Day 45: Made Glad With Your Face
Read: Psalm 21:1–7
For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
— Psalm 21:6 (ESV)
Reflect
This verse has two lines, and both are about what God does for his king.
The first line says God makes him "most blessed forever." Literally, God sets him as blessings. The king does not only receive blessing. He becomes one.
The second line says, "you make him glad with the joy of your presence." The word for "make glad" is techaddehu, a rare word that means to cause gladness. And the word our Bibles translate "presence" is, in Hebrew, simply "face." You gladden him with joy at your face.
The joy is not given apart from the face. God does not hand the king a good feeling and walk away. The gladness comes from being near him — looking at him, and being looked at.
Joy that comes from a face.
Many of us try to produce joy. We chase it with a purchase, a full calendar, a better weekend. When it doesn't come, we assume something is wrong with us. The psalm points somewhere else. Joy is something given, and it is given at a face. You find it where he is.
Across Scripture
Psalm 16 says it plainly: "in your presence there is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). Psalm 17 ends with being "satisfied with your likeness" (Psalm 17:15). God told Abram, "I will bless you… so that you will be a blessing" (Genesis 12:2); here the king becomes blessings. And on the day of Pentecost, Peter applied Psalm 16 to the risen Jesus: "you will make me full of gladness with your presence" (Acts 2:28).
Sit With It
You may be trying to produce joy on your own. The psalm says it is given at a face. What would it look like to seek his face first today, and let the feeling come second?
Pray
Gladden me with your presence.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.