See the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living

Psalm 27:7-14 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice,
And be gracious to me and answer me.
⁸ When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,
“Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
⁹ Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
¹⁰ For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
But the Lord will take me up.

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a level path
Because of my foes.
¹² Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
¹³ I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.

The psalmist says:  Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.” Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!  For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the Lord will take me up.   In Jeremiah 29:11-13 God says:  I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.   God doesn’t tell us to seek Him because He is hiding from us, but rather because He wants us to find Him. Here’s the thing though, the text says, When You said, “Seek My face.”  In Exodus 33:20, when Moses asked to see the glory of God, God responded saying:  “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”  Why would God ask us to seek His face if we cannot see His face and live? Does God want us to die?  The answer is yes. We must die to self and be resurrected with Christ so that we can see the face of God.  In Matthew 7:7-8 Jesus says:  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”   The psalmist says: Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!   In Deuteronomy 31:6 God says:  Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.   In Matthew 28:20 Jesus says:  “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The psalmist says:  Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a level path
Because of my foes.  Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence.
I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.    Like the psalmist we need to learn the way of the Lord. In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says:  “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”  We need to see from a heavenly perspective not from the circumstances on earth.  2 Corinthians 5:7 says:  We walk by faith, not by sight.  Walking by faith gives us the confidence of the psalmist, who says:  I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.  We believe that the blessings and promises of God are not just an eternal future in heaven, but that we will experience them here and now. In John 10:10 Jesus says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  Jesus taught us to pray saying: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  We are to believe that the realities of heaven; that God’s higher ways, will also be our’s here on earth.

The psalmist says: Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.    Amen.  Yes Lord I will wait for You. I will seek Your face and seek to walk in Your will. I believe that by the power of the cross and the resurrection I will see Your goodness here and now. May Your kingdom come and Your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven, in and through my life.   Amen.