The Beauty of the Lord

My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. (Psalm 45:1–11)

There are times when the beauty of Jesus Christ overwhelms me. Yesterday, He asked me to do something I thought was worthless. I obeyed and after realized His wisdom, even seeing a tiny bit of how He uses things that we do not understand to forward His plan and make His will known.

This psalm begins by describing the writer’s heart, the the beauty of the Groom in His relationship to the world and to His bride, the people joined to Him. We are made lovely because of that relationship, and as our Lord, we bow to Him.

Like a marriage is supposed to be, all other loves are forgotten as having any priority in my life. Yesterday I had other plans, but for my Jesus, had to abandon them to do as He asked. It was not ‘lovely’ in my mind, but when obedience happens, the Holy Spirit is there making it happen, and it is this that makes my life beautiful to my Lord. It is also a motivation to bow to Him even more.

Jesus, the joy You give not only blesses me, it reveals You, Your grace, charm, splendor and majesty. While this psalmist use the word ‘handsome’ he was not defining personal appearance but Your perfection. There is no one like You, the perfect love and lover of my soul. I bow again to You. May I “cause Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will will praise You forever and ever.” (Vs. 12)

 

The best perfume . . .

When God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt, they should have delightfully obeyed Him. However, they soon fell into sin, angering Moses who led them. This man talked with God about his task, wondering how he could be certain that God favored him and wondering how he could know the will of God for the remainder of their journey to the promised land. God had this response:

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14)

In my personal exodus when God delivered me from the penalty of sin, I expected to delightfully obey Him. However, I also sinned and became angry with myself for such foolishness. How could I stay under the smile of God and know His will for my life as I continually contradicted what I already knew? God gives me the same response:

“Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

The name of Jesus, Emmanuel, means “God with us.” Sometimes when I am praying and feeling a bit lost or not sure about something, God whispers to me, “I am here.” When Jesus left this place, He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us forever. He is here — and He gives me rest.

Tozer talks about the provision of God — His Holy Spirit is His answer for those who hunger and thirst for a life that is well-pleasing to God. It is not about my knowledge or abilities but by the fact that His presence goes with me. It was for Moses, for God’s people, for the disciples, for the church, for me. We cannot go on without Him.

When anyone has this Presence and walks in it relying on the Holy Spirit, Tozer says they carry the fragrance of a kingdom that is supreme above the kingdoms of this world. I think of a certain elder in a church we attended in California. He had that holy life and to be near him felt like being in the presence of the Lord. These days, several more people also have that mysterious quality, the fragrance of His presence. This is of God and from God.

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Jesus, this is also greatly to be desired. Those who have it and walk in it are not aware of it, yet they are a blessing to everyone they encounter. When people ask me ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ I used to say, “a sweet little old lady” but that has changed. I want to walk in holiness in Your presence with You as my perfume.

If anything is lovely, think on these things…

Beetle dances on head of a pin.

Today’s devotional reading ending with a brief anecdote about looking at roses under a microscope and finding perfection. He wrote, “The beauty of God is revealed in the tiniest cell of the flower. God is very beautiful, and everything that is of God is essentially beautiful.”

This sent me on an Internet search. I typed “microscopic beauty” and clicked “images” and was taken into fascinating places. Some of the links are at the end of this post.*

The verse for today is about worship, but also about coming to the Lord in an awareness of what He has done in creating us, His creatures.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! (Psalm 96:9)

By doing a little research, I found that the word translated “splendor” is associated with what adorns me as a child and creation of God, but also the glory of nature as together we reflect the goodness of God. That is, the emphasis is not on the worshipper except that in worship, God brings to our hearts the realization of His holiness and beauty of God, and that brings out a response that is comparable to what He reveals. One writer said this verse could be translated as “Prostrate yourselves before the Lord when he appears in holiness” but it could also say, “When you see the glory of God, you cannot help but worship Him as a reflection of His glory.”

The Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). As I looked at those microscopic images, I thought that the earth certainly declares the beauty of God. It is reflected in His handiwork. This is not confined to butterfly wings and tiny plants, but includes humanity.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psalm 139:14–16)

Recognizing that God creates beauty in the tiniest details, including the retina of my eye and the tissue in my lungs puts an awe for Him in my heart. This ‘seeing’ is not about me, but about my beautiful God. Today’s devotional reading says it well:

The psalmist is appealing to people to praise God, calling them to recognize his greatness, his glory, calling them to think of his power and majesty, urging them to answer the things their eyes see and their hearts feel by offering praise to him. In this call so poetic and full of beauty is revealed the meaning of worship, its condition and glory. “O worship the LORD.” The supreme thing is worship. But how is worship to be rendered? “In the beauty of holiness.” Wherever you find beauty, it is the outcome of holiness. Wherever you find beauty as the outcome of holiness, that beauty itself is incense, is worship. To live the life of holiness is to live the life of beauty, and that is to worship.

God is a God of glory. God is a God of love. But he is also the God of beauty. His glory and beauty are seen in the blossoms, in the starry heavens, in tiny organisms as well as majestic mountains and the sunlit sky beyond them. The beauty of flowers in form and color and perfume is from a beautiful Creator, but so also is everything that is lovely, even in human beings.

When I look in the mirror, it is so easy to focus on the blemishes, the hair out of place, the unwanted shapes, but God tells me to look deeper. None of what I see in the mirror is about the glory that is to come, and none of it is a reflection of all that He intends for me.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

Putting all of this together, the Lord gives me a glimpse of His creative power, of the beauty that comes from a mind and heart that simply must overflow with lovely things. And for this, I worship Him.

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* http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-205_162-10014287.html

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/micropolitan/

http://seedmagazine.com/portfolio/22_library-of-lungs.html

What should I wear today?

How much time do I spend in personal grooming? I’m not sure, but most of us want to look nice and it is easy to waste minutes if not hours looking in the mirror or standing in the closet. How important is this for a Christian?

I know one simple soul who daily asks God what to wear. She puts great emphasis on her outer appearance because she wants to make a good impression as a believer in Jesus Christ. Some sects take the opposite stand and say that plainer is better. Is there a balance? Or does God even care? What does the Bible say?

In the Old Testament, the most emphasis on clothing concerns what the priests should wear. Long descriptions of their ornamentation are summed up in this sentence:

And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. (Exodus 28:2)

The word order is significant. First holy, then glory, then beauty. That is, in the sight of God, being set apart for holiness has greater value than looking glorious or beautiful. He even uses terms about clothing to describe salvation and righteousness.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

Here, glory and beauty are not neglected, but the idea of being holy and clothed in holiness is more important. This is also brought out in the New Testament, particularly in verses about the adornment of women.

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:3–4)

God does not say no to beautiful clothes. He is just more concerned with what goes on in the inner person. He talks about garments of praise and that I am clothed with the Lord Jesus. He says my ornaments are a meek and quiet spirit. For me, the bells on the hems of the priests garments translate into holy actions, words and purposes so that whenever I move, it is music to those around me.

In addition, many passages tell me that I am to put on new life as a daily practice, even using terms comparable to donning clothing.

Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:12–14)

From this and other verses, I know that when I get dressed each day, the first thoughts should be about my attitude and relationship to God. Am I adorned with the Spirit of Christ, or am I wearing my old clothes of self-centeredness and me-first?

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Lord, thanks for this reminder. Getting dressed each morning is more than a routine. It is an opportunity to think  about how you want me to be adorned. Each day, I have the choice to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make Your holiness my garment for the day. I should make reasonable choices about my clothing, but if holiness is the main part of my wardrobe, then glory and beauty will follow, regardless of the externals.