Word of Encouragement (5/20/2026)

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. (Ps. 27:7-10)

David sought God’s face at the invitation of God (v. 8). God commanded him to seek His face because it was good to do so. In vv. 9-10, David affirmed this truth by showing in his pleas how terrible it is to be cast out of God’s presence.

So, David prays, “Hide not your face from me.” They say, “Everybody needs a time away.” In human relationships, sometimes a time apart can be very helpful: we are prone to take people for granted until we realize what it is like to be without them. But this can’t apply to our relationship with God. No matter how precious people are, we can do without them for a time. But not so with God. We live, move, and have our being in Him. Apart from Him, we do not exist and can do nothing. It is foolish to want to go away from the presence of God.

Of course, we can remain in God’s presence and have the light of His countenance temporarily taken away from us. The latter is only our subjective experience, while the former is our objective reality (which can never change for those who are in Christ Jesus). And from time to time, God does take the light of His countenance away from us so we can see the value of it. This is not because it is the only way but because we are prone to take things for granted, even God’s presence.

This shows that the biblical religion is an experiential religion. We are not to be content with a mere knowledge of God’s presence; we should seek to feel and enjoy His presence. To believe God’s promise that He will never leave or forsake us is important, especially when we feel like God has hidden His face from us. We must not equate our feeling of God’s presence with the fact of God’s presence with us. But knowing Christ as Immanuel (“God with us”) should strengthen our longing to experience and enjoy His presence all the more. If we have good food, isn’t it only natural that we want to eat it? If we have good friends, don’t we want to spend time with them?

David’s petitions show how much he desired and valued God’s presence. To him, it was not a luxury item, which he wanted only to make his life better; rather, it was a matter of life and death—not in the literal sense but in the sense of the meaning and purpose of his existence. He longed for God’s face more than success, comfort, security, wealth, victory, and even life itself: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips shall praise you” (Ps. 63:3).

Do you find this to be inspiring and challenging? What will you do about it?