The text divides itself into two parts. We have (1) God's address to man; (2) man's reply to God.
I. God's address to man: "Thou saidst, Seek ye My face." (1) Here we have the origin of all true religion. It begins with God. All who know anything about quarrels among men know that, as a rule, the offended party is generally the first to seek a reconciliation. This is gloriously true of the great quarrel between God and man. Man had sinned, and God was angry with man. Did He wait for man to come and Confess his ingratitude and sinfulness? We know He did not. "Because He delighteth in mercy," He spoke first. The first day of man's sin was the first day of God's revelation of mercy. (2) God also speaks first to each individual. He is ever ready to receive us, and the moment the sinner draws back the bars and bolts which have kept the door shut in His face "the King of glory will come in." (3) The text also shows us the nature of religion: "Seek ye My face." This means "Come to Me." When God says this, do not the words imply that (a) we are at a distance from Him, (b) that there is a possibility of coming to Him? Sin is put away as the legal obstacle to man's salvation. This then is religion, the heart coming back to God.
II. We have man's reply to God: "Thy face, Lord, will Iseek." (1) The answer was personal. There is great danger in this age of companies of our losing ourselves in the form of humanity. Our spiritual affairs must all be done individually. (2) The answer was prompt: " WhenThou saidst." (3) It was decided: "Thy face, Lord, willI seek." (4) It was explicit. David means just what God means. (5) The answer came from the right place: "My heartsaid unto Thee." What the heart says God always hears.
C. Garrett, Catholic Sermons,vol. ii., p. 37.
Everything which is really good in this world is the reflection of a great, original, perfect good, which lies far away out of sight: our happiness of its happiness, our holiness of its holiness, our love of its love. All the beautiful objects in nature are only visible transcripts of some beautiful ideas which lay from all eternity in the mind of God. So that when God called creation forth into existence, it was only His own thoughts taking form and coming back again to Himself. Our acceptances are only the echo of God's invitations.
I. If you would make a call effectual, you must receive it into the innermost recesses of your soul and recognise and feel the nature of the claim which He who speaks has upon the things He calls. Remember that it is the right of an absolute Sovereign. Even according to earthly rules a royal invitation is an invitation indeed, but it is also a command, and it may not be refused. But it is not in sovereignty only, it is in love, He has called you. All you have to do is to let yourselves be placed within those majestic influences of His powerful affection, that you may be drawn in and towards the centre.
II. Another most important part of the right reception of the call lies in the quickness, the instantaneousness, of the obedience: "When Thou saidst." The appeal and the reply are coeval. There is a "Now or never" in God's calls. God's calls and invitations are not always such things as we should have expected. They often fall strangely. Upon our faithfulness to each one in succession depend the vividness and the power with which the other will fall.
III. There is one thing which appears to characterise every call; i.e.,a call to action. There is always something to be done, and to do the act is to accept the call.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,1874, p. 93.
The law of creation and the law of salvation are one law, one thing. The sun says to the planets, "Children, seek ye my face." The planets reply, "We will; thy face will we seek. We are cold, dreary, bloomless, and barren; we are fruitless and hopeless; we will seek thy face." And forthwith the planets climb and climb, a six months' climb, from January to June, to the zenith, to the meeting face to face. What then? All that summer and harvest mean follows: light, heat, blossom, love, song; the whole earth is quickened and filled with beauty and good fruits. Infinitely greater is the summer which results from the direct relationship of the spirit-face of God and the spirit-face of man, the all-giving face of our infinite Creator, Lover, Father, Saviour, and the receiving faces of His sons and daughters.
I. The light of God's face, called also the light of His glory, is not what we mean by substance, and yet it works in all substance, and all the beauty in the universe comes from it. It is marvellous because it transcends natural life; it is marvellous because it is God in the soul; it is marvellous because there is an endlessness of life and joy in it: it is life unspeakable, purer and nobler than nature knows anything about.
II. Think of Christ then as the light of God's face, not as a name, not as a historical Person simply, but as the light of God's face for ever and ever, and therefore the light of the soul as the Opener of heaven's boundlessness in the soul. The illuminating, the regenerating, transcendent, transfiguring element of every human spirit that is what we mean by Christ.
III. In the light of the world you never know yourselves, you never can value yourselves. You will value yourselves ten thousandfold more than you ever did when you see yourselves in the light of God's face. Your hope will rise then, and set no more for ever.
IV. When does God say, "Seek ye My face"? He says it especially in the way and at the time that our heart is most disposed to hear it. In your first real trouble His heart begins to touch your heart in a secret way, and His living presence is pleading, "Seek ye My face." The world cannot help you and comfort you. The deeper instincts of your heart spring up in the day of trouble towards God, and God sees it, for you are palpitating within yourself to meet His face.
J. Pulsford, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 193.
References: Psalms 27:8. J. P. Chown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 1; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2213; C. Garrett, Loving Counsels,p. 81; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiii., No. 767; G. Forbes, The Voice of God in the Psalms,p. 198. Psalms 27:8; Psalms 27:9. A. Maclaren, Old Testament Outlines,p. 105; see also Sunday Magazine,1881, p. 458; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 7. Psalms 27:9. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xix., No. 1144.