The Shining Face of God
Psalm 67:1–7
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. Psalm 67:1
The language of this verse is drawn from the great Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6. The text says that God told Moses to have Aaron bless the people, saying, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (vv. 24–26).
A shining face is the opposite of an angry or scowling face, and a face turned toward someone is the opposite of a face turned away in indifference or disgust. A shining face implies favor, the favor of the one whose face is shining, and it implies the friendliness of warm personal relationships too. So what is meant by this blessing is something more than what we normally think of when we ask God to “bless us.” Usually all we mean is that we want God to help us to succeed at something or enable us to make money or give us the job, house, or car we desire. But although such forms of material blessing are not excluded by the Aaronic benediction, they are only part of it—and a lesser part at that. More desirable is that God would himself enter into a gracious personal relationship with his people.
The greatest blessing will be to see God. Do you remember the prayer of Moses, found in Exodus 33? Moses made three requests in that prayer: first, that God would teach him his way so that he might know him and continue to find favor with him; second, that God would remain with the people and never take his presence from them; and third, that he might look on God’s face and see his glory (vv. 12–18). God granted the first two of those requests but he told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (v. 20).
This is profoundly true, of course. No sinner, however devout or pious, as Moses was, can possibly look upon the face of God and survive that holy, piercing sight. But one day we shall! We shall look upon God in the day when all his redeemed people, drawn from every tribe and tongue and nation and purged of even the slightest taint of sin, stand before his throne to sing praises to the almighty God and to the Lamb. In that day God’s face will shine upon us in the fullest measure—we will see him “face-to-face”—and the ultimate beatific vision anticipated by Psalm 67 will be ours. In that day our joy will be even greater because great multitudes from all the nations of the earth will be praising God with us.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.