Think back to your childhood or youth. Did you ever have a day when you were a bit apprehensive about facing either your parents, or perhaps a teacher? Before you walked into the room, you were anxious as to whether they would be upset about any particular matter, or whether they were in a good mood. How happy and relieved you were when you saw your parents or teacher’s smiling face! You could now relax, as everything was just fine! In our brief psalm for today the author is looking for a smile from God. Let’s see what His Word has to say to us.
We can tell a lot about someone’s mood by the look on their face. As I opened this message with, if we walk in and see a smile upon our parents, a teacher, or a boss’s face, we know things are fine. However, we’d better be careful if we see a scowl or worse! In former days, when a citizen would approach the king with their petition, they were careful to check the look on the king’s face. If he was smiling, it was safe to approach. It was said that the king’s face would shine upon his people. If not, they’d better quickly leave.
Our psalmist is praying that God would shine His face upon His people (vs. 1). When we know that God’s face would be shining upon us, we know that His blessings will follow. He is looking towards us and looking on us with favor. However, for those who would not see a shining face, they might expect judgment and His wrath (Psalm 34:16). They are those who do evil.
How can we ensure that the Lord’s face would shine upon us? The first thing is to have accepted God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as your personal Savior. Our sins have separated us from God, but Jesus came and bridged the gap, making atonement for our sins with His Blood on the Cross. When we accept Jesus as Savior, we receive His righteousness as our own, and thus God sees that on our account, not our own sinful nature. We can enter His presence through the Blood of His Son, and we can expect that God will shine His face upon us.
For those who refuse His Son, who spurn and reject the Lord Jesus and the sacrifice He made, they cannot ever expect that God’s face will shine upon them. It is true that we are all sinners. However, God sent His Son Jesus to pay that sin-price, if only we will accept Him. For those who don’t, who refuse Jesus, they are saying in effect that the Blood Jesus shed is of no worth, that it didn’t matter, that they can be accepted by God through some other way, whether it is through good works, some other religious figure, or some other religious path. Their thinking is wrong! There can only be judgment and wrath for those who would spurn the precious Blood of Jesus.
As our psalm continues, the psalmist urges God’s people to sing forth His praises. There is always so much to be thankful and praise God for, particularly that we can have His face shining upon us, and that He has brought salvation to us and to people everywhere (vs. 2). We also can praise Him because we can have His mercy and His blessings. (vs. 1, 6-7). We can approach Him with confidence, bringing our prayers to His throne. He may not always answer our prayers exactly the way we might want, but when we know that His face is shining upon us, we know that He will work everything out for our good (Romans 8:28).
The psalmist testifies that when God answers our prayers, other people, particularly the unsaved, will see (vs. 2). They will hear of God's ways, and of His salvation. They will be drawn to Him. They will hear of God’s work and will praise Him (vs. 3-5). His face will especially shine upon those who tell others about the Lord Jesus, making His ways and His salvation known to all nations.
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