David recognised early that God had a plan for his life. He must have spent hours watching sheep and talking to his Heavenly Father. He learned a lot by supervising the flocks, seeing them give birth to the next generation, caring for the lambs and keeping them safe from predators.
There is a time in the life of most individuals when they reach a point where they recognise that God is good. Some people then go the way of David and want to learn directly from Him. But others run further away because of their guilt and shame.
Our sins still displease The Lord today, but we can always confess to Him anything we have done wrong and we can receive the forgiveness that He gained for us on the cross, where, once and for all, Jesus took ALL our guilt and shame.
As David watched the sheep at night, he had plenty of time to think pray, reflect and write psalms. What a blessing that time must have been for him. Developing his relationship with God in those days was great preparation for the adult life God had prepared for him!
If we seek His face, then we are really looking for a closer relationship with our Maker. We want to be close, and hear what His thoughts are, to find His solutions to whatever problems we are facing personally as well as the world situation.
We can imagine David understanding the laws of God well, having spent so much time developing his relationship with the Creator, who is always more ready to talk to us than we are to Him. David would see the practical applications of the Ten Commandments all around him.
It is not known at what stage of his life David wrote this psalm, but he had several life experiences that were difficult. His life seemed to be a series of highs and lows, ups and downs. His reaction during the difficult times was always to turn to The Lord.
Somehow the new year moves into February and we feel guilty that we have not kept our resolutions, so we give up and decide it is too hard for this year, because we have so many other commitments so we promise God that we will try again the next year!
Those same temptations are all around us today, in fact they are much closer than they were for David. We now have internet invading the lives of our children and grandchildren. Sadly many parents do not see the danger of some of the things that are available on our screens.
We can truly feel the heart of David in these words today. His single aim in life was to stay close to God and be as obedient as he could. That would be a challenge for many young people today, and for older people too!