The Unforsaken: A Cry for God's Face
Introduction: The Logic of Covenant Prayer
We come now to the second movement of this great psalm of David. The first part of the psalm is a mighty declaration of triumphant faith. "Yahweh is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" David is confident, bold, and standing on the bedrock of God's promises. But then the music changes. The tone shifts from bold declaration to urgent petition. This is not a contradiction; it is the very rhythm of the Christian life. We do not petition God because we are unsure of His promises; we petition Him because we are absolutely sure of them. Our prayers are not a desperate attempt to get God to do something He is reluctant to do. Rather, our prayers are the designated means by which God has chosen to deliver the very things He has promised to give.
David's confidence in the first half of the psalm is the foundation for his cry in the second half. He is not flailing in the dark. He is a son, speaking to his Father. And because he knows who his Father is, he knows how to ask. This is a crucial lesson for us. We live in a sentimental age that treats prayer like a spiritual suggestion box, or worse, a cosmic vending machine. But biblical prayer is covenantal. It is rooted in who God is and what He has sworn to do. It is an appeal to His character. David is about to be surrounded by enemies, liars, and those who breathe out violence. He is facing the very real possibility of abandonment by his closest relations. In such a moment, where does a man turn? He turns to the only one who cannot and will not forsake him. He turns his face to the face of God.
This passage is a master class in how to pray when the walls are closing in. It teaches us what to ask for, on what basis to ask for it, and what to do when it feels like every earthly support has been kicked out from under us. This is not the prayer of a man who hopes God might exist. This is the prayer of a man who knows Him, and who knows that the only true calamity is to have that God hide His face.
The Text
Hear, O Yahweh, when I call with my voice,
And be gracious to me and answer me.
On Your behalf my heart says, “Seek My face,"
“Your face, O Yahweh, I shall seek.”
Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your slave away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me and do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
But Yahweh will take me up.
Instruct me in Your way, O Yahweh,
And lead me in a level path
Because of my foes.
Do not give me over to the desire of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
(Psalm 27:7-12 LSB)
The Primal Cry (v. 7)
David begins his petition with a direct and earnest plea.
"Hear, O Yahweh, when I call with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me." (Psalm 27:7)
Notice the raw simplicity here. "Hear me." This is the fundamental cry of a creature to his Creator, of a child to his Father. He is not just thinking pious thoughts; he is calling with his voice. There is a place for silent meditation, but there is also a time for audible, full-throated prayer. This is a man in earnest. He is not playing at religion. He needs help, and he is not ashamed to shout for it.
And what is the basis of his appeal? Grace. "Be gracious to me." David does not approach God on the basis of his own merit. He is not demanding his due. He is pleading for a gift. He knows that the only reason a holy God would listen to a sinful man is because that God is, by nature, gracious. This is the starting point of all true prayer. We come with empty hands, appealing not to our own righteousness, but to His. To pray this way is to admit that if God gave us what we deserved, we would be incinerated. Instead, we ask for what He delights to give: mercy.
The Divine Invitation (v. 8)
This next verse is a beautiful picture of the divine initiative in our relationship with God.
"On Your behalf my heart says, 'Seek My face,' 'Your face, O Yahweh, I shall seek.'" (Psalm 27:8)
This is remarkable. David's desire to seek God is itself a response to God's prior command. God says, "Seek My face." David's heart replies, "Your face I will seek." Our seeking is always a response to His seeking. He is the great initiator. As the apostle John would later say, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). God does not sit in heaven with His arms crossed, waiting for us to drum up enough spiritual fervor to get His attention. The very desire in your heart to pray, to seek Him, is a gift from Him. He plants the seed of the desire that He intends to fulfill.
And what are we to seek? His "face." This is a Hebrew idiom for His presence, His favor, His personal fellowship. It is not about seeing a physical visage. It is about intimacy. The worst curse in the Bible is for God to hide His face (Deut. 31:17). The greatest blessing is for God to make His face shine upon you (Num. 6:25). David is not primarily seeking escape from his enemies; he is seeking the presence of his God. If he has that, he has everything. This is the heart of true worship. We want God, not just His stuff.
A Litany Against Abandonment (v. 9)
Flowing directly from this desire for God's face is a series of rapid-fire pleas not to be abandoned.
"Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your slave away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me and do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!" (Psalm 27:9)
David piles up his petitions. Do not hide. Do not turn away. Do not abandon. Do not forsake. This is the cry of a man who understands that God's presence is his only true safety. Notice how he argues. He bases his plea for future help on God's record of past faithfulness. "You have been my help." This is covenant logic. He is saying, "Lord, you have a perfect track record of faithfulness to me. Don't stop now. Be who you have always been." This is how we should pray. We should fill our prayers with the remembrance of God's past deliverances, both in Scripture and in our own lives. It builds our faith and honors Him by recalling His character.
He calls himself God's "slave" or "servant." This is not a posture of groveling fear, but of loyal submission. He belongs to God. And a good master does not cast off a loyal servant in a time of trouble. He concludes by calling on the "God of my salvation." He is reminding God, and himself, that salvation is what God does. It is His specialty. It is His name.
The Ultimate Adoption (v. 10)
Here, David presents the most extreme case of human abandonment to contrast it with the certainty of God's faithfulness.
"For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But Yahweh will take me up." (Psalm 27:10)
The bond between a parent and child is the most fundamental human relationship. To be forsaken by one's own father and mother is to be utterly alone, to have the very source of your existence turn against you. We do not know if David was speaking literally of a specific event, or if he was using a powerful "even if" scenario. The point is the same either way. Even if the most reliable, foundational human love on earth fails completely, God's love will not. Even if my mother and father drop me, Yahweh will scoop me up.
The word for "take me up" is a tender one. It means to gather, to receive, to adopt. It is the action of a loving father taking a helpless child into his arms. This is one of the most comforting promises in all of Scripture. Our ultimate security does not rest in any human relationship, no matter how precious. It rests in our divine adoption. God's family is the only family from which you can never be disowned. His grip is the one that will never let go.
A Prayer for Guidance in Wartime (v. 11-12)
Knowing he is secure in God's love, David now prays for practical guidance and protection in the midst of his conflict.
"Instruct me in Your way, O Yahweh, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes. Do not give me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence." (Psalm 27:11-12)
This is a wartime prayer. He asks for a "level path." This isn't a request for an easy life, free of bumps. A level path is a straight, clear path, one where you will not easily stumble or be ambushed. Why does he need this? "Because of my foes." His enemies are watching him, waiting for him to trip. They are looking for any inconsistency, any misstep, that they can use as an accusation against him and, by extension, against his God.
This should chasten us. The world is watching. Our enemies are watching. Therefore, we must walk carefully, not for the sake of our own reputation, but for the glory of God's name. We need divine instruction to navigate the treacherous terrain of a hostile world. We must pray for God to lead us in a way that gives no legitimate grounds for the enemy to blaspheme.
And the nature of his enemies is made clear. They are "false witnesses" and those who "breathe out violence." Lies and violence are the native language of the kingdom of darkness. Bearing false witness is a grievous sin because it is an attack on the very nature of God, who is a God of truth. It is the tool the devil used to murder our Lord Jesus Christ, who was condemned by a parade of liars. David is surrounded by men whose words are lies and whose hearts are full of murder. He knows he cannot stand against them in his own strength. His only hope is that God will not give him over to their "desire," to their ravenous appetite for destruction.
Conclusion: Seeking the Face of Christ
This entire prayer finds its ultimate fulfillment and its loudest "Amen" in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the one who, in the garden, cried out to His Father. He is the one who was truly forsaken, not just by father and mother, but for a time, by God Himself on the cross, so that we would never have to be.
When David says, "Seek My face," we now know that the face of God is the face of Jesus Christ. Paul tells us that God "has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). To seek God's face is to look to Christ. To be instructed in God's way is to follow the footsteps of Christ. To walk a level path is to walk the straight and narrow way that Christ paved for us.
And what of the false witnesses and violent men? Jesus faced them all. He stood silent before His accusers and absorbed all their lies. He endured all their violence. He was given over to their desire, so that we might be delivered from it. He was forsaken, so that we could be taken up. He is the ultimate answer to David's prayer. Therefore, when we find ourselves in tight places, when we feel abandoned, when lies are swirling around us, we must do as David did. We must cry out to the God of our salvation, and we must do so in the name of the Son He sent to save us. We look to the face of Jesus, and in that face, we find all the grace, all the help, and all the welcome we will ever need.