Spiritual Beauty
(Exhortation - March 2000)
In addition, there is beauty -- a blessing surrounding us in its many facets -- lifting our spirits and causing us to respond with joy and gratitude. We find beauty in the work of gifted people -- music, poetry and the visual arts. We see even greater beauty in the wonders of nature -- magnificent scenery, the silver shades of dawn, the fiery hues of sunset and the splendor of a starry sky. It was the lovely vista of the sky at night that moved David to proclaim, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him?...For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor" (Psa. 8:3).
The beauty of God
Like David we can find God, the maker of heaven and earth, in the beauty of His creation.
For beauty is a divine attribute and in it we see a reflection of Himself. We do not
usually think of God in terms of beauty. Perhaps this is because no mortal man can see
Him, for it is said of the Almighty, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in light
which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and
power everlasting" (II Cor. 6:16). The scriptures tell us God is glorious,
righteous, wise and powerful, but they also tell us He is beautiful. "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 inquire in his
temple" (Psa. 27:4).
Hymn 61 captures our sense of awe as we meditate upon these things.
My God, how wonderful Thou art,
Thy majesty how bright!
How beautiful Thy Mercy-Seat,
That shines with healing light!
How wonderful, how beautiful,
The sight of Thee must be,
Thine endless wisdom, boundless power,
And aweful purity!
The beauty of holiness
We sense all things of the spirit are beautiful. There is the beauty of truth, of
purity, of faith and the beauty of holiness. The psalmist commands, "Worship the
Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Psa. 29:2). Holiness is beautiful because God
Himself is holy. Correspondingly, He desires this characteristic in His servants. "For
I am the Lord: that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall
therefore be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11:45).
Worship and praise from the faithful is seen by God as an act of beauty. "Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful" (Psalm 147:1 NKJ). It gives God pleasure and His gracious response is to beautify the offerer with salvation. "For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation" (Psa. 149:4).
Beauty is part of the glory of God, but one cannot comprehend glory as easily as beauty. The concept of glory makes me feel overwhelmed, reinforcing my awareness of weakness and sin, the cause of separation from God. But to think of the beauty of God gives me a sense of peace and a desire for fellowship with Him. David writes "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 inquire in his temple" (Psa. 27:4).
The beauty of unity
Unity is another aspect of beauty and one for which we should strive. "Behold,
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"
(Psa.133:1). We look forward to the beauty of unity with Christ and through him with God.
In his exalted prayer, Jesus said: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them
also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that
they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them,
as thou hast loved me" (Jn. 17:20-23 ).
Love is an integral part of spiritual beauty. Paul wrote, "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (I Cor. 13:4-7NKJ). But the love which stirs us with its beauty, yes with its glory, is that which we witness in the sacrificial love of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. "For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jn. 3:16). "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:13).
God’s beauty sustains us
The beauty of God and His love sustains us through all the pain, turmoil and trouble
of life. "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:37-39).
We come here each Sunday to be reminded of the love of God and the salvation that He offers us through His Son, to secure and strengthen the ties which bind us. The bread and the wine speak to us of many things and over them all is the canopy of the beauty of holiness and of love. Let us praise God, for praise is beautiful (Psa. 147:7), looking forward to the time when, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth" (Psa. 50:2).
Gar Cooper