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The "Presence" Of God...?!
(Part 1)
My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.
Psalm 27:8 (NIV)
You can’t talk about worship for very long without hearing about the “presence” or the “face” of God. As worshipers, we’re often seeking it. As worship leaders, we’re often encouraging others to enter it. So what is it, and how on earth do we know if we’ve encountered it? What in the world is the “presence” of God?!
God is Everywhere...
Sound biblical doctrine teaches that God is omnipresent or “present everywhere.” It’s pretty fantastic & comforting to know that, no matter where we are, there is no such thing as a place where God cannot see me or cannot hear my prayer. In fact, there is no depth so low that God can’t find us and rescue us from it (see Psalm 139:7-12 and Romans 8:35-39).
Surely King David was aware of this as he penned the words of Psalm 27. Yet this omnipresence couldn't satisfy what his heart longed for: the "face" of God (Psalm 27:8). David sought after it. His heart cried out for it. Listen, and you’ll see what I mean:
One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. Psalms 27:4 (NIV)
Getting Face to Face
God is indeed present everywhere, but He is not manifestly evident everywhere. What David was looking for was the real, supernatural nearness of God. An actual, personal face-to-face experience with the Object of his worship. A fresh, transcendent revelation of God's imminence. A "now" expression of the Divine relationship.
How do we know that? King David's heart said, "Seek His face." What he longed for was, in fact, the Hebrew word, panim, which is translated "face" and "presence." It speaks of nearness and personal presence. It speaks of personhood, relationship, and intimacy.
Think of the conversations you have during a week. Among those many interactions, there may be those people that you can talk with who have your respect and trust, and you feel free to share your quirky, unguarded and raw thoughts with. We say that is because you are "close" to that person.
Or how about those people whose personal space boundaries are much smaller than yours, and you can feel their breath on your face when they talk to you (you can even tell what flavor gum they chew!), and they just have a lot of "presence" because they get "too close."
Those conversations stand out in a week (in one way or another) because of the closeness they demonstrate. And so it is with God. There is His general, constant omnipresence. And then there is His manifest presence. His nearness. Panim. His face.
Seeking His Face
OK, we can see that David sought God's face, but how do we? Well, it's probably not a popular answer in our drive-through society, but seeking God's face is less of a step-by-step method than it is a day-to-day heart attitude. Remember, it was David's heart that said, "Seek His face."
It's an attitude of hunger, longing for the Treasured One. It's an attitude of need. An attitude of joy and delight in God. And it shows itself in waiting, being still, unhurried. It's not easily distracted. In fact, it probably says, "hold my calls" in order to spend the time drawing near to God. And it isn't looking for "instant gratification" - it's looking for ultimate gratification. It's a nothing-else-but-You-will-do kind of attitude.
Are You Getting Hungry?
A great question! One that deserves a fuller treatment than we can give here (but take a look at A Hungry Heart). We need a heart like David's that longed for the very presence of the Lord. The great news is this: God wants the same thing for us! So let's begin by asking Him to create in us clean, undivided hearts that hunger and thirst after Him.
In Part 2, we'll take a look at how do we know if we've been in God's presence.
related
resources
- On this site:
- The "Presence" of God...?! (Part 2)
A Hungry Heart - Off-site:
- Pulse... Your Rhythm, God's Heart (Lamar Boschman)
The Practice Of The Presence Of God (Brother Lawrence)
