When I was younger, I saw a picture of a stunning rose, and the caption read, “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” I knew the rose was beautiful, but I couldn’t figure out how worship or holiness could be beautiful. To start with, you can’t see them. I mean, you can see worship acted out sometimes, but ultimately worship is a matter of the heart and so is holiness. Over the years, I’ve seen similar pictures with the same caption, and wondered over it. I came to the conclusion that it must be that God thinks it’s beautiful for us to worship Him when our hearts are right (the only way we can truly worship God). But as I’ve continued to think on it and read the Bible (which is the best commentary there is for itself), I have begun to understand that the ‘beauty of holiness’ is more than that.
Psalm 99 does a wonderful job of walking us through this. The first three verses read, “The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people. Let them praise thy great and terrible name, for it is holy.” Jehovah God is great, high above all the people: holy. He is perfectly pure, absolutely free from sin. He never has a dirty thought, never spoken an unkind word, never performed a selfish act. He is the standard of perfection. And every single one of us falls far short of this standard. According to His holy, perfect standard of righteousness, a dirty thought is the same as actually acting on that desire (Matthew 5:28); hating someone is the same as murder (Matthew 5:21-22); rebelling against God’s commanded is the same as worshipping the devil, and stubbornness the same as worshipping idols (1 Samuel 15:23). More than that, if we have broken one of His laws, we are just a guilty as if we have broken them all (James 2:10 – 11). “The Lord reigns” – this holy God is the One who will judge every person. We each are deeply condemned, and the penalty is death and hell. “Let the people tremble.”
The next verses shed a bit more light on the whole judgment situation. “The king’s strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness . . . Exalt ye the Lord God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.” God, the Judge of the whole earth is a righteous judge. He does not have favorites or receive bribes. The rich and well-respected do not get preference over the down-and-out. Our best efforts at being good don’t measure up, much less ‘pay for’ our failures. We don’t receive favor because our parents or grandparents were ‘good people’, were members of a church, or even because they were ‘Christians.’ We don’t earn merit by praying prayers, being baptized, or attending church. All our ‘goodness’ that we might wish to rely on or boast about are stripped away before the holy God, and in humility we must bow before Him and confess that He alone is good and holy. “Exalt the Lord and worship at his footstool.”
And now we get to the wonderfully beautiful part. “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and he answered them. He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them. Thou answeredst them, O Lord our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy.” What’s so beautiful about this? The high and holy God has made a way that we sinful humans can have a relationship with Him. He lowered Himself to come and live on earth; experience temptation, pain, rejection, and grief without once falling short of perfect purity and sinlessness that defines who He is; so that He could pay the death penalty of our sins, and put His righteousness on our account. Jesus Christ has made the way for us to have forgiveness of sins with God; a restoration of the relationship we broke as we chose to go our own way and fulfill our sinful desires. There is only one way to God and that is through faith in Jesus’ complete payment of our sins. There is nothing we can add to `close the deal.’ He has done it all, and we, in humble faith, receive this amazing gift by believing and calling to God. When a person does this, God begins a work in them. He begins transforming them, as they yield, to be like Him. He calls those who believe on Him to “be holy, for [He] is holy.” And that, my dear friends, is the what is so wonderful. We are able to worship Him in the beauty of holiness. Oh the beauty of His holiness, His perfectly pure, sinlessness. And oh how wonderful the reality of being holy, not because of who we are, or the good things we have done, but because of His amazing love, patient calling, and faithful working.
Dear friend, where do you find yourself today? Are you standing in fear, condemned before the holy God, suddenly aware of His standard of perfection and your awful failure to meet it? I encourage you to humble yourself before the holy God and accept His free gift, rejecting any other ‘ways’ you may have embraced to try to make yourself acceptable to Him. Maybe you’ve been relying on your parents’ or grandparents’ faith, or a checklist of ‘good things.’ I urge you to see the futility of these things. The holy, righteous Judge does not take that into account. The only way to be justified is through faith is Jesus. Or perhaps you are one who has accepted Christ’s payment for your sin and now are able to come joyfully and worship before our holy God. May you see the beauty of holiness as you worship the holy God who is changing you to be like Him!
“O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name . . . come into his courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Psalm 96
Hope in truth 