The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
(Number 6:24-2
God is everywhere. So we are, literally, always in His presence. The thought alone ought to humble us and cause us to tremble for our lack of holiness. But in His mercy, the Lord veils His presence, so that we are not destroyed by the sheer magnitude of His glory.
But at certain times in Scripture, the Lord made His presence known. He spoke to Abraham several times and appeared to Jacob at Bethel and at Penuel. He appeared to Moses at the burning bush, and again on Mount Sinai. But the Lord told Moses on the mountain that He would show him His goodness. “But you cannot see my face,” He said, “for man shall not see me and live (Exodus 33:20).” So Moses, whom the Lord spoke to, “as a friend (Exodus 33:11),” whose own face shone after being in God’s presence, was unworthy to see God’s full glory.
And yet the benediction God gave to Moses, and commanded for Aaron to give to the people, was that God would cause His face to shine on them, and lift up His face toward them, giving them grace and peace. For God to turn His face toward us is His greatest blessing. Again, God is omnipresent, so He is always with us. But when He reveals Himself, it is in love. In Scripture, when God turns His back it is a sign of displeasure. We can relate. When we are with someone who refuses to look at us we know our relationship is broken. But when God turns His face toward us, He reminds us in a broken world that He is present and mighty and loves us.
In the incarnation, God took on flesh and was present with man in ways even our frailty could survive. Since His ascension to the right hand of God the Father, He has sent the Spirit, who dwells within us. But even now we still only see in a mirror dimly and the promise of ultimate consummation of our relationship with God is the day we will see Him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12).