Gaze Upon the Beauty
As a society we are enthralled with beauty. We love to gaze upon beauty. We look for it everywhere. A beautiful sunset. The sight, sounds, smells of the beach. A newly bloomed bed of flowers in early summer. A Picasso or Monet masterpiece. Pure white snow glistening in the sunlight. A bride walking down the aisle.
And isn’t it true that as we age, we strive to maintain our natural youthful beauty. I am not sure that is possible, but we wish it to be true. If it were in fact true, why are there so many products marketed to us that promise “restoration?” We can (and do) have beauty as we age. That beauty, it just looks different than when we were in our twenties. I need to look no further than my wife.
Whether it be beauty around us or our bodily beauty, we spend lots of time and resources locating beauty, getting beauty, keeping beauty, restoring beauty. But guess what, regardless of our efforts, that beauty, it fades over time. Weather. Age. Damage. Those all affect beauty. Sadly, as the beauty fades, over time, our gaze slowly becomes an occasional glance.
Not only do we gaze upon earthly beauty, scripture tells us to also gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. His beauty never fades. Here is what we read in Psalm 27:4 – “One thing have I asked 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 gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire (meditate) in his temple.”
That verse gives us three desires we are to have: to dwell, to gaze, to inquire. While the verse lists them separately, I consider them to be one, all-consuming desire. Today, I want to try to answer two questions: What is the beauty of the Lord? And how do we gaze upon it?
Before I answer those questions, I want to provide some context. Psalm 27 was written by David, the shepherd king of Israel. This psalm is David’s decree of courageous trust in the Lord, and in it, he prays two prayers for God’s presence (vv.4-6 and then again in 7-12). These two prayers are bookended by David’s confidence in God’s presence (vv.1-3, 13-14). In Old Testament times, the presence of the Lord was found in the tabernacle. David’s dream of building the tabernacle was never fulfilled because of his propensity toward the shedding of blood in times of war (1 Chronicles 28:3). God chose, instead, to use David’s son, Solomon, a man of peace, to build His temple (1 Chronicles 28:6).
Having given some context, now back to the two questions. First, just what is the beauty of the Lord? I will answer, very simply, it is the entirety of the loveliness of His nature. It is everything about God that is beautiful. Or how about this – everything that is good, everything that is righteous, has its fulfillment in God. David knew that there was beauty in the very nature and presence of God, everywhere and always.
Now that I have attempted to define the beauty of the Lord, let me turn to gazing upon that beauty. So, how do we gaze upon something that we cannot see with the naked eye? Allow me to try to answer that question with another question. Can there be any greater desire than to fill our hearts and minds with the goodness and greatness of God? In my own life, it is in the gazing upon that goodness and greatness, which by its very nature draws me closer to God, that I fall more in love with Him and am given the power and strength and courage to do far more abundantly than I can do on my own (Ephesians 3:20).
Every one of us gazes upon something. We were created that way. Gazing at a beautiful sunset, which I get to do most evenings, is calming. The yellow and orange hues also help to regulate my circadian rhythm, stimulating melatonin production. Gazing upon the beauty of God is so much more. With every new gaze, my life is continually transformed more and more into the image of God. Into the image I am mean to be.
So, let me ask you – Are you regularly gazing upon God’s beauty?
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