Thursday, I travelled to Macon, Georgia to be at a presbytery for a young man who is to be ordained. There were five of us that questioned him for almost three hours concerning doctrine, philosophy and his personal life. As I drove to and from the meeting I had this thought. What do I really know about the beauty of God? How would I define the beauty of God? Twice in the bible the “beauty of God” is mentioned. The word “beauty” is mentioned 49 times, but only twice is the phrase “the beauty of the Lord” used. Once it was used by David and once used by Moses.

  • “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lordall the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” – Psalm 27:4 (David)
  • “And let the beauty of the Lordour God be upon us…” – Psalm 90:17a (Moses)

The definition of beauty is “a quality or combination of qualities that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is often associated with properties such as harmony of form or color, proportion, authenticity, and originality.” In this blog, it is my hope that you and I will think of God as beautiful. Our Lord has a combination of qualities like no other. The pleasures that come from God are stimulating to our minds and our senses. Imagine you are at an art gallery. You look at a beautiful painting and immediately you notice the name of the painting. As you look closer you see the colors the artist has chosen and they are pleasing to your senses. You notice the strokes and the subjects included. The proportion is spot on and you find yourself receiving a pleasure in your senses just beholding the beauty of this painting. Imagine yourself as a collector of rare diamonds. Over the years you have become an expert in looking at gems and seeing the beauty as the light reflects throughout the stone. It is pleasing to the senses when you have learned of the beauty of these rare diamonds.

If it takes time to study the beauty of a painting or the facets of a diamond, it is logical that it takes time to study the beauty of the Lord. There is the idea of contemplation or meditation. Of course, I’m not referring to a mediation from some Eastern Mysticism Religion, but simply thinking about what the bible shares with us about the Lord. In Psalm 27 David shares with us the beauty that he beheld. If you will read this Psalm you will see he speaks of the Lord being his light, his salvation, and his strength (v.1). He contemplates the Lord’s peace and confidence (v.3). He loves the fact that God is approachable (v.4). God protects him (v.5). God loves music and praise just as David does (v.6). He thinks about God’s mercy (v.7). He receives great comfort in knowing that if his mother and father turned their backs on him the Lord would not (v.10). In Psalm 90, Moses simply says “let the beauty of the Lord be upon us.” Our lives ought to reflect the beauty of the Lord because we are contemplating how wonderful our God is. We think about his attributes and we are stunned by their beauty. There is nothing so beautiful as our Lord. The beauty of God is so vast that as one writer said, “It took the whole Bible to tell us about the beauty of the Lord.” I think that statement is right on the money.

Today, begin to think about the beauty that surrounds you. The greatest artist has made all the beautiful creations without so much as a paint brush. He simply spoke it into existence. Think about the colors, the hues, the symmetry. All of God’s creation came from inside his mind. The originality is unmatched, the proportion is perfect. Our God is a beauty to behold. As Isaiah of old said, “I saw the Lord high and lifted up.” Let’s, together as a church, behold the beauty of the Lord. We can make this happen if we contemplate during the week and then together during the Lord’s Day gaze upon the greatness of the Lord. One final comment. There is nothing so beautiful as looking in my mind’s eye on the cross. As ugly a sight as that was from a human standpoint it is beautiful to me because that’s where one of God’s attributes, love, is seen brightest. If you want to see God’s love, first and foremost, we look to Calvary.