One of the pleasures of ministry is catching up with people for a coffee and a chat. One of the places I have used for such visits is a former Baptist chapel which is now a coffee shop. The vestiges of its former role as a place of worship can still be seen by those who visit. High on the wall behind where the pulpit once stood (the till has now replaced the pulpit) is a stone plinth bearing the words, “Thou God seest me.” These are the words spoken by Hagar (in the King James translation of Genesis 16:13) in the wilderness when the Lord God sought her out and sent her back to Sarah her mistress.
When the building was used as a chapel those words reminded worshippers that God knows all things and can see what preachers cannot. Now they tell coffee drinkers – if they look up – that God sees them. They remind us that wherever we are and whatever we do we live in the sight of God. Christian theologians use a Latin phrase to describe this reality – we live coram deo or before the face of God. R. C. Sproul writes, “The big idea of the Christian life is coram deo … To live coram deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God and to the glory of God.”
In this article I will focus on the first of these explanations of what it means to live coram deo. Living coram deo is to experience the presence of God. When we know that God is truly present with us, we are more likely to submit to his authority and live for His glory.
The reality we experience when we live coram deo is the personal presence of God. This means that God is present with us not simply as a substance or a power, but a person. God is spirit, but that does not mean that His presence is impersonal or distant. When the Bible describes the presence of God it uses words and phrases which impress upon us the personal nature of God’s presence. Let’s consider several examples.
There are passages in the Bible which describe how God’s face shines upon His people. Psalm 67 begins with the prayer, “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.” Aaron’s blessing in Numbers 6:25 includes the assurance that “the Lord [will] make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.” In Genesis 32 we read that Jacob wrestles with God, an experience that left him with a limp. That is not his most vivid memory of that mysterious night. In Genesis 32:30 Jacob called the place Peniel (which means “the face of God”) and explained why, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” Not only did God touch Jacob, His face shone upon him.
The light of God’s face instils within his people with a holy reverence for their covenant Lord and a revulsion against anything that displeases him. The first commandment in Exodus 20:3 instructed God’s people to have no other gods and reinforced this command with the reminder that all such idolatry takes place “before me.” Significantly the Vulgate translation of this verse uses the language of coram deo (non habebis deos alienos coram me).
Another biblical metaphor which describes the presence of God is the teaching that God’s eyes are upon his people. In Genesis 6:8 we are told that Noah “found favour in the eyes of the Lord.” This indicates not only God’s grace, but also the intimacy of the relationship established by grace. When, in the time of Ezra, the leaders of the returning exiles sought help from the king of Persia God protected their messengers from danger. Ezra 5:5 tells us that “the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews.” They travelled through the desert in safety because they travelled coram deo.
Not only does God watch over his people, he guides them. In Psalm 32:8 the Lord promises his servant, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” A look from God speaks volumes when we, like the servant in Psalm 123:1f lift our eyes to God and look to him for guidance. That guidance does not come to us from extra-biblical visions of God, but from the Word of God. Nevertheless, that Word speaks to us personally, as God’s word to us. God’s Word mediates his presence with us.
Other biblical word pictures helpfully illustrate the personal nature of God’s presence as we live coram deo. For example, his hands reach out to us (Isaiah 5:25), he strains his ears to hear us (Daniel 9:18), and his arms embrace us (Deuteronomy 33:27). Space does not permit me to say more about these passages and their implications because I want now to consider where, when and how we live coram deo.
The first and most important setting in which we live coram deo is when we gather with God’s people for congregational worship. It is significant that the book in the Bible where the phrase coram deo occurs most frequently in the Latin translation commonly called the Vulgate is Deuteronomy. A high point in this book is Deuteronomy 12, where God tells the tribes of Israel assembled on the plains of Moab that, when they enter the land of Canaan, they are to look for the place which God will choose as a dwelling place for his name. In Deuteronomy 12:5 Moses says, “But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there.” In that place they are to rejoice in the presence of God (12:12) and eat the produce of the land along with widows, orphans and Levites (12:18). All this was to be done coram deo, because worship in the presence of the Lord prepared them for the challenges they would face in the land of Canaan.
We also live coram deo by spending time in private and personal fellowship with God each and every day. David tells us that he did this when he went into the Temple in Psalm 27:5, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” There were times when David went to the Temple along with the multitude, but there were also times when he went alone into the presence of God. We are not called to go to a temple to enjoy such times of fellowship, for we live in an age when God’s people call upon his name in every place (Malachi 1:11). These are special times when we enjoy his presence. We take time to dwell upon the beauty of the Lord. That beauty is not revealed in visible idols or pictures, but as his perfections described in his Word. Make time to ponder attributes such as God’s infinity, simplicity, and immutability as well as his holiness, goodness and truth.
A third setting in which we live coram deo is as we go into the world in all our daily activities of work, travel, family and school. In fact, we are to live coram deo in every place that our callings take us. Psalm 139:7-10 reminds us that there is no place in the whole universe where we can escape God’s presence.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
Living coram deo is not simply being aware of what the Psalmist describes or acknowledging it as true. Rather, living coram deo is cultivating a life-transforming sense that God’s hand is upon us and leads us. We are to feel the weight and warmth of his hand. We take hold of his hand and find comfort in it, just as a child reaches for a parent’s hand in time of danger.
When we ask God to help us live coram deo we are not asking him to go into territory from which He is somehow absent. Instead, we ask him to open our eyes so that we might see and experience his presence. His presence is very real, but often unseen by us. Like Jacob in Genesis 28:16-17 we may be compelled to say, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it… How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
When God’s redeemed people live coram deo every place they find themselves is awesome, whether they are singing praise with others, kneeling in private payer, drinking coffee in a café or travelling to work on a crowded train. Sometimes God’s frown will restrain us from sin, while at other times his smile will gladden our hearts; but at all times he is near to those who call upon him.
Mr Andrew Stewart, is Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological College, Melbourne and a member of the Geelong Reformed Presbyterian Church, Australia.
