Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Psalm 105 opens with a run of commands: give thanks, sing, glory, remember. Verse 4 is the most personal of them, and it raises two questions — why is God's strength named next to God Himself, and how does anyone seek Him without ever stopping?
The call behind the command
The opening verses set out three marks of a people restored to God, and seeking belongs to the middle one.
Hamilton SmithThe psalm opens with a call to Israel to give thanks to the Lord; to call upon His name, and to make known His deeds among the peoples. So restored Israel are to be a praising people, a dependent people and a witnessing people.
This seeking is not a new idea. It is a return to promises older than the nation's failures.
J. N. DarbyIt is a call to Israel to stand again on their true ground, the ancient promises, and to seek Jehovah. The ark of the covenant is not settled in the Temple now. It stands by the faithfulness of God among His believing ones.
Why strength is named
Seeking the Lord and seeking His strength are not two jobs. They belong together because of what the seeker lacks.
Hamilton SmithThey are to call upon Him, or "seek the Lord," because they are weak and "strength" is with Him. This dependence must be constant: they must "seek His face continually" (compare John 15:5).
The word "continually" turns the verse from a single act into a way of living. Nothing in the Christian life removes the need for it.
The Bible TreasuryNothing can ever remove the need for constant dependence on God, the continual looking to Him for direction, and the reverent, habitual searching of the word. A person may have a fine record for piety, zeal, devotion, humility and tenderness of heart. Even so, nothing will keep the heart fresh and true to the Lord like the threefold mark of the Lord Jesus when He was here as man: absolute dependence on the living God, unwavering confidence in Him, and unbroken communion with the Father.
His face
To seek a face is to want the person, not just help from the person. Older translations read "seek His face" here, where the ESV has "his presence." Under law, no one could look on God's face.
L M GrantUnder law God's face was hidden from them, but then they will "seek His face evermore." Even Moses could not, under law, look upon God's face (Ex. 33:20). Now all the glory of God shines "in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6), and this will be a wonderful reality to believers in the millennium.
What makes the seeking safe
The verse would be a hard demand if it stood alone. It stands instead on a promise God made and has not forgotten, and the psalm goes straight on to say so.
J. N. DarbyPsalm 105 offers thanksgiving to Jehovah, and calls on the seed of Abraham and Jacob to remember Him and glory in His name. Verses 7, 8 give the occasion. He is Jehovah, their God. His judgments are in all the earth. And He has remembered His covenant for ever. It was to be permanent. It was commanded to a thousand generations. He had now remembered it. The psalm then recites how God had cared for the fathers, and judged Egypt to deliver His people. In spite of their slavery, there was not a feeble person among their tribes.
This covenant is not the one God made later at Sinai. The difference decides who carries the weight.
H. L. RossierThis is a covenant of pure grace, God's faithfulness to His promises, in contrast to the covenant of Sinai, based on the people's responsibility... We do not find a single word about Israel's oppression by the nations as a result of their disobedience. All is free grace in this passage.
When the storm is stronger than you
The verse has a plain use for anyone facing more than they can handle — and it does not end with rescue.
William J HockingThree times in Scripture we find the people of God singing of the Lord as their strength and their song — Exodus 15:2; Psalm 118:14; Isaiah 12:2. Let us then follow these examples of Holy Scripture: if we seek the Lord and His strength — Ps. 105:4 — we shall prove how He can enable feeble ones to stand against the storm. And then let us not forget to render to Him the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His holy name.
Summary
- Weak. The command comes to people who have no strength of their own. That is why the verse names His strength too.
- Strength. What they lack is with Him, so seeking Him and seeking power are one movement, not two.
- Continually. Dependence is a habit, not an emergency measure. No record of past service replaces the daily looking to God.
- Face. Seeking wants the Person. What law kept hidden now shines in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Covenant. The whole appeal rests on a promise of pure grace that God has remembered. That is why a weak people can seek Him with confidence, and then thank Him out loud.