Behold

For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face. Psalm 11:7

    What a wonderful progression of truth and promise in the final verse of Psalm 11.  The Psalmist here allows us to see who God is, what He desires and what His ultimate, Gospel-promise is.  We read first that God is righteous.  Everything about God, His character, His will, His action is all right and good.  There is no impurity or imperfection in God.  His splendor and majesty is beauty personified.  His desires and His will are perfect.  Everything that He does within and for His creation is good.  God is righteous!          The progression from this point is that because God is righteous this is what He desire, loves and demands from His created.  Yahweh calls His people to be Holy as He is Holy.  God understands that righteousness is what all things were created to be.  God knows that Righteousness is what all things were created to know.  So, His desire and His demand on His creation is that they would pursue righteousness.  The Psalmist, though, doesn’t state that this is His desire or His demand, but instead gives us this great picture that God loves, is moved by, our righteous deeds.  We can understand, on some transcendent level, that God desires and demands righteousness.  To truly believe, though, that God loves when we pursue righteousness brings a deep intimacy to God’s relationship with His people.  This shows that God cares who we are and what we are pursuing because He understands that this is for our greatest good and His greatest glory!  

    Finally, King David presents to us THE Gospel promise!  At the conclusion of his psalm David tells us what the ultimate promise and gift of God is: those who are righteous will behold the face of God!  God is righteous, loves when His people pursue righteousness and then promises that those who are righteous will get to see Him!  This is our promise now.  There is no greater promise.  There is nothing we should want more than this promise.  This is what should fuel our worship.  This is what should deepen our affection.  This is what should push us to holiness.  We get to see God one day!  We get to behold His face!  We get to be in His presence!  We shall see His glory!  Christian, want nothing more than this.  Village Church, make this our deepest desire.  If we are righteous we get to see God.  So, praise God that He has made a way, in His grace, to make us righteous:  Through His Son, Jesus Christ.  This is what David foreshadows here…that one day God will make a way for the unrighteous to be righteous.  Why?  So that God’s glory may be seen and God’s people will have eternal fellowship with Him!  May this amazing truth flood our hearts today and everyday.  

PRAYER OF THE DAY: God, I praise You that You are righteous and I praise You that You have made a way for me to be righteous.  I long to behold Your face!