As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Psalm 17:15

In Psalm 16, the psalmist states that God is his only good.  2 Peter 1:1-4 helps us see that it is only by Christ’s righteousness that we are in an acceptable condition before Holy God.  The above passage is staggering.  The emphasis is on the person of God, the character of God, and the sufficiency of God.

Beholding the face of God in righteousness is a statement of one deeply longing for the presence of the one who makes us righteous.  Only by righteousness can we see Him, and when we see Him we see Him in righteousness because He is altogether righteous.  So, righteousness is demanded to participate in righteousness.  That’s what we have in Christ…His righteousness – the only thing acceptable to a perfectly righteous God.  In Christ Jesus, that’s ours!  Amazing.

Notice the timeliness of the psalmist’s resolve, “when I awake.”  Oh, this is joyful and convicting!  The first thoughts of the day given to be satisfied with the likeness of God.  How do you wake up?  What’s your anticipation?  Even as you have breakfast, drink some coffee, what is it that would have to happen that day (by your estimation) to cause you to say, “That would satisfy me”?

To be satisfied in the likeness of God is both the beholding and the becoming of the Christian’s life.  Because the true believer / follower in Christ Jesus has His nature, it is undeniable that His character will increasingly win out over time.  That fact should also be the driving motivation for the believer in becoming increasingly like Christ…to put Him on display.  Our deepest satisfaction cannot stop with a hope to just be better, or to have our conscience’s clear that we weren’t all that “bad” on this or that day.  Our deepest satisfaction is God (in Christ Jesus).  This means we just aren’t the happiest until Christ is seen in us…truly.  True believers ultimately want Jesus Christ to seen, not like a cloak or a badge they wear, but like the skin they see, the words they hear and the actions they see.

This is our pursuit…that increasingly our mornings are marked with awakening thoughts like, “Nothing would satisfy me more today that seeing you, my God, and others seeing you in, on and through me!”  May God satisfy our souls with longings that bring Him pleasure.