Psalm 17:15: “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; / I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.”

January 23rd, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

David looked forward to eternity and had a proper perspective of what true satisfaction was all about. He was not a man who overlooked the grace of God on his life on earth, but he longed even more for the future, when he would dwell eternally in God’s presence. The apostle John wrote in the New Testament of this same longing and what it means for the believer:

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

We find in this a promise of coming good, an expectation of new and better things. Or more simply, we find the promise of the scriptural word hope. In the New Testament, the word translated hope means “confident expectation.” Have you ever lost your joy because you lost your hope? Here is the uncomplicated antidote for the struggling believer—eternity. Many years ago I heard a story by writer Hendrik Willem van Loon:

High up in the north, in the land called Svithjod, there stands a rock. It is 100 miles high and 100 miles wide. Once every 1000 years a little bird comes to this rock to sharpen its beak. When the rock has thus been worn away, then a single day of eternity will have gone by.

Life may be difficult and full of disappointments now, but we have an eternity of blessings and freedom and complete fellowship with our Creator to look forward to.

“LORD, help us today to keep our eyes on eternity and especially on You, the eternal God.”

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Psalms 17 KJV

¹ Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.  

² Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

³ Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me fromthe paths of the destroyer.

⁵ Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. 

⁶ I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.

⁷ Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them . 

⁸ Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

⁹ From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.  

¹⁰ They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

¹¹ They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

¹² Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.  

¹³ Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:  

¹⁴ From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which havetheir portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure:they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. 

¹⁵ As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.