The Beauty of the LORD

We can infer from Psalm 27:4 that beauty of the LORD being referred to in the passage is not the physical beauty of the God. The Psalmist here was referring to the God’s delightfulness and pleasantness that we perceive of Him as our Master. God is the ground or fountain of all goodness, all goodness finds its definition in His Character and God’s Character is the measure of goodness – scripture speaks of the foundation of the Character of God as being beautiful in every sense, and that all things created by God are beautiful.

To gaze upon the beauty of the LORD is to perceive with intelligence, wanting to know with certainty and a sanctified heart the beauty of the LORD in the His Tabernacle. The LORD Jesus Christ has manifested the beauty of the LORD before our eyes. As God’s children we must understand that the revelation of the beauty of God is an act of God’s self-revealing Love, that God alone is the source and substance of true beauty.

This was something that David wanted to gaze upon all his life, that’s a true reflection of what it means to be created in the image of God. It is not sinful, it is not wrong to behold, intellectually to see, morally perceive with our senses and appreciate what we see as beautiful, this ought to overwhelm us knowing that God Himself is the source of all this beauty. As often as we do so we are going to be far away from idolatry, which is the worship of a creature other than the Creator. There is so much to cause us to wander, so much to cause amazement, so much to cause us to bow unto our kneels in worship to this Great God, who is all together loving and beautiful. We can never out do God, but we can be a reflection of who He is.

We gather as God’s children in a place where God has chosen to manifest in a very unique and peculiar way - His presence, where two or three are gathered He promises to be present among them, and it is in His presence that Word of God is preached in His name, so we can know Him more and more, admire Him all the more, and train our hearts to conform to His likeness and His Character.

Is that the sense with which we have the similar pursuit to the one David had here in Psalm 27:4 “one thing I ask from the LORD this is what I see” May our hearts be captivated by the beauty of our Heavenly Father, better still how that has been manifested by His Son, a Son by whom the Father is well Pleased. Amen.