, Wings and Likeness. The Lord saves by His right hand (v7). This is the hand of Jesus (Saviour), whose hands are given up to the cruel nails of the cross, by which He bought our freedom, through which He saved us. We are reminded also of Isaiah 59:1, that the hand of the Lord (or the arm of the Lord in the NIV) is not shortened so that it cannot save, in other words His reach is unlimited, He can save the most worthless sinner, the most reckless prodigal, the furthest straying sheep. Does the Lord have wings, or is v8 a metaphor? Jesus says He longed to gather Jerusalem’s children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Luke 13:34). Since we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and we don’t have wings, I tend to see this as a metaphor, much as we know that Jesus is not really a loaf of bread or a wooden gate. These word pictures are the Lord’s humble efforts to help us understand what He is like.

And what He is like, His likeness, is where David ends this wonderful psalm. “I shall see your face, when I awake, I shall be satisfied with seeing Your likeness” (v15). This is one of a relatively small number of references to eternal life in the Old Testament, David looking forward to seeing the Lord face to face, as the apostle John does in his first letter:

But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is.

1 John 3:2