God the Seeker
David was in hot pursuit of knowing God, and much of what we have in the book of Psalms is the record—the prayer journal, if you will, of a man unrestrained in that pursuit. I like to say it this way: David was a profile of what it looks like for someone on the earth to have as much zeal for God as God has zeal for His people. Take Psalm 63:8 (KJV), for example, where David said, “My soul followeth hard after thee.” And then there is one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 27, where David wrote, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek: 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” (v. 4 NKJV). And later in the same psalm, David responded with these words to God’s command to seek Him: “My heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek’” (v. 8 NKJV). From these, we get a glimpse of David’s zealous heart and passionate pursuit of God. Put simply, David was a seeker. Not only was David a seeker, but God Himself is a seeker.
What Is God Seeking?
God is seeking something. He’s seeking someone. He’s seeking a certain group of people, even on the earth. We read about this in John 4, where Jesus was engaging with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. She said to Jesus, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (v. 20 NKJV). Then Jesus responded to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him” (vv. 21–23 NKJV). So, what’s God seeking? He’s looking for worshipers, those who will worship Him in spirit and truth, not those who are just going through religious motions. The Samaritan woman wanted to debate Jesus about where they were supposed to worship—on this mountain or that one? In our day, we might say, “Is it this denomination, Jesus, or that one? What Bible are we supposed to read? Is this translation okay, or should we read that one? What kind of music should we sing?Traditional hymns or contemporary songs?”
Jesus’ response to her question and ours as well is this: “I don’t care about those things as much as I care about your heart.” Jesus is looking for a seeking heart. In fact, “the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth, so that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His” (2 Chron. 16:9 NASB). His eyes are scouring the face of the earth looking for anyone whose heart is completely faithful, loyal, and undivided in his or her zeal. He’s not caught up in the external things like we are. No, God is looking for those whose hearts are captured by, captivated with, and fixated on Jesus. That’s what He is looking for.We need to understand that, when our zeal for God and His purposes in the earth intersect with God’s zeal for His house, His people, and the nations of the earth, that becomes a place where God’s power and glory are displayed.
He Wants Your Yes!
What are you most zealous for? Are you zealous for the glory of God? Are you someone like David who is in hot pursuit of God, who offers worship to Him in spirit and truth? If you are, God is seeking you. He is looking for those who are willing ones—people who don’t worship Him out of obligation because they have to, but people who are so in love with Him that they can’t help but worship Him from the depths of their being. What did God find in David? He found a huge YES! David ended up erecting a tabernacle, a tent, next to his palace where he placed the ark and appointed thousands of musicians—of Levites—who would serve 24/7 in worship and prayer (1 Chron. 25 NKJV). For almost 40 years, this went on. It wasn’t something God asked for specifically. God already had the tabernacle of Moses where the ark had traditionally been. But the ark had been missing, and the first thing David did when he became king was go and get the ark (1 Chron. 13 NKJV).
David made the ark accessible to all people. He himself would go to the tabernacle and worship the Lord, praying and interceding. With worship and prayer going up from the tent near his palace, David’s zeal for the Lord bled out and impacted the culture and community around him. This is what it means to be a willing one. God’s looking for that level of zeal. He’s seeking those who are in earnest desire to know and pursue Him. To such ones, He will show Himself faithful. There are so many things for us to become captivated or fascinated with in our daily lives. If we’re not careful, we can allow ourselves to be put on autopilot and simply go through the motions. We can go through the motions of church, of devotions, of discipleship, and even of leadership. But God is not seeking those who know how to put their lives on autopilot. He’s looking for Davids. I want to be a David, don’t you? Let’s give something that goes over the top. Let’s give Him our worship, our yes, our very lives.
