“What do you never weary of beholding that is beautiful?” asked Bryan Aalborg, pastor of the Charlotte Sharon Seventh-day Adventist Church. Sunsets, mountain ranges, children, and couples in love were a few of his own answers. However, amid life’s greatest challenges, the only thing that could sustain the yet-to-be-king David was beholding the face of God.
According to Aalborg, the human face is a complex thing containing “more variation than any other living creature on planet earth.” Each individual face reflects that person’s strength and vulnerability. David sought this intimacy with the Lord in Psalm 27:8: “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’”
Psalm 27 is written in a chiastic structure. A chiasm is a literary device in which a sequence of ideas is presented and then repeated in reverse order. Often employed by biblical authors, the central point of a chiasm is the verse that lies in the middle. In the case of Psalm 27, verse 8 is the point David seeks to drive home: “Seek My [the Lord’s] face.”
It is not easy to keep one’s eyes fixed on Jesus’ face. Even David faltered as he fled from Saul. As in David’s experience, the worries of the world can take its toll on the believer and the eyes can wander, leading him or her astray. “Beholding Him awakens us to our true potential,” Aalborg concluded.
It is by beholding the face of Jesus that the believer receives strength and experiences intimacy with Christ. The meeting concluded as attendees sang a cappella the chorus of the hymn “Face to Face with Christ, My Savior” as a personal commitment to behold the face of Jesus.
Join Ivan Blake in Stuart Auditorium Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. as he explains how to see God’s beauty.
—BENJAMIN LAWSON