“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.”
– Psalm 17:15
Is Psalm 17:15 not an awesome verse? This psalm, all the way up to this last verse which I just read, the Psalmist is calling out for God’s help in the middle of struggle. “Hide me in the shadow of your wings,” he prays, “from the wicked who do me violence, from deadly enemies who surround me.” He’s walking through hard days.
There will come a day where the cares of this world will fade away and we will spend eternity beholding the glory of the Lord.
So at the end of the psalm here in Psalm 17:15, he says, “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.” Do you hear the hope there, in hard days? That hard days are not the end. That difficult days are not where the story stops. That there is coming a day when all who trust in God, all who have put their faith in Jesus to be forgiven of our sins, to be restored to relationship with God, there is coming a day when we’re going to behold his face.
That’s what Revelation 22 says. Five of the most beautiful words in the Bible: “they will see his face.” And this is the hope we hold onto, because we know, when we see his face, what will he do? He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and sin and suffering and death and mourning and crying and pain and injustice and evil will be no more. We will behold his face in righteousness and we will be satisfied with his likeness.
Psalm 17:15 Reminds Us There Will Be A Day When We Will Have Perfect Satisfaction with God
Lift your eyes and your hearts, weary saints, and see where eternity is headed. See where your life, not just eternity, but your life is headed for all who trust in Jesus. This is where the story ends, and in a sense, where the story begins. Because this world and all that is in it is passing away, and a new heaven and a new earth is coming where we will be resurrected with Jesus, and we will be with him forever and forever. That will be the beginning of life. Perfect satisfaction. Complete. Satisfied with his likeness.
So we pray today, God, help us to live today in light of eternity. Help us to live today with hope. Lord, we praise you, that you told us in this world, we would have trouble, but take heart, you have overcome the world. And as a result, in you, we have peace. In you, we have hope. That your word says we don’t grieve without hope. We don’t grieve like the world grieves, because we know this world is passing away. We know that you are coming back, Lord Jesus.
Hope In God
And so we pray with the Psalmist in Psalm 17:15 today: as for us, no matter what happens to us in this world, we will behold your face in righteousness. God, even as I pray that, I know there’s no way I deserve that, or any one of us deserves that. Jesus, we praise you for dying on the cross for our sins, for rising from the dead. We praise you as our Righteousness. We praise you for making this reality possible for us. For the promise that we will behold your face and we will be with you forever. That we will be satisfied forever and ever and ever in you. All glory be to your name.
So God, help us. Help us today to live with that hope and help us to point others to that hope. God, we pray for people in our lives who don’t know you, that we work with, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, God, we pray that you would use us today to point them to hope in you, that they might know this hope.
Prayer For the Pattariya People Of India
And then God, we pray, we pray that you would help us to spread this hope to the ends of the earth. We pray for the Pattariya people of India. Zero followers of Jesus known among them. God, we pray, please cause the gospel to go to the Pattariya people of India and 7,000 other people groups like them. God, we pray for the spread of your hope. That others might see your face on that day in righteousness and be satisfied with your likeness. So God, help us to live today in light of eternity. In light of the hope we have and the hope that is available to all who trust in you. And we pray these things in Jesus’s name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
