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We are told here that God spoke to the psalmist and what was his reply, but we have no intimation as to the mode of intercourse: whether God spoke through providential dealings, or through the ordinances of the Church, or by His Spirit. And it does not matter. If there be various methods in and through which God is wont to make Himself audible to the human soul, we may take any or all of them as employed to syllable the words, "Seek ye My face." As to the mode in which the psalmist replied, nothing need be said in explanation of that; the reply itself is the all important thing. It is a conversation between God and the soul, very brief and with no kind of variety, but full of instruction nevertheless. We will, therefore, endeavour to sift this conversation; not only examining the precise meaning of what God directs and man promises, but searching out, also what may be more incidentally but not less decisively taught. Now observe —

I. THAT IN THE REPLY MAN DOES LITTLE MORE THAN REPEAT THE WORDS OF GOD. God says, "Seek ye My face"; man replies, "Thy face, Lord," etc. Now the disposition thus distinctly marked is one the want of which is at the root of half the practical unbelief and miserable inconsistencies by which the visible Church is deformed. Men acknowledge the Divine authority of the Scriptures, but hesitate and cavil as to obeying them. What could be more inconsistent and unreasonable? If God speaks and men know and confess it, then what else is there for them but to obey? Nevertheless they do not obey. Even professedly religious men do not. They object, and deliberate, and find excuse; they do anything but obey. Now it is the very opposite of this which we find here. There falls upon the ear — no matter how — a message which David feels to be from God. It is not a message about which there can be no room for question as to its meaning and the manner in which it should be obeyed. But the observable and admirable thing is, that David did not wait to deliberate, but instantly made his resolution upon hearing God's injunction.

II. OBSERVE THAT GOD ADDRESSES US IN PLURAL NUMBER, BUT MAN'S REPLY IS IN THE SINGULAR. "Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Now the individualizing God's Word, the taking it individually to oneself, as though designed for oneself, and spoken to oneself — this is very closely connected with the whole practice and the whole comfort of religion. For example, the human race is addressed in Scripture as "fallen and depraved" — far gone from original righteousness, inclined only to iniquity and that too continually. Well, so long as you speak to a man as a man, merely as being one of a sinful kind, one whose sinfulness, like the colour of his skin, he has in common with millions around him, he will generally quite complacently meet the accusation. It will hardly touch him. He may confess to the fact, but give in his confession with a smile. When, however, you try to single him out from the mass; when you speak to him like Nathan to David — "Thou art the man!" then he is full of indignation and resentment, and with Hazael of old is ready to exclaim — "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?" Yet, till a man thus separates himself, takes himself out of the mass — feels and confesses without any regard to his being one of a multitude, "I have gone astray, like a lost sheep," till then he has nothing of that feeling of being a sinner that will lead to genuine repentance. Oh! it is so easy to join in a general confession; the hard thing is to make the confession individual. And so with the precepts of Scripture. When they are delivered in the plural they can be listened to with great composure. But make the precept individual and personal, then what shrinking there is, what aversion, what refusal! Reduce therefore piety to a personality. The call may be general — "Seek ye"; the answer must be individual — "I will!" No being content with the confession of masses and multitudes! Alone thou must stand in judgment; alone thou must take thy resolution. When Thou saidst, "Seek ye My face," O Lord, it may have been to the millions that Thy voice was addressed; it may have been by millions that that mighty voice was" heard; but I paused not to know whether these millions would keep silence; whether they would join in one vast refusal, or in one vast consent; at once — on the instant — whatever the millions might determine to do, my heart said unto Thee, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek."

III. WHAT IS IT TO SEEK GOD'S FACE? The more ordinary signification of the phrase, "the face of God," is the love and favour of God — "Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant." "Cause Thy face to shine and we shall be saved." How much, then, is implied in this simple bidding — "Seek ye My face"! God would have us come back to Himself. Manifold are the methods by which God thus addresses us. But how often His message is heard and refused, and how terrible if this refusal be persisted in! But if obeyed, then how blessed are we!

(H. Melvill, B. D.)

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KJV: When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.

WEB: When you said, "Seek my face," my heart said to you, "I will seek your face, Yahweh."