Psalm 27

"Come," my heart says, "seek God's face!" Your face, LORD, do I seek.

The psalms were collected on one of 24 separate scrolls that later would be included in the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The psalms and the other "writings," as they were called, were of less importance in the religious life of the synagogues than the scrolls of the law (Torah) and the prophets. Generally, references to scripture in the New Testament are to the 5 scrolls of the law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and the 8 scrolls of the prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 "latter" prophets).

The psalms were composed for temple worship and to express the hopes and fears of the ruling elite of Israel and Judah. Psalm 27 is identified as a psalm of King David and was probably written by a temple attendant. The son of Abraham, Isaac, is the first person in the Bible to speak of the "face of God" (Gen. 32:30, but Moses is reported to have spoken to God "face to face." (Ex. 33:11) In the psalms and the prophetic writings, the image refers to the concern or presence of God.

Grace and peace...Bob