The Psalm verse ends with an exclamation point. Today that means we give it more than ordinary attention. A review of the passages of Scripture, in which the word seek appears accents facets about man and God that may not be commonly understood. To seek is an important action for persons to engage. It is a principle that calls upon human motivation, and is used commonly in human experience. For example, we seek education, if we are to achieve in life that we want to get from it. It is a claim of Scripture that those who seek God are permitted to find him. There is an underlying belief that God is the Hound of Heaven, but there is also the concept that this Divine Seeker must be sought – so neither party is trying to hide from the other. For reasons not entirely clear, God created mankind sufficiently free that we are at will to seek God or neglect the need for spiritual relationship. It is standard for mankind to try to manage on our own. Independence does not lead to anything that is lasting or satisfying. We are too limited to go it alone. Our pride, perhaps arrogance, finds God an interloper. Real or even alleged as real, God offends a great many persons. He is avoided even at crucial junctures. Guess who loses.
Resistance to the effort and humility of seeking, is likely based somewhere in the sin and arrogance of human beings. They believe that nothing in nature exceeds themselves. They think, act, and control in ways nothing else can in nature. Persons cannot fly as birds, but can control the birds. They cannot run as fast as most animals, but can hobble, even kill any animal chosen for limitation. Olympian swimmers cannot swim as effectively as a minnow, but can outsmart whales in whale habitat. Humanity is outmatched in many turns, but prevails on earth. Perhaps, we muse, we need nothing more in all that is. With a fairly high opinion of self, and with no God, mankind becomes something of a god in nature. Scripture acknowledges this to be so.
No matter what we may be, God regards us. It is presumed that God does regard at high level his creative acts. The reader is informed that it is only for a period that mankind functions lower [for a little while] than the angels. If Scripture is understood correctly there will be an aeon when those accepted from redemption’s history will be raised above other divinely formed creatures. It is a mystery to mankind how matters went wrong so that evil appeared, and all that resultant sorrow means to human beings and God. This is a mystery that many persons are unwilling to process, believe, bear and engage. It seems to them to be speculative and confusing. For the seeker this mystery can be tolerated. The God seeker is willing to let God be God, and leave the conflict of paradoxes to some future unraveling. The Scripture speaks of true knowledge and we may be sure that much of it does not fit natural patterns of understanding. The approach of Scripture is that some things are true that are beyond human ability to register, so faith is given large entree. We are God’s children, and we are cherished – as faithful and loving parents cherish children. There is more faith and love in relationships with our children than cerebral cultivation of truth and nature. We emerge in child life with faith in our parents. We are losers when faith is violated, or we are prodigal when it is there for taking and developing. True spiritual children seek God through trusting faith. That faith is ultimately rewarded (awarded) with the spiritual reality of knowing God. In our natural state, there is no other way to know God, but spiritually. That was accented when Moses made clear that no physical image of God was to be made. Faith is necessary to manage that enormous difference between mankind and God. We are physical and understand the context. Jesus Christ joined humanity to prove God to us. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020