March 21, 2024
God’s Beauty
Before she was my wife, there was a moment at a school dance when some younger male students were acting out of line. In that moment she stood firm as a teacher chaperon and confidently held her ground. Their behavior was not going to continue, even for a second. Her confidence was strangely attractive to me. I liked it and felt myself pulled in, not to her physical beauty (although also true), but to the beauty of her confidence.
The beauty we see in one another is a mere glimpse of the much greater and infinite beauty of Yahweh (the LORD). David was so attracted to the beauty of Yahweh that he declared the following 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 in his temple. (ESV)
God’s beauty impressed David into making a marvelous statement. He wanted to spend every single day of his life gazing upon it. But what was David talking about exactly? What is God’s beauty? Wayne Grudem says, “God’s beauty is that attribute of God whereby He is the sum of all desirable qualities.”1 What is truly attractive and desirable for human beings in found perfectly in God. The Hebrew word for beauty in Psalm 27:4 speaks of humans delighting, that is finding satisfaction and enjoyment in God’s attributes.2
Thus, David longed to delight in all the wonderful qualities of Yahweh. Dale Ralph Davis imagines what objects David would have seen in Yahweh’s temple at this point in time and estimates the qualities David may be gazing upon.3 Davis points out the beauty of Yahweh’s condescension seen in a tabernacle itself, His provision in the bread of the presence, and His atonement in the altar of sacrifice in the court area. How beautiful to David would have been God’s presence, provisions, and forgiveness of sins.4
God’s beauty shines forth still today. We may gaze upon His wonderful qualities in creation. How beautiful are sunsets and the smiles of those we love. It was God’s beauty that made those things possible.
We may gaze upon His wonderful qualities in His word. How beautiful His provision in the wilderness, His reflection in the father of the prodigal’s son, and His returning Israel from exile.
We may gaze upon His wonderful qualities in Christ. How beautiful His healing of the woman who bled for years, His raising a little girl up from the dead, and His release of the man from demonic possession. And how beautiful His death and resurrection for sinners.
This world can be ugly. But God remains a beautiful sight for those who see with eyes of faith. Gaze upon His beautiful qualities today. And then do it again the next day. And then the day after that.
1Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan), 220. He continues, “lsquo;beauty” means that God has every desirable attribute.”
2Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 653.
3Dale Ralph Davis, In the Presence of My Enemies: Psalms 25–37 (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2020), 43.
4Davis says (49), “Perhaps this exposition is too imaginative. But if David’s one holy passion was to dwell in the house of Yahweh to gaze on the beauty of Yahweh, I think we need to think through what kind of beauty he found there. It wasn’t simply a warm, fuzzy feeling. Hence these suggestions. But we also know that the Lord’s beauty overflows the bounds of the ‘sanctuary’, and it’s important that we have eyes to see it.”