Preached on Sunday, June 16, 2024, the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, at Trinity Cathedral, Little Rock.

This morning, I preach on a verse from 1 Samuel (and for those of you already collecting Thomas Alexander trivia, 1 Samuel is easily my most treasured book in the whole Bible). Here’s the verse: “the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

This memorable verse of Holy Scripture lays out with striking clarity one of the deep and beautiful things about God: God sees. God looks at things–– looks at us! Of course, this isn’t anything new. Remember your Bible stories. In the beginning, when God created everything that is, God made light and darkness, God made seas and shorelines, God made things that grow from the earth and things that creep upon the earth, God made you and me––and God saw all that He had made, and He saw that it was good, very good. Consider also that, generations later, when God’s people had fallen into Egyptian bondage, their lives made bitter “with hard service in mortar and brick” (Exodus 2:14), the LORD “saw (Hebrew) the misery of [His] people” down in Egypt (Exodus 3:7), and having seen, He came down to deliver (Exodus 3:8). This is how God does business. God sees. He takes notice. His eyes are ever towards us. Notice, then, how Scripture quietly yet firmly dismisses any pictures of God as distant and detached, aloof and apathetic––no. Through Scripture, God shows us Who He really is: living and active, ever-present, ever-involved, looking upon us, you and me, here and now. From the first, fresh days of creation to the darker days of Sin’s bondage, from every high to every low, across the whole stretch of time, the LORD God sees us. Just this is what we find in that verse from our treasured book, 1 Samuel.

Now, by the time we get to the twin books of Samuel, those days of creation and the event of the exodus are long gone. Now, we are in the early days of monarchy––Dean Meaux set the stage for us a couple of weeks back. But even now, even in this season of Israel’s life, the LORD continues to be a God Who sees.

You’ll remember that Israel’s first king was Saul, and his reign was coming to a close––a story and a sermon for another day. But here, a new king was to be chosen by God and anointed by Samuel, God’s own prophet and king-maker. And in this moment, we are reminded that God sees something in the one whom He chooses. Notice this moment, then: this is an enormous turning point in the life of Israel! Sure, it’s not the creation of all things, when God saw all that He made was good. Sure, it’s not the great liberation from Egyptian fleshpots, the liberation that would come to define Israel for ever. No, this moment seems far more routine, just another routine transition of political power, just another day in local government. And yet! And yet even here, even in these moments, the LORD sees us. The God Who saw that His creation was good, the God Who saw His people’s sufferings––this God, our God, sees us in the turning points of our lives, each and every one of them. God enters into this turning point in 1 Samuel, choosing David by way of God’s servant, Samuel. But before God acts––and this part is crucially important!––before God acts, God sees. God does not act blindly, getting involved but keeping His head turned away––no. God looks around before acting. God assesses the situation before jumping in. Just this is what 1 Samuel has in mind, and just this is what it means for God to be really involved with us: for God to be involved with us, it matters that God really and truly sees us.

“The LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

This verse from 1 Samuel reminds us that God sees us, yes, but it also teaches about how God sees us. Thank goodness it does, because left to our own devices, we might imagine that God sees in the same way that we see. But this verse stops us in our tracks. “The LORD does not see as mortals see”––no, we look on the outward appearance. We can be quite cruel in this way: looking at every outward appearance imaginable, not going deep, but stopping short at seeing just what’s in front of us: from class and clothing, gender and generation, or one’s proximity to power––as the Psalmist puts it, “some put their trust in chariots and some in horses” (Psalm 20:7). We look at that which we can see, and we stop there.

But not so with God! No, “the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7), לַלֵּבָֽב in the Hebrew, on the heart, on the part of you that desires and makes decisions, on the center of your emotions and thoughts––that’s where God looks. The people of Israel––Samuel included––very well may have expected for the LORD to look only to outward appearances. King Saul was tall and handsome, captivating and compelling, the right person from the right family. David was an underdog, the smallest one from the smallest family, out tending sheep on decision day. “But the LORD does not see as mortals see.” He saw through David, through all outward appearances, through all expectations and conventions, even through David’s eventual failings and shortcomings. Not at outward appearances, but at the heart––that’s where God looks.

The way that God sees is a tremendous blessing, is it not? It’s a gift that God sees through our outward appearances––sometimes, we can’t even see past our own appearances. But God’s gaze is gracious. God’s sight is good and holy and true. God sees all of us. And yet––and with Scripture, there’s always an “and yet”!––and yet, this is a reminder that God really does see us. And that has its own challenges, too, now doesn’t it? Our hearts are laid open before God. That’s what it means for God to be with us in a very strong sense: God is with us and therefore, God can see us. God sees our hearts and our thoughts and our intentions. God knows those things that do not present as outward appearances––intimately and lovingly, to be sure, but He does know them. This is why we pray that God might “cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of [His] Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love [God], and worthily magnify [His] holy Name”––as the Prayer Book puts it. God knows us, and it’s our ongoing prayer, week by week, day by day, that we are known by God as we want to be known.

May we find comfort this day in a God who sees us, whose life with us involves truly knowing us, not turning away, but turning towards us––ever towards us. May we know that God sees us with goodness and grace, not as we see one another, but as only God can, seeing us fully and honestly and with miraculous kindness. And may it be our prayer this day that our hearts are, in a way, cleansed by God’s grace, that we might love God and serve God as He desires for us. And, as the Psalmist has us say, “may the LORD answer us when we call.” Amen.