Psalms 27:8

In this verse we are taught that if we would have the Lord hear our voice, we must be careful to respond to his voice. The true heart should echo the will of God as the rocks among the Alps repeat in sweetest music the notes of the peasant's horn. Observe, that the command was in the plural, to all the saints, Seek ye; but the man of God turned it into the singular by a personal application, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. The voice of the Lord is very effectual where all other voices fail.

The meaning is clear, though the construction in a literal translation is obscure. The English Version supplies the implied clause. To seek God's face is to seek His favor (Ps 105:4).

In this verse we are taught that if we would have the Lord hear our voice, we must be careful to respond to his voice. The true heart should echo the will of God as the rocks among the Alps repeat in sweetest music the notes of the peasant's horn. Observe, that the command was in the plural, to all the saints, Seek ye; but the man of God turned it into the singular by a personal application, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. The voice of the Lord is very effectual where all other voices fail. When thou saidst, then my heart, my inmost nature was moved to an obedient reply. Note the promptness of the response—no sooner said than done; as soon as God said "seek, " the heart said, "I will seek." Oh, for more of this holy readiness! Would to God that we were more plastic to the divine hand, more sensitive of the touch of God's Spirit.

In this verse we are taught that if we would have the Lord hear our voice, we must be careful to respond to his voice. The true heart should echo the will of God as the rocks among the Alps repeat in sweetest music the notes of the peasant's horn. Observe, that the command was in the plural, to all the saints, Seek ye; but the man of God turned it into the singular by a personal application, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. The voice of the Lord is very effectual where all other voices fail.

THIS ready response to a Divine call may be looked at in three ways. It may be said of it, first, that it is the natural duty of man to God such as his responsibility to his Creator demands. I should not like to think it necessary to prove that statement in this assembly. Surely when God creates a man it is but a matter of right that the man created should answer to the call of his Maker.

THIS ready response to a Divine call may be looked at in three ways. It may be said of it, first, that it is the natural duty of man to God such as his responsibility to his Creator demands. I should not like to think it necessary to prove that statement in this assembly. Surely when God creates a man it is but a matter of right that the man created should answer to the call of his Maker. When the Creator says, "Seek you My face," it is the natural duty of the creature to reply, "Your face, Lord, will I seek." And the more is this so, because our Creator renews our obligations hourly by exercising His sustaining power and maintaining our existence. In a certain sense we are "created" every day, because the creature would go back to its native nothingness—our bodies would return to the dust, and our spirits would expire—if it were not for a continued action of Divine Omnipotence by which we are retained in being. Being, therefore, every day dependent upon the Preserver of men, it is but an everyday obligation that when God says, "Seek you My face," the daily debtor should cheerfully reply, "Your face, Lord, will I seek." If any should say that this is not a duty on such grounds, I would reply that the commands of God are always so good and so reasonable that it must be the duty of man to obey them. If it were possible for the Most High to command anything unrighteous, or unreasonable, the question of His claims might be raised. But since what the Word of God commands is always most to our interest—at once the wisest and the best thing that we could possibly do—it becomes the duty of a rational and an intelligent being to follow the wise, loving, and tender counsels of the great God.

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face - How much labor and skill have been employed to make sense of this verse as it stands in our translation! The original words are the following, from which our Version has been forcibly extracted: - לך אמר לבי בקשו פני את פניך יהוה אבקש lecha amar libbi bakkeshu panai; eth paneycha, Yehovah, abakkesh; of which I believe the true rendering to be as follows: “Unto thee, my heart, he hath said, Seek ye my face. Thy face, O Jehovah, I will seek. O my heart, God hath commanded thee to seek his face.” Then, his face I will seek. Which may be paraphrased thus: Unto thee, his Church, God hath said Seek ye, all who compose it, my face. To which I, his Church, have answered, Thy face, O Jehovah, I will seek. On referring to Archbishop Secker, I find that he, and indeed Bishop Horsley, are of the same mind. I had formerly proposed another method of reading this difficult verse. Suspecting that some error had got into the text, for בקשו פני bakkeshu panay, “seek ye my face,” I had substituted אבקש פניך abakkesh paneycha, “I will seek thy face;” or with the Vulgate and Septuagint, בקשתי פניך bakkesti paneycha, “I have sought thy face,” exquisivit te facies mea, Εξεζητησα το προσωπον σου. And this small alteration seemed to make a good sense: “My heart said unto thee, I have sought thy face, (or, I will seek thy face), and thy face, O Lord, I will seek.” I have not only done what it was my duty and interest to do, but I will continue to do it. Some have proposed to mend the text thus: לך לך אמר לבי lech lecha, amar libbi, “Go to, saith my heart,” נבקש פני יהוה nebakkesh peney Jehovah, “Let us seek the face of Jehovah.” This is rather a violent emendation, and is supported by neither MSS. nor Versions. The whole verse is wanting in one of Dr. Kennicott’s MSS. […]

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face ... - Margin, “My heart said unto thee, Let my face seek thy face.” The literal translation would be: “To Thee hath said my heart, Seek ye my face; thy face, O Lord, will I seek.” DeWette thus expresses the idea, “Of thee my heart thinks (in regard to the command to seek thy face), thy face, Lord, I will seek.” Our translators have given the correct meaning, though the original is quite obscure. The passage is designed to denote the state of the mind, or the disposition, in regard to the commands of God. The command or precept was to seek God. The prompt purpose of the mind or heart of the psalmist was, that he would do it. He “immediately” complied with that command, as it was a principle of his life - one of the steady promptings of his heart - that he would do this. The heart asked no excuse; pleaded for no delay; desired no reason for not complying with the command, but at once assented to the propriety of the law, and resolved to obey. This related undoubtedly at first to prayer, but the “principle” is applicable to all the commands of God. It is the prompting of a pious heart immediately and always to obey the voice of God, no matter what his command is, and no matter what sacrifice may be required in obeying it.