Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 105:4
Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
4. Two synonymous words are rendered seek in this verse. Both originally referred to the outward act of visiting the sanctuary, but both come to express the inward purpose of the heart as well. So far as they can be distinguished the first denotes the attitude of loving devotion, the second that of inquiry or supplication. To ‘seek Jehovah’ is the duty and the joy of the true Israelite. From His strength and presence alone can Israel derive the protection and blessing that it needs. His strength cannot here mean the Ark, as in Psa 78:61.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Seek the Lord and his strength – Seek strength from him; seek that his strength may be imparted to you; seek him as a Being of almighty power; as One by whom you may be strengthened. The Septuagint and Vulgate render this, Seek the Lord, and be strengthened. Strength comes from God, and it is only by his strength that we can be strong; only by our making use of his omnipotence in our own behaIf that we can discharge the duties, and bear the trials of this life. Compare the notes at Isa 40:29-31.
Seek his face evermore – His favor. His smiling upon us, his lifting up the light of his countenance, is synonymous with his favor. See Psa 24:6; Psa 27:8. Compare the notes at Psa 4:6.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 105:4-6
Seek the Lord and His strength: seek His face evermore.
Public recognition of God
I. After glorious success abroad, and in the most desirable affluence and security at home, it is the duty both of prince and people to have then a particular regard to the public worship of God established amongst them, and to attend it with a religious and devout disposition of soul. This the Holy Spirit demands from us by the pen of David, requiring us to exhort and encourage one another in our public assemblies for the worship of God; to Seek the Lord and His strength.
II. A solemn commemoration of Gods particular mercies to a nation He has chosen so to bless by distinguishing favours is a proper subject for such religious and acceptable service: Remember His marvellous works, etc.
III. In all such public acts of worship, we are each of us to consider ourselves in our public capacity and national relation, as being closely united to our sovereign, to our superiors, equals, and inferiors, who are our contemporaries, yes, and with our ancestors and posterity too, so as to sustain but one single person in all Gods providential dealings with us. We are not in these holy and solemn gratulations to contract our minds, nor confine our prospect to the present personal satisfactions and benefits we reap from such exercises of our faith, and gratitude, and adoration; but we are to enlarge our thoughts, and extend our view backward and forward, whilst we celebrate the praises of God, the common Lord, Deliverer, Benefactor, and Father of us all. Thus the psalmist carries the thoughts of the then worshippers of God, in his new tabernacle, to a contemplation of His lovingkindness which had been ever of old, even as far backward as to the ages of Abraham and Jacob. Do this, O ye seed of Abraham His servant, etc. (W. Needham, B. D.)
The face of God
This hymn is the first recorded strain of the psalmody of public worship. On the day when the ark was brought to its tent in the city of David, David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord. It was sung in the presence of this sacred object, which was the ancient symbol of the presence of God. To those who heard it that day our text explained what the ark meant. Seek the manifestation of your God, who shines upon you from over its mercy-seat. Magnify and seek His awful power, of which you are reminded by this ark of His strength. And constantly meet Him around this central depository of the covenant between your God and His congregation. The ancient symbol is gone, being done away in Christ. Those days have come concerning which Jeremiah predicted, They shall say no more, the ark of the covenant of the Lord. We must remember every one of these memorials; for, though they are gone, they eternally teach their lessons. The Epistle to the Hebrews shows us this. It takes us into the old temple to teach us the mysteries of the new.
I. The God whom we worship bids us seek His face. The word is one which runs through the entire Scripture as a most attractive figure. But it is more than a figure, and suggests to our thought a most blessed reality. First, we cannot help perceiving that by such a phrase as this we are taught to approach a personal Being, supreme over all His creatures, and eternally separated from them by His essence, yet having something in Himself that is common to them and to Him. He is an individual Spirit to whom our spirits may draw near. He asks us as persons to come to Him a Person. His ways indeed are not as our ways; His thoughts are not as our thoughts: but only because they are higher and nobler than ours. There is a sense in which the same things are true in us and in Him. The Bible does not use the abstract term personality or person with reference to the Deity; but it everywhere means this. God can say Thou to me, and I can say Thou to Him. No language could more touchingly declare this than Seek His face, which is literally, Visit ye your God! The face is the expression of our individual self. Now, there are two great errors under which the world has groaned in all ages, which are swept away by this simple testimony. A certain philosophy has always found it impossible to understand how the Infinite Essence can be distinct from the creature. Almost from the dawn of religious thought a system has been constructed, called Pantheism, which makes everything God and God everything: without a personal Face towards the creature; for He and the creature, or what we call the creature, are one. He is not a Person Himself, though He gives birth to millions of personalities, which appear for a little while, and then vanish back into His bosom, the infinite abyss of being. How glorious is the religion of the Bible in contrast! In Him we live, and move, and have our being; but only as His offspring, who are children invited to seek their Father, and live in Him. An opposite error, or the same error under another form, has multiplied the universal Creator and Upholder of the universe into ten thousand manifestations: gods many and lords many. This has always been a kind of compromise between Pantheism and the doctrine of a Supreme First Cause. It gropes after one great being behind all the rest, but makes almost every force in nature a lesser god bringing that great abstraction near. The Christian worship is an eternal protest against these most destructive errors. We have inherited from Moses and the prophets the doctrine that there is one God. This is the foundation of all the devotions of this house. We visit every time we come up to it a Personal God, one Supreme Being, who summons us to His presence. He is afar off: filling and transcending all space, so that the heaven beyond the visible heavens cannot contain Him. But He is also nigh at hand: He is in all the infinity of His being present in every place, and in all His Godhead present here. Yet, though we approach one God, whose name is One, there is a Trinity of sacred Persons in that unity. And the term we consider veiled a mystery which is now fully manifested. The face of God is the Incarnate Redeemer, and its manifestation is by the Holy Ghost. This was veiled and typified by the ark of the covenant, a covenant not for Israel only, but for all flesh. The term itself implies a mediator. Now Moses was not that mediator, nor was Aaron. It was the Son of God made man in the fulness of time. It pleased God to set forth that truth under types and shadows while the ancient temple remained. Approaching from without none could behold the place of the ark without sweeping the altar of sacrifice. Their inseparable union signified that God dwelt among His people only because the great sacrifice had opened the way to Him: had enabled Him to return to man and man to return to Him. The ancient secret is fully revealed now. Our Lord Himself expressly tells us, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. The Person of Jesus through whom we approach is the very face of God to whom we approach. God, says St. Paul, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The whole system of mediation is now fully disclosed. But it was in virtue from the beginning. The face of God made man was marred for the suffering of death for us. It then became resplendent in glory, and is now the very outbeaming of the reconciled Godhead. But that sacred face is withdrawn: we could not now behold it and live. A glimpse of it has a few times been seen as it were to assure us of its glorification. We worship God in the Spirit while we rejoice and are glad in the face of Jesus. We approach not Christ in the flesh: His Person is glorified, and we must seek it and find it by the Holy Ghost. This revelation is to all and to each. We come up together to see the face of our God, but every one of us must enjoy the privilege in order to this common enjoyment. Then seek now your privilege; lift up your heart for your own blessing. Cause Thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved. We proclaim in the name of God, He pardometh and absolveth all them that truly-repent and unfeignedly believe His holy Gospel.
II. From the face to the strength of God the transition is easy: the light of His countenance is the strength of God in the soul. The ark, however, was called emphatically the ark of His strength, and the people were called to visit it for two reasons: to acknowledge the glory of the Divine power in their midst, and to seek its manifestations within themselves. Our supreme business in this house, and in all worship, is to extol the Divine name: the noblest employment of those who have seen the Divine face in reconciliation. The strength of God is the assemblage of His perfections, of which omnipotent power was the representative. This was the attribute that came nearest to the ancient people, and of it the ark was a constant remembrancer. Jehovah was called the Strength of Israel. It was His Right Hand that had delivered them from the beginning. They extolled His power especially, while they also remembered His wisdom, fidelity, and other perfections which were behind. Give unto the Lord glory and strength: give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. In all their worship, the glory of God was the uppermost sentiment. The ark, so awfully shut in and dwelling in such unapproachable light, kept that evermore before them. The glory due unto the Supreme the ancient worshippers offered as worthily as we can offer it. But there is a sense in which they did not so perfectly offer it, because His being was not fully known. The Three-one Deity had not been revealed. That secret was kept back, though it could scarcely be hid. Although the Holy, Holy, Holy! is not surpassed even in the New Testament, yet this was the Name by which Jehovah was not known to the fathers. To us the Triune name and the Triune perfections are one in the glorious works of the Redeeming God. And when we hear the words, Declare the wonders that He hath wrought, of what do they remind us? The ark told the Israelites a marvellous story; it had witnessed all their triumphs and all their disgraces; it was the will of God that with it should be attached the thought of His mighty interpositions. We have no visible symbol; but of what does our house of prayer remind us, what does that table silently commemorate, what is the burden of this hymn book, what is the high subject of the New Testament? We have that to remember and extol which dwarfs the Jewish annals to utter insignificance. But we cannot more effectually adore the strength of our God than by seeking its manifestation. He does not only wait in His holy Temple for our tribute, as if He had only to receive and we to give. Whoso offereth Him praise glorifieth Him, but equally he that honours his God by seeking and trusting in His power. The ark was a perpetual token that there was a reserve of strength in the God of Israel at the peoples service. In the New Testament the word is, Where two or three are gathered together there am I in the midst of them. There is no limit to the power of the Spirit in the assemblies of His people who pray. His strength is everything here; we must only seek it in the consciousness of our utter impotence. The only power in our assemblies is the power of the Lord. The ark was a perpetual remembrancer of that. It humbled the people by reminding them that when God was not with them they fled before their enemies; that it was only when He was with them that they conquered. We have no symbol to remind us, nor do we need it. God Himself speaks and bids us remember that we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. Without Me, said the Lord, ye can do nothing. But God is here in His strength. The ark was the pledge that the ancient God of the people was with them. His name was still, while they trusted in Him, the Strength of Israel. The measure of His strength among His people is the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, the exceeding greatness of His power. The standard to us is, According to your faith be it unto you. Then we must seek it in prayer for the carrying on of the work of salvation in our midst. There is a power in this place for the conversion of every sinner that ever enters it. Our common supplication must plead for it, our common faith must expect it, and we shall then have the desire of our heart. Enlarging our view we should remember that we belong to the catholic temple of the Church. If you study our psalm you will see how it embraces the heathen throughout. Fear before Him all the earth. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. This is prophetically to them. To us it is, Declare His glory among the heathen; His marvellous works of redemption and grace among all nations. This we do by our missions abroad, and we do it by our prayers at home. This house which we have dedicated to God must never forget that He is the God of the whole earth. Once more I must remind you that the strength of God which is sought in His ordinances is altogether a personal energy within the individual soul. There is indeed a common manifestation, a shedding forth of Divine influence, which sometimes overpowers the whole congregation, and surprises those who neither sought it nor expected it. But every one after all must lay hold on the strength of God for himself. The promise is of a Divine power put forth in the inmost secret of our nature. Hear the apostles prayer that He would grant us according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. But this is according to our own personal faith. So St. Paul says, I can do all through Christ which strengtheneth me. Our righteousness He is as a free gift; but our strength He is through our own faculties. Seek it then and find it in your inmost spirit. Let it be your constant exercise everywhere to make the Divine omnipotence your own. Strength to do and strength to suffer, strength to resist and strength to overcome, strength to command mountains out of the way, and strength to uproot the long-standing tree of sin: all is yours. If your religion has been scanty and feeble it is simply and solely your own fault.
III. We must not forget the emphatic manner in which the expression evermore is added, both as exhortation and encouragement. The actual assemblies we must delight to visit, and be found in our place continually. Here, as in everything else, we have great advantages over the people of the ancient covenant. They came up only by their representatives three times a year, and on certain other set occasions. During the intervals they could only remember Zion. We have constantly recurring opportunities. Every Christian sabbath we are invited to assemble; and on certain evenings in the week we may join the congregation in the services which are held around the invisible altar and ark. There are some special occasions when the members of Christs discipleship gather around the table of the Lord; if I may so speak, nearer than usual to the ark, and its mercy-seat, and its glorious face. Never be absent then, unless the Lord Himself keep you away. Seek His face and seek His strength continually. But this last word reminds me that there is a sense in which the true Christian is never absent from the house of the Lord, Whose house are we. We are not commanded to come up at set times to obtain a glimpse of His face, have our sins forgiven, gain a renewal of strength, and then go away for an interval of absence. We dwell in His house. We live and move and have our being in the mystical temple. The word of the text seems to say, Seek Him here, but seek Him continually, in our private devotions, in the midst of our duties, in our family worship, and everywhere. This evermore echoes in eternity. It is not necessary that we should determine how far the Hebrews understood the reach and meaning of this Word. Whatever they believed, or hoped, or felt in presentiment, we have the full revelation that our worshipping assemblies are earnests of an everlasting fellowship of more perfect worship in the house above. There is an eternal temple awaiting us where we shall not need to seek the face nor to seek the strength of our God. Both shall have been found in their utmost blessedness, to be lost no more for ever. The countenance of God in Christ shall be the eternal joy of the redeemed. Meanwhile the commandment is to seek His face for ever. Count time and all its opportunities of seeking the Lord as given for one sole purpose, the preparation for that eternal fellowship. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Seek the Lord] Worship the one only Supreme Being, as the only and all-sufficient good for the soul of man.
And his strength] Man is weak; and needs connexion with the strong God that he may be enabled to avoid evil and do good.
Seek his face] Reconciliation to him. Live not without a sense of his favour.
Evermore.] Let this be thy chief business. In and above all thy seeking, seek this.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord, and his strength, i.e. by a figure called hendiaduo, the Lord in his strength, to wit, in his sanctuary, or before the ark, which is called Gods strength, Psa 63:2; 78:61, and the ark of his strength, Psa 132:8.
His face, i.e. his gracious presence in his sanctuary, and the blessed fruits of it. See on Psa 27:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Seek the Lord and his strength,…. The ark, which is called his strength, and the ark of his strength, Ps 78:61, because he had shown his great strength by it, in dividing the waters at Jordan, throwing down the walls of Jericho, and plaguing the Philistines because of it, when among them. This was a symbol of God’s presence, before which he was sought by his people; and was a type of our Lord Jesus, the man of God’s right hand, whom he has made strong for himself, and who is called his strength, Ps 80:18. Some render it, and which Aben Ezra makes mention of, though he rejects it, “seek the Lord in his strength”; or “by it”: God is to be sought in Christ; he is the way of access to him. Or the meaning is, seek strength from the Lord; spiritual strength; strength to assist in the exercise of grace, and discharge of duty; seek it from him, in whom are both righteousness and strength. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions, render it, “seek the Lord, and be ye strengthened”. The way to gain an increase of spiritual strength is to seek the Lord by prayer, or in his ordinances; see Ps 138:3. The Targum is,
“seek the doctrine of the Lord, and his law.”
It follows:
seek his face evermore: his favour and lovingkindness; his smiling countenance, which beholds the upright; his gracious presence, and communion with him; which is always desirable, ever to be sought after, and will be eternally and without interruption enjoyed in another world.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4 Seek ye Jehovah, and his strength (204) Although he had in the preceding verse characterized the faithful by the honorable designation, those who seek God, yet he again exhorts them to earnestness in seeking him, which is not an unnecessary exhortation. Seeking God, it is true, is the mark by which all genuine saints are particularly distinguished from the men of the world; but they come far short of seeking him with due ardor; and, accordingly, they have always need of incitements, to urge them on to this exercise, although they run of their own accord. Those whom the prophet here stirs up to seek God are not fickle persons, nor such as are altogether indolent, and who cleave to the impurities of earth, but those who with a prompt and ready mind already aim at doing this; and he thus stimulates them, because he perceives that they are obstructed by many impediments from advancing in their course with sufficient rapidity. However willing then we may be, we have notwithstanding, need of such incitement to correct our slowness. The strength and face of God, doubtless refer to that kind of manifestation by which God, accommodating himself to the rudeness of the times, drew at that time true believers to himself. The ark of the covenant is in many other places called both the strength and the face of God, because by that symbol the people were reminded, that he was near them, and also really experienced his power. (205) The more familiarly then God showed himself to them, with the more promptitude and alacrity would the prophet have them to apply their hearts in seeking him; and the aid by which God relieves our weakness should prove an additional stimulus to our zeal. Modesty also is recommended to us, that, mindful of our slowness in seeking God, we may keep the way which he has prescribed to us, and may not despise the rudiments through which he by little and little conducts us to himself. It is added continually, that no person may grow weary in this exercise, or, inflated with a foolish opinion of having reached perfection, may neglect the external aids of piety, as is done by many, who, after having advanced a few degrees in the knowledge of God, exempt themselves from the common rank of others, as if they were elevated above the angels. Again, the injunction is given to remember the marvelous works which God had performed, in the deliverance of his people from Egypt, when he displayed his power in new and unusual ways. By the judgments of his mouth, some understand the law. But as I read all the three expressions, his marvelous works, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth, as referring to one series of events, I prefer explaining it rather of the miracles by which God subdued the pride of Pharaoh. Still, however, there is some doubt as to the reason of this manner of speaking. Some are of opinion, that these miracles are called the judgments of God’s mouth, because he had foretold them by Moses, which is highly probable. At the same time, the expression might be taken more simply, as denoting that the power of God was manifested in an extraordinary manner in these miracles; from which it would be easy to gather, that they were performed by him. I do not mean to exclude the ministry of Moses, whom God had raised up to be a prophet to the Egyptians, that in denouncing what was to come to pass, he might show that nothing happened by chance. Yet I think there is an allusion to the manifest character of the miracles, as if it had been said, Although God had not uttered a word, the facts themselves evidently showed, that he was the deliverer of his people.
(204) “For וזו, his strength, the LXX. seem to have read עזו, be strengthened, and accordingly render it κραταιωθὢτε, the Latin ‘ confirmamini ’, ‘be confirmed,’ and so the Syriac, ‘be strengthened.’ This the sense would well bear, ‘Seek the Lord, and be confirmed;’ let all your strength be sought from him. So the Jewish Arab, ‘Seek the Lord, and seek that he would strengthen you, or strength from him, or you shall certainly be strengthened,’ if by prayer you diligently seek him.” — Hammond. Horsley also reads, “Seek the Lord, and be strong.”
(205) With this agrees the interpretation of Lowth: “The holy ark, and the shechinah which remained upon it, the symbol of the divine presence, is called the face of God; and to seek the face of God, is to appear before the ark, to worship at the sanctuary of God, which was required of the Israelites thrice a year. — See 2Sa 21:1; 2Ch 7:14; Psa 27:8; Exo 23:17, — Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, volume 2, page 24l.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) Seek the Lord.Better, Enquire after Jehovah and his power. The congregation is directed to the historical survey which follows. This sense seems settled by Psa. 111:2 : The works of Jehovah are great, enquired into by all those who take delight in them. And hence the word strength must be understood as used generally of the manifestation of Divine power in the wondrous deeds now to be mentioned.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. And his strength “Strength,” here, is sometimes understood figuratively of the sanctuary, as in Psa 78:61. Thus, to seek God’s “strength” is “to be earnest and constant in attending upon the public worship of Jehovah in the place where his ark, the symbol of his ‘strength,’ is deposited.” French and Skinner. But it is better to take it as in the English text. The “strength” of God was the refuge and defense of his people. See Psa 27:1; Psa 29:11; Psa 68:34-35. It is parallel to seek his face that is his favour, in the next member.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 105:4 Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
Ver. 4. Seek the Lord, and his strength ] That is, his ark, at the remove whereof to Jerusalem this psalm was sung, 1Ch 16:7-36 , &c. Called it is God’s strength and God’s face here; yea, even God himself, Psa 132:5 . It is as if he should say, Frequent holy assemblies, as ever you desire to draw nigh to God, and to have your faith in him confirmed.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
face. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia.
evermore = at all times, or continually.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Seek: Amo 5:4-6, Zep 2:2, Zep 2:3
his strength: Psa 78:61, Psa 132:8, 2Ch 6:41
seek his face: Psa 27:8
Reciprocal: Gen 12:15 – taken 2Ch 12:14 – to seek 2Ch 14:7 – we have sought Psa 9:10 – hast Psa 22:26 – they Psa 24:6 – that seek Psa 63:2 – To see Isa 51:1 – ye that seek Jer 50:4 – seek the Eze 24:21 – the excellency Hos 10:12 – time Mat 7:7 – seek Mat 28:5 – ye seek Mar 16:6 – Ye seek Luk 11:9 – seek Heb 11:6 – diligently
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
105:4 Seek the LORD, and his {b} strength: seek his face evermore.
(b) By the strength and face he means the ark where God declared his power and his presence.