One thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. Psalm 27:4 KJV
One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple. Psalm 27:4 NASB
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:2 KJV
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in holy array. Psalm 29:2 NASB
The Beauty of His Holiness
The expression, “The beauty of holiness,” sounds strange to your ears. We are accustomed to linking beauty with the external and not the moral. To help us conceptualize the thought of beauty in holiness, think about the expression you might hear from even unsaved people: “as ugly as sin.” Sin is ugly. All the distortion in the world, all that has been twisted out of shape, every “broken” heart, every divided home and marriage – all can be traced to sin. Wherever you look, sin has made our world ugly. There is beauty in nature, that is not being denied. But our moral world is that to which I refer. It is ugly and it is can all be laid at the foot of the shrine of the sin at which men worship.
In total contrast, there was One Who was here Who healed the broken, straightened the twisted, realigned the distorted, and displayed, in Himself, the consummate beauty of manifold virtues. His words were winsome, attracting children in their innocence and publicans in their need. His heart was compassionate, moved for the multitudes but caring for a woman besotted by sinful relationships. So foreign was sin to His being that we are told He is “Holy, harmless, undefiled … “(Heb 7:26).
The Beauty of His Habitation
In Psalm 96:6, we are told: “Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” David wished to dwell in the House of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord. It is not within the walls of a particular building that we get a glimpse of His beauty. But it is in fellowship with other believers as we meet as “House of the Lord,” that we oftentimes appreciate His beauty in a sweeter and richer manner. As brother after brother rises with an appreciation of Christ, as hymns are sung, and as the emblems are passed, we see His beauty in the sanctuary, in fellowship with other believers.
The Beauty of His Habits
As we trace Him in His life here, we look upon holy habits of the Lord and see the beauty of a consistent, dependent life. He rose early to pray; He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath as was His custom; He taught the people, as He was wont (Mark 10:1). We read that He resorted to the Mount of Olives to pray “as He was wont” (Luke 22:39). No doubt He daily went to the carpenter’s bench during the thirty years of His unseen service. Luke 2 hints at the fact that He went up yearly to the Feasts in Jerusalem. There was a beauty in his dependability and consistency.
The Beauty of His Heaven
We have hymns that speak of the streets of gold, the mansions, and the glories of heaven. Remove Christ, and all its beauty suddenly dims, its glories begin to fade, its gold has lost its lustre.
The beauty of Heaven is Christ in His glory; a Man bearing mortal wounds in His body, yet living in the power of an endless life! A Man seen as the Lamb freshly slain, yet crowned with glory and honor. The One Who was the lonely sufferer of Calvary now serving as the Leader of Song in glory. In that day, if we can speak of days in heaven, we shall know the beauty in fresh and new ways, ways that had their origin here on earth, but where we were not able to appreciate their dimension.
Consider:
What makes Him beautiful to you?