'One thing have I desired, ... that will I seek after' There are two
points to be kept in view to that end. A great many people say, 'One
thing have I desired,' and fail in persistent continuousness of the
desire. No man gets rights of residence in God's house for a longer time
than he continues to seek for them. The most advanced of us, and those
that have longest been like Anna, who 'departed not from the Temple,'
day nor night, will certainly eject ourselves unless, like the Psalmist,
we use the verbs in both tenses, and say, 'One thing _have_ I desired
... that _will_ I seek after.' John Bunyan saw that there was a back
door to the lower regions close by the gates of the Celestial City.
There may be men who have long lived beneath the shadow of the
sanctuary, and at the last will be found outside the gates.
But the words of the text not only suggest, by the two tenses of the
verbs, the continuity of the desire which is destined to be granted, but
also by the two verbs themselves--desire and seek after--the necessity
of uniting prayer and work. Many desires are unsatisfied because conduct
does not correspond to desires. Many a prayer remains unanswered because
its pray-ers never do anything to fulfil their prayers. I do not say
they are hypocrites; certainly they are not consciously so, but I do say
that there is a large measure of conventionality that means nothing, in
the prayers of average Christian people for more holiness and likeness
to Jesus Christ.
Dear friends! if we truly wish this desire of dwelling in the house of
the Lord to be fulfilled, the day's work must run in the same direction
as the morning's petition, and we must, like the Psalmist, say, 'I _have
desired_ it of the Lord, so I, for my part, _will seek after it_.' Then,
whether or not we reach absolutely to the standard, which is none the
less to be aimed at, though it seems beyond reach, we shall arrive
nearer and nearer to it; and, God helping our weakness and increasing
our strength, quickening us to 'desire,' and upholding us to 'seek
after,' we may hope that, when the days of our life are past, we shall
but remove into an upper chamber, more open to the sunrise and flooded
with light; and shall go no more out, but 'dwell in the house of the
Lord for ever.'
'SEEK YE'--'I WILL SEEK'
'When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face; My heart said unto Thee, Thy
face, Lord, will I seek. 9. Hide not Thy face far from me.'
--PSALM xxvii. 8, 9.
We have here a report of a brief dialogue between God and a devout soul.
The Psalmist tells us of God's invitation and of his acceptance, and on
both he builds the prayer that the face which he had been bidden to
seek, and had sought, may not be hid from him. The correspondence
between what God said to him and what he said to God is even more
emphatically expressed in the original than in our version. In the
Hebrew the sentence is dislocated, at the risk of being obscure, for the
sake of bringing together the two voices. It runs thus, 'My heart said
to Thee,' and then, instead of going on with his answer, the Psalmist
interjects God's invitation 'Seek ye My face,' and then, side by side
with that, he lays his response, 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' The
completeness and swiftness of his answer could not be more vividly
expressed. To hear was to obey: as soon as God's merciful call sounded,
the Psalmist's heart responded, like a harp-string thrilled into music
by the vibration of another tuned to the same note. Without hesitation,
and in entire correspondence with the call, was his response. So
swiftly, completely, resolutely should we respond to God's voice, and
our ready 'I will' should answer His commandment, as the man at the
wheel repeats the captain's orders whilst he carries them out. Upon such
acceptance of such an invitation we, too, may build the prayer, 'Hide
not Thy face far from me.'
Now, there are three things here that I desire to look at--God's
merciful call to us all; the response of the devout soul to that call;
and the prayer which is built upon both.