The beauty of holiness

1 Chron 16:29

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

When we worship we are worshipping a God who is holy. He is God and we are not. He is separate from us, above us in everyway. I read on the internet somewhere, "When we worship we must take conscious steps to recognise the vast difference between God and ourselves."

The Bible links holiness with beauty. That is not something that we naturally do. Our hearts are easily deceived into believing that God's holiness is pure but sterile, righteous but joyless, just but merciless. I also read this,
"God must remove the scales from the eyes of our heart before we can percieve that holiness is beautiful."

But it also seems to me that this instruction to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness is also about our own holiness. Does this verse not mean that we are told to bring an offering it is only acceptable when it blends in with the holiness of the one to whom we are giving it? To give an offering to God and harbour sin in our hearts is surely to mark our worship with an ugly stain.

However God delights when we worship him with a "sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us form a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." " (Heb 10:21) This is holiness and that is beautiful.


O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness
Bow down before him his glory proclaim
With gold of obedienc and incense of lowliness
Kneel and adore him the Lord is his name.

(John Samuel Bewley Monsell)

God bless

Carol