Bible Strands
Psalms 27:8
My heart said, “Seek His face.” Your face, O LORD, I will seek.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the LORD in a moment of urgent petition, positioned between a plea for mercy (v. 7) and a plea not to be abandoned (v. 9).
The words — בָּקַשׁ (baqash, H1245), "seek," appears twice: first as the heart's command, then as the psalmist's own vow. Its object is פָּנִים (panim, H6440), "face," which carries the full weight of the verse — the target is not a doctrine or a blessing but the person of God.
The thread — Psalms 105:4 repeats the exact verb-object pair ("seek His face always"). Jeremiah 29:12 and Isaiah 55:6 both yoke seeking to calling, paralleling the call in v. 7 that immediately precedes this verse.
Why it lands — The verse moves from an internal impulse ("my heart said") to a first-person commitment ("I will seek"), asking the reader to treat the pursuit of God's presence as a deliberate act of will, not a passive hope.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Cross-references
- Psalms 105:4 Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.
- Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- Psalms 119:58 I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise.
- Psalms 24:6 Such is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face, O God of Jacob. Selah
- Psalms 63:1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Hosea 5:15 Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
- Isaiah 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, from a place in a land of darkness. I did not say to the descendants of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a wasteland.’ I, the LORD, speak the truth; I say what is right.