How to Obtain a Healthy, Glowing Face
Everyone wants a face that glows with health. The advertising industry’s successful campaigning in cosmetology products is definite proof of this.
Apparently, the psalmist was concerned about His face also.
In Psalm 42 and in Psalm 43, we read that the psalmist David was going through some times of anxiety and frustration that can imprint one’s brow and face with frown marks and wrinkles.
However, David’s schooling in “cosmetology” had its foundation in God’s Word and did not consist of makeup and chemicals. David understood the heart of the matter:
A man’s face reflects his heart (Prov 27:19)
A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance” (Prov 15:13).
In both these Psalms, David ends by making an important declaration:
Psalm 42:11; Psalm 43:5
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him,
The *help* of my countenance and my God.
The word “help” is “yeshua” which is the Old Testament Hebrew word for salvation, but it can also be translated as deliverance, help, healing, health, and wellbeing. It is the root word for the Hebrew name, “Joshua,” which means “YHWH (Jehovah) saves.” In the New Testament Greek, “Joshua” is the name, ”Jesus.” Putting it all together perhaps can get a better idea of what Psalmist David is declaring: God is the HEALTH of my FACE. …or… God is the SAVIOR of my SMILE.
The Message Bible interprets Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5
Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God— soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God.
Not onlywas David successful in getting a healthy countenance, but he also helped 400 men to achieve glowing faces:
Psalms 34:3-5 (read 1 Samuel 21:10-15; 1 Sam 22:1-2) Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were RADIANT, and their faces were not ashamed.
Those men were discouraged, in debt, and embittered with life (1 Sam 22:1-2). But encouraged by David to seek the Lord together with him, and what was the result? Their faces are glowing! The Hebrew word for radiant literally means illuminated with beams of light!
From a state of total depression, these miserable men were now transformed, filled with hope and faith! In fact, they were later known as some of David’s “mighty men” (2 Sam 23:8-23).
There is another man in the Bible that is known for having a truly radiant and glowing countenance: Moses! As we look at Moses, we can learn a few more lessons in God’s cosmetology class.
Exodus 34:29-30,35 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him… And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.
This Scripture tells us that Moses’ face was glowing so brightly that people could not bare to look directly at him (Exo 34:29-35; 2 Cor 3:7-13). Moses had to cover his face with a veil when he went out in public. Now that’s taking the healthy glow to the extreme!
Where did Moses get that kind of glow?
Well, I believe I discovered Moses’ secret for this facial miracle. No, it wasn’t any holy mountain burning bush scrub brush. Nor was it some specially formulated cream from a Sinai miracle plant. Nope, it is much simpler and something each of us can achieve.
(1) Selflessness Makes Our Face Glow!
First of all, it is quite interesting to note that Moses’ face did not glow the first time he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. He did hear God speak and saw the “Finger of God” (Deu 9:9-10) writing on the two tables of stone, but there was nothing unusual about his face at that time.
Moses’ facial radiance had to do with another set of 40 days up on Mount Sinai. Down below, God’s people were worshipping a golden calf and were breaking nearly all 10 commandments! Moses went down to see it and was furious, but he returned to God and made passionate intercessory prayer for them.
Intercession in Hebrew means: “to come between two people, to reach beyond, to entreat by importunity.” Intercession involves putting one’s self in the place of another. This is exactly what Jesus did when He took our place on the Cross:
“…and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).
And now, Jesus our High Priest, ever lives to make intercession for us that He might save us “to the uttermost” (Heb 7:25).
So the Israelites had sinned, and God said that He planned on destroying the Israelites and starting all over again with Moses. Who wouldn’t want that kind of honor, right? But being the humble servant of God that Moses was, he prayed and interceded for the Israelites with these words:
Exodus 32:32
“Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
This was true, sacrificial and selfless intercessory prayer!
When we are full of self, none of God’s glory can ever reflect off of our spiritually contorted countenance. However, selflessness attracts God’s glory as the moon attracts the brilliance of the sun. Perhaps this is why Jesus said that John the Baptist was a “bright and shining lamp” (John 5:35). John, too, was totally selfless. He summed up his whole life’s purpose and end goal with these words: “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
The glory of God also found perfect reflection, undistorted by self, in the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. He, too, made selfless intercession:
Romans 9:1-3
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
That I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.
What total selflessness and a heart full of compassion and love these men of God exhibited!
So, it turns out that selflessness is one of Moses’ Mount Sinai beauty secrets for obtaining a healthy, glowing face. This involves denying ourselves, living for others, and also spending time in prayer with tears and intercession for souls.
There is yet another observation we can make about Moses’ Mount Sinai experience:
(2) Passion to Know God Makes Our Face Glow!
God had told Moses that He would no longer travel with the Israelites in the journey to Canaan. He would send an angel instead. Moses pleads with God saying that an angel could never take the place of God’s awesome presence dwelling with His people:
Exodus 33:15,17
Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here...”
So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
Having his first request granted, Moses ventures ahead with the deepest passion of his heart. This is what he prayed:
Exodus 33:18
And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”
God simply cannot turn down a request like this from His dear children! In the next chapter, God hides Moses in a cleft of the mountain rock and covers him there with His hand. He passes by Moses, removes His hand and then allows Moses to catch a tiny glimpse of His glory. It was in this wonderful moment that God revealed some of His divine character to Moses:
Exodus 34:6-7
And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Moses’ immediate response to this new revelation of God’s character was to quickly fall on his face and worship.
This new revelation that God permitted Moses to experience on Mount Sinai certainly was not wasted! Later on, we see Moses uses this revelation of God’s character while making intercession again for the Israelites:
Numbers 14:17-20 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, JUST AS YOU HAVE SPOKEN, saying, The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word.”
Do you want a healthy glowing countenance? As we have seen, Moses’ two “Mount Sinai Beauty Secrets” are: (1) selfless and sacrificial living for others which includes intercessory prayer; and (2) the priceless, quality time of hungering passionately for God Himself.
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