"You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of your countenance." (Psalm 90:8)
Is this a matter for joy, or for sorrow? for gladness, or for despondency? Doubtless the most of those who read it do so with a feeling of fear and dread. The thought that all their sins are open before God, makes them tremble, and they wish to forget it.
They cannot get over the idea that God is a stern, implacable tyrant, ever watching to find some sin to charge up against His creatures. And so in their minds they picture God as keeping a stern eye on those sins, in order that He may exact penance for every one of them. This is judging God by man; it is making Him altogether such a one as themselves.
But we are assured that: "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15:4)
Therefore it must be that there is hope and comfort in the text first quoted. Let us see what is the result of God's setting our secret sins in the light of His countenance, for the Scriptures have much to tell us about it.
The Shining of His Face
First let us take that wonderful blessing that God commanded Aaron and his sons to pronounce upon the children of Israel: "The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace." (Numbers 6:24-25)
So there is grace in the shining of the face of the Lord. And what does grace do? The grace of God brings salvation. "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." (Titus 2:11) "By grace are you saved." (Ephesians 2:9) "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." (Ephesians 1:7) "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:20-21)
So in the shining of the Lord's face there is forgiveness and salvation--eternal life.
Removal of Sin
Further, there is peace in the lifting up of the countenance upon us. Peace is the opposite of enmity and strife. Sin is enmity. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:7)
Therefore the giving of peace is the taking away of sin, and the bestowing of righteousness. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." (Colossians 1:21-22) "For He is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, ... That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." (Ephesians 2:14-15)
So in the lifting up of God's countenance upon us there is the taking away of sin, and the giving of righteousness. The Psalmist said: "There be many that say, Who will show us any good?" (Psalm 4:6)
And he immediately furnished the reply, by saying, "Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us." (Psalm 4:6)
The light of the Lord's countenance brings good. Therefore when our secret sins are set in the light of His countenance, His goodness comes to take their place. And so, when sin was oppressing the Psalmist's soul, he said, "Why are you cast down O my soul? and why are you disquieted in me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." (Psalm 42:5)
Practical Help
The practical help afforded by the light of the Lord's countenance is thus set forth: "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work You did in their days, in the times of old. How You did drive out the heathen with your hand, and planted them; how You did afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, because You had a favor unto them." (Psalm 44:1-3)
Read again of the blessings that come with the light of God's countenance: "Justice and judgment are the habitation of your throne; mercy and truth shall go before your face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance. In your name shall they rejoice all the day; and in your righteousness shall they be exalted. For You are the glory of their strength." (Psalm 89:14-17)
So we see that when the Lord makes His face to shine upon us, mercy and truth are in the glance. His mercy puts His truth in the inward parts of those who walk in the light of His countenance.
Daniel's Prayer
When the chosen people were captives in Babylon, and their city and temple were in ruins, the prophet Daniel set his face to seek the Lord by prayer and supplications, confessing his sin and the sin of his people, and said, "O Lord, according to all your righteousness, I beseech You, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of your servant, and his supplications, and cause your face to shine upon your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our supplications before You for our righteousnesses, but for your great mercies." (Daniel 9:16-18)
The shining of the Lord's face upon His sanctuary, would be its restoration; His looking upon His people's desolations, would be their deliverance; so when God sets our iniquities before Him, it means forgiveness; and the light of His countenance upon our secret sins will take them all away. "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You that lead Joseph like a flock; You that dwell between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up your strength, and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause your face to shine; and we shall be saved." (Psalm 80:1-3)
And the promise is, "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings." (Malachi 4:2)
His Glory is His Goodness
"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84:11)
The Lord is a God of glory; but His glory is His goodness. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
But for their sin, they would not have come short of His glory; so that the perfect righteousness of God is His glory. And therefore when He gives His Spirit to strengthen His people against sin, and to lead them in the paths of righteousness, it is "according to the riches of His glory." (Ephesians 3:16)
His grace brings salvation; but when that has been accomplished, and the saints shine with the glory of God, through the ages to come, the glory with which they shine will simply reveal "the exceeding riches of His grace." (Ephesians 2:7)
And this is how it is done: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined 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) "God is a sun." (Psalm 84:11)
His light and glory are seen in Christ, who is "the Sun of righteousness." (Malachi 4:2)
As the sun shines upon the earth, and causes it to bring forth fruit, and brings life and health and gladness, so the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, shines in the hearts of men to cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. "For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." (Ephesians 5:9,RV)
No Partiality
But God is not partial in His favors. He is no respecter of persons. When we are exhorted to: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to themthat hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you;" (Matthew 5:44) the reason given is "That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45)
The sun shines as brightly upon the fields of the infidel as upon those of the Christian. "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof." (Psalm 19:6)
Thus it is with God. "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." (Titus 2:11)
Or, as in the Revision, "The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men." (Titus 2:11)
There is not a soul on earth upon whom the sunlight of God's grace does not shine. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. ... God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." (Romans 5:20,8)
And, "He died for all." (2 Corinthians 5:15)
By the grace of God, "[He] tasted death for every man." (Hebrews 2:9)
In the judgment it will appear that upon every man has the glory of God's grace shone, more than sufficient to take away all sin.
The Veil of Unbelief
The question will be asked: "Then why will not all be saved, if the Sun of righteousness shines upon all, and there is salvation in the light of His countenance?"
The answer is at hand. Read the words of the Apostle Paul: "Having therefore such a hope, we use great plainness of speech, And are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away; But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ. But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart. But whensoever it or man shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:12-18,RV)
After the Lord had spoken the law to the people, He called Moses up into the mount to receive it. Moses was with the Lord forty days and forty nights. When he came down to talk with the people, they were afraid to come near him, because his face shone so brightly, although he himself did not know it. So he had to put a veil on while he talked with them; but when he returned to talk with God he took it off, and talked with the Lord with unveiled face. (See Exodus 34:29-35)
It is from this circumstance that the apostle draws the lesson. Note the following points.
1. The mount upon which the Lord descended could not be approached by the people; to touch it was death. Yet Moses ascended it in safety.
2. The people could not look upon the face of Moses, because of the glory of God which it reflected, yet Moses talked with the Lord with unveiled face.
Why this difference? It was not any difference in constitution, nor because God was partial to Moses, but because Moses had faith, and they had not. "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." (Hebrews 11:27)
But their minds were blinded; and blindness of mind is unbelief. If they had taken the veil of unbelief off from their hearts, they could have beheld the reflected glory of God in the face of Moses, as well as he could behold the glory more directly. Indeed, they could have beheld the same glory that he did, and their faces would have shone also.
So we see that while the face of the Lord is shedding glorious beams of grace upon all the people of the earth, many receive none of its life-giving warmth, because they cover themselves with a veil of unbelief.
Faith is Humility
Still further; unbelief is self-exaltation, but faith is humility. "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2:4)
Humility acknowledges Him as all-wise, all-powerful, and allrighteous. It acknowledges that He alone is good. It says with the prophet, "O Lord, righteousness belongs unto You, but unto us confusion of face, ... because we have sinned against You." (Daniel 9:7-8)
Faith always means humility of heart, and confession of sin. Unbelief always exalts self, and refuses to acknowledge sin. So unbelief is a veil that covers up sin. "He that covers his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy." (Proverbs 28:13)
Unbelief covers them, but faith in the mercy of God acknowledges them, and lets the light of His countenance shine upon them to take them away. The glory of the Lord will always consume sin. It is true that for a time men may seem to conceal it, but when the Lord comes, "[He] will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart." (1 Corinthians 4:5)
Then all the wicked, who have exalted themselves against God, shall be consumed with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroyed with the brightness of His coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:8) The glory of the Lord will utterly consume all sin, and those who have kept it covered in their own hearts until that time, and have held it as a part of themselves, will be consumed with it.
But those who by acknowledging it, have disavowed it, and have laid it open to the light of His countenance, find salvation in the glory of the Lord.
The wicked will call for the rocks and mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the face of Him that sits upon the throne; (Revelation 6:16) while the righteous, when His glory shall be revealed, will "be glad with exceeding joy." (1 Peter 4:13)
Therefore let us heed the exhortation: "Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face ever more." (Psalm 105:4) "When You said, Seek my face; my heart said unto You, your face, Lord, will I seek." (Psalm 27:8) "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock." (Psalm 27:4-5)--Present Truth, April 6, 1893--Psalm 90:8.