"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (Psalm 29:2).

When King David transported the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem he delivered a special psalm into the hands of Asaph and the other musicians. In it he exalted the Lord: "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before Him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" (I Chronicles 16:29).

Psalm 96:6 discusses this beauty: "Honor and majesty are before Him: strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Verse 9 gives further clarification when it states, "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth." This is not an outward beauty, for the prophet told of Christ that "when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isaiah 53:2). Rather, it is a beauty of character . . . an inward righteousness. It was the searching of this beauty that became David's life mission: "One thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4).

This Scriptural phrase occurs again during the reign of King Jehosophat. The prophet had predicted a great victory if Israel would just believe and let God do the fighting. II Chronicles 20:21-22 records, "And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army." In glorifying God's beauty Jehosophat enjoyed a tremendous victory.

Still today believers should seek to meditate upon God's beauty and let it radiate from our lives. "And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us" (Psalm 90:17).DW