We continue our journey through the core values of our worship this week with the eighth value, Recognizing and Expressing God’s Beauty. As I keep saying, you may be surprised that none of the things the Elders have adopted as core values of our worship are necessarily music-oriented. Actually none of them deal with elements at all, but rather with the essentials of worship. They are more the why than the what of worship, if you will.
There are a myriad of ways that God’s beauty is expressed in His creation. Whether the grandeur of nature or the magnificence of His creatures reflecting His grandeur, there are a multitude of ways that God expresses His beauty to us. When we recognize that beauty as a revelation of something about the Creator that is worship. When we engage in beautiful expressions that are intended to reveal the beauty of God, that is worship as well. So in both the revelation and the response we worship. Worship is…recognizing and expressing God’s beauty. There are any number of Scriptures that speak to this value, but here are the ones we have adopted for inclusion in the philosophical document:
Oh, worship the Lord in the holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth. Psalm 96:9 [NKJV]
One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: 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 seek him in his temple. Psalm 27:4
4 For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Psalm 96:4-6
Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good;
sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. Psalm 135:3
Praise the LORD.
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
how pleasant and fitting to praise him! Psalm 147:1
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
The beauty of God is unique, for it is perfect. The saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, does not apply to Him. While beauty is a matter of opinion with regard to the creation, not so with the Creator. He is beauty. Then again…
For the unredeemed soul, the holiness of God is a dreadful thing. For the redeemed, it is beautiful. The passages above from the Psalms and from Philippians give very clear instruction that our response to God revealing Himself as beautiful should be worship. It delights the soul, and ultimately is the one needful thing in the life of the believer.
Probably one of the weakest areas in evangelicalism is the use of the arts to convey the beauty of God. Certainly, we use music in our attempts to do this, but for a number of reasons we have neglected the visual and graphic arts. There is a new era developing however in the Church in which we are recapturing some of the talent that has been forsaken or poured out in other pursuits. May God be glorified in all our talents as we seek to express His beauty.
Stay tuned…NEXT WEEK…Worship is…Engaging the whole person.
In Christ,
Pastor Scott
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