Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword,
With Your hand from men, O LORD,
From men of this world who have their portion in this life,
And whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure.
They are satisfied with children,
And leave the rest of their possessionfor their babes.
As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness;
I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.

  - Psalm 17.14, 15

The beauty of men
shall vanish in old age,
all former comeliness
is wiped away with grief.
The radiance of Christ’s face,
lovely before all things,
is more to be desired
than the frail flower of flesh.

  - Columbanus, Poem on the World’s Impermanence, Irish, 7th century[1]

The apostles Paul and John must have meditated long, hard, and with great satisfaction on the face of Jesus.

John had actually seen the Savior. We’re not sure about Paul, although his mentioning to Timothy that Jesus dwells in “unapproachable light” surely recalls his experience on that Damascus road (1 Tim. 6.14-16).

Still, Paul had some sense of the “face” of Jesus. He knew the sustaining power of Christ in the depths of his heart, where he encountered the glory of God as he contemplated the face of the Lord (2 Cor. 4.6,16-18).

So taken was John by the face of Jesus, that he eagerly longed for the day when he would see Him face to face (1 Jn. 3.2). When he finally did, the experience was overwhelming (Rev. 1).

Certainly the apostles meant for us to believe that, in some manner, we, too, may see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, exalted in glory. Is that your experience?

John’s account in Revelation 1 is a good place to begin in patching together an image of Jesus’ face. We can add other passages in the psalms, prophets, and gospels to gain a clearer portrait (cf. Pss. 2, 45, 47, 110; Dan. 7; Matt. 17.1-8; Rev. 14).

In a larger sense, all of Scripture, being about Jesus (Jn. 5.39), provides a portrait not only of His face, but of His entire being, purpose, attributes, and plan – all of which add texture and splendor to the specific descriptions of His face provided in the Word.

Perhaps only the barest outline or image of the face of Jesus will emerge through our contemplation, yet it promises to thrill us with a radiance that surpasses the greatest beauty our earthly lives have ever known.

Many today are consumed with the future of getting and spending. What’s to become of our economy? Our government? Our nation? Many people exhaust their intellectual energies worrying about whether their investments will hold up, their bank will fail, or our economy as a whole will simply tank. These are legitimate concerns, but they ought not be consuming ones.

Let us not give in to the pressure to fix our gaze only on things that can be seen. There is glory in the face of Jesus, glory that can lift us above our circumstances, revive us in the arena of God’s grace, fill us with hope and boldness, and lead us onto a plane of existence where righteousness, peace, and joy are the order of the day, regardless of our circumstances.

Learn to meditate on the face of Jesus, for, when you do, you are looking into your own future, you are gazing on your eternal destiny.

In the face of Jesus you can know satisfaction and peace that transcend the fading flowers of flesh and bring to your soul a peace that passes all understanding, guarding our heart and mind in Him Who loves and has saved you for Himself.

Psalm 11.1, 2, 7 (Tidings: “O Zion, Haste, Your Mission High Fulfilling”)
Jesus, my Lord, is my eternal refuge!
How can you say, “Friend, flee fast like a bird!
Haste to the hills! The wicked would destroy you!”?
Would you cast doubt on God and on His Word?
  Jesus is righteous, loving the just;
  All will behold His face who on His mercy trust.

O holy Jesus, O gentle Friend, O Morning Star, O mid-day Sun adorned, O brilliant Flame of the righteous, establish me in righteousness to life’s end, and receive me thereafter into Your eternal presence and glory. Adapted from Litany of Jesus II

A little help for our friends
We want you to see the face of Jesus, beloved. And you may, for He is pleased to show Himself to you. But you will have to seek Him, and to seek Him diligently and often. We’ve provided some resources that can help. To begin with, download the free month-long meditation, Glorious Vision: 28 Days in the Throne Room of the Lord. This series of meditations on Psalm 45 and the hymn “Fairest Lord Jesus” can be the starting point for a life of daily contemplating the face of the Lord. It’s free for the taking, simply by clicking here. You might also like to order a copy of the book, Be Thou My Vision, which is a collection from the Crosfigell archives of meditations specifically focused on our exalted Lord and King. You have to start somewhere to develop the daily discipline of seeing the face of Jesus. Why not start with one of these resources?

Send your friends on a guided tour
Since this week we’re welcoming around 10,000 new members to The Ailbe Community, we’ve prepared a brief video to help orient them to the resources of our website. You might like to click here and have a look at it yourself. But I also encourage you to send the link to the video to your friends, and to encourage them to join you in The Ailbe Community. Exciting days of growth and ministry are ahead, and you’ll be hearing more about new opportunities shortly. Help us grow this ministry, won’t you?

Psalms to Pray for Today and Tuesday
Today
Morning: Psalm 119.137-144; Psalm 92
Evening: Psalm 18

Tuesday
Morning: Psalm 119.145-152; Psalm 93
Evening: Psalm 19

T. M. Moore, Principal
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

All Psalms for singing from The Ailbe Psalter. Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.