God Is Beautiful
For many years (a phrase which seems to introduce almost everything I say or write these days), I have thought about and preached on the subject of the beauty of God. I have never heard anyone teach on the subject, but I did through the decades come across two written sermons on the topic, “The Beauty of the Lord” by J. D. Jones and “Are There Shortcuts to the Beauty of Holiness?” (the short answer is “No!”) by A. W. Tozer. More recently, I read a review of a scholarly article about the American preacher Jonathan Edwards (of “sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” fame) that mentioned in passing that the beauty of God was one of the great themes in his preaching. I was thus encouraged that I have not headed off on an unprofitable tangent. In simple terms, beauty is that which attracts, causes a favorable interest, and creates an affinity. Such real, eternal beauty is found in our God. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
In Psalm 90:17, Moses, the poetical prophet, prayed, “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.” We have considered the practical outworkings of God’s beauty working through us – appreciation and expectation, meekness and humility. Another practical outcome is found in II Chronicles 20:20-23. Here, the people of Judah, under the leadership of King Jehoshaphat, faced a formidable confederation of armies from Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir. Confronted by this existential threat, the people praised “the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army” (verse 21). God then provided a miraculous victory. The application for us is how we respond in crisis. In times of trouble, do we think of the Lord? Do we put Him before the crisis? God’s beauty should draw us away from fixation on the problem to Him. An abiding principle is that God’s beauty should create a practical beauty in our lives. Even in genuine crisis, we can respond in a way that is a strong testimony to an easily frightened world. His strong beauty both strengthens us and beautifies us.