Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword, from men by your hand, O LORD, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, and they leave their abundance to their infants. As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

   - Psalm 17.13-15

What then shall we say of that happiness to come which is promised to the saints, which we consider to be nothing else but the pure and unmediated contemplation of the Divine Essence itself?

  - Eriugena, Periphyseon, Irish, 9th century

The great hope of the believer lies beyond this worldly framework, in the heavenly places in Christ, where the glory of God radiates from His face and we may know fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (2 Cor. 4.6; Ps. 16.11).

But while this is, indeed, a happiness to come, it is our privilege to enter into this great hope here and now. We do not have to guess about the face of Jesus, what it may be like, or how glorious it may be. There is abundant evidence in the Word of God describing the Lord of Glory, which, as we meditate on it, becomes increasingly vivid and real to us.

Our lack is not in ample portraiture to consider; it is in sufficient willingness to engage in meditation.

Consider how long and hard a worldly man thinks about the riches he aspires to gain, the children he will father, the legacy he will leave behind. Visions of his hoped-for boon fill his mind by day and occupy his dreams at night. He arranges all his activities so as to be able to devote maximum time and effort toward the realization of that for which he earnestly longs. He talks eagerly about his goals, dreams, and attainments, and he plans and figures, day by day, to realize as much more of his longing as he can.

The worldly man puts us to shame by his zeal for fading pleasures. We are invited to fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore in the presence of our Lord, under His gaze, in the contemplation of His face. Yet our minds are too crowded with mundane pleasures and distractions, or too filled with doubt concerning the benefit of such meditation to give ourselves much to the practice of this crucial discipline.

And so we know very little of the glory of Jesus’ face in the present, and this deprives us of anything more than the barest flicker of excitement as we consider meeting Him hereafter. Thus filling our minds with fleeting pleasures, we forfeit that which can never fade, never fail to satisfy, and never be taken away from us, and we fill our minds with silly, fleeting pleasures which amount to nothing.

Do you have fifteen minutes to devote to gazing on the glory of Jesus’ face today?

Psalm 27.4-6 (Joanna: “Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise”)
One thing we request but to dwell with You, Lord.
Your beauty to test and to think on Your Word.
In trouble You hide us secure in Your grace;
No foe may o’erride us: We sing of Your praise!

Lord, on that great coming day, let me not be found in shame before the face of God, but let me gaze upon Your beauty day by day, so that I delight in Your more and more. Adapted from Litany of Jesus I