REFLECTIONS ON THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF BEAUTY

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. 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. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to y you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek’."

Psalm 27:1-8 ESV

“The personal attractions of Jesus are all inviting and irresistible! His love wins us.
His glory charms us. His beauty attracts us. His sympathy soothes us. His gentleness subdues us. His faithfulness inspires us. He is the "altogether lovely One!”

Octavius Winslow

In 2005 I spent eleven days right above Panama in the southernmost part of Costa Rica on the Osa Peninsula at a place called Cabo Matapalo. To get there you have to take a redeye flight on a very cramped and uncomfortable airplane. When you land in San Jose you then have to take an hour cab ride which is much like Mister Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland to get to another airport where you need to fly to get to Puerto Jimenez. From there you fly an hour of pure turbulence on a puddle-jumper prop plane. When you land in Puerto Jimenez, that is, if you survived the flight; you then take a forty five minute ride in a four wheel drive truck on a potholed, narrow, rugged road with numerous deep river crossings. Then you arrive at Matapalo and are utterly thrilled both to have survived the ordeal and to behold this place.

What is it about Cabo Matapalo that makes people go through all of what I shared to get there? There must be something about Matapalo that made the pursuit worthwhile? There has to be a reason that I would be willing to go through all of that hassle. The answer is that Cabo Matapalo is right at the top of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen. The pleasant tropical weather, the density and beauty of the tropical rain forest, the uncluttered and secluded beaches, the incredible surfing and warm 80 plus degree water, the variety of birds, monkeys, and wildlife, the solitude and quiet of only hearing the sounds of nature, are but a few of the things that attract me to this place and make me desire to go back again and again. To show you pictures, to try to describe it, will never impact you until you’ve actually been there and seen it yourself.

But as wonderful as Matapalo is, there is nothing as breathtaking as God! What is it about God that makes him so enjoyable? What is it about God that makes our pursuit of Him a worthwhile endeavor? What is it about God that is so fascinating? What is it about God that causes people to turn from all worldly allurements and diversions to focus on knowing and seeing and experiencing Him? What is it about Him that brings in our soul emptiness for anything less than His companionship and presence? What is it that caused a man named Augustine, who indulged in every form of earthly pleasure to say “How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose!...You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure…Oh Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation.”

There must be something about God that brings a pleasing pleasure, a longer-lasting joy, a fullness of joy, a turning from fruitless joys to finding the superior pleasure in God alone. There must be something that makes Him more appealing than what the world, the flesh, and sin have to offer. Do you feel like that this dear reader?

King David sure did? The answer to all our questions is found in his single­-minded passion and desire 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”. Throughout Psalm 27 David seems to be ransacking the Hebrew language for nouns to describe this desire: to dwell in the house of the Lord (verse 4); to inquire in his temple (verse 4); in His dwelling (verse 5); the shelter of His tabernacle (verses 5-6).

This desire spoken in all these ways is centered in one thing, the main thing: to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, the incomparable, transcendent, all­ satisfying, awe-inspiring beauty of God.

David's resolution reminds me of a scene in the 1991 movie City Slickers. Mitch, played by Billy Crystal and his two friends from New York City are middle-aged, middle-class guys trying to rediscover the purpose of their mundane lives. Curley, played by Jack Palance, is a tough-as-leather trail boss who is not particularly reflective or philosophical. In one scene, Curley, the old crusty cow boy, is talking with the city folk about life. They are confused and have made a mess of their lives. They ask Curley for some advice on life. Curley: “You city folks…You spend 50 weeks a year getting knots in your rope and you think two weeks here will work them all out. You just don't get it.” Curley holds up one dirty, black-gloved finger to them. With a squint in his weathered old face and a cigarette dangling from his lips, he says to them, "Life is about one thing. It’s this," Palance says, holding up a single finger. "The secret of life is your finger?" asks Crystal. "It’s one thing," Palance replies. Mitch: “What thing?” Curley: “That's what you have to figure out.”

Christian, I have good news for you, you don’t have to figure out what is that one thing; it’s the very purpose and desire of God for your well being and happiness and His glory. Our “one thing” is to see and cherish the glory of God. That is God's design and that is our duty.

But wait a minute Bill; you’ve been talking about the beauty of God. Why did you say that the “one thing” is to see and cherish the glory of God? Well, let’s define the glory of God and I think you’ll understand what I mean. What is the glory of God? Glory is a word that we use in church life often times without having the slightest idea what it really means. When I speak of His glory I am speaking like David of the beauty of God unveiled.

Augustine rightly insisted that God is beauty itself, referring to Him as “my Father, supremely good, beauty of all things beautiful.” Glory is all of God that makes Him God, and shows Him to be worthy of our praise, our boasting, our confidence, our trust, and our joy. Glory is the external manifestation of the internal excellencies of God. Glory is what you see and feel when God goes public with His beauty.

The wonderful thing about God is that He desires us to see His beauty. He wants us to not only see it, but cherish it, enjoy it. Jonathan Edwards shows that this is the root of worship. What he says has had deep and profound impact on my understanding of God and His glory.

“God glorifies Himself toward the creatures . . . in two ways: 1. By appearing to . . . their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying, the manifestations which He makes of Himself. . . . God is glorified not only by His glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . . When those who see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by understanding and in the heart.”

God is always manifesting His beauty in creation, in providence, in scripture, and pre-eminently in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4). His purpose is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable and unspeakable joy. God’s beauty is what makes Him eminently desirable, attractive, and quickening to the soul that it was made for another world.

God has pulled back the curtain on His glory. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth” (Psalm 50:2). He has disclosed Himself on the platform of creation and redemption that we might stand awestruck in his presence, beholding the sweet symmetry of His attributes, pondering the unfathomable depths of His greatness, baffled by the wisdom of His deeds and the limitless extent of His goodness and mercy and grace. This is His beauty and glory!

Throughout the Psalms we read frequently of David’s insatiable passion for God’s beauty. Read and catch his “One thing” passion:

Psalm 42:1-2, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”. Psalm 63:1-3, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory…Your steadfast love is better than life.” Psalm 84:10, ^“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Psalm 16:2, 11; “I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you… You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

For David nearness to God in order to see Him in all his beauty and glory was the only experience that would truly satisfy him. Only God could satisfy a heart like David’s and David was a man after one thing: the beauty of God. This is what we were created and redeemed for! This is the essence of loving God –as John Piper says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him”.

Jonathan Edwards understood about the one thing. That’s why he wrote: “God’s is glorified not only in His glory being seen, but by in His glory being rejoiced in.” God’s beauty satisfies the heart with joy and delight.

So what happens when we desire the one thing? As we have already seen; first, beauty satisfies the heart with joy and delight. Secondly, beauty transforms the soul. The encounter of the human soul with divine beauty, is more than merely satisfying and enjoyable, it is profoundly transforming. There is within it the power to change our lives into something radiating God’s own beauty! The apostle Paul alluded to this in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when he said, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The point is what we see is what we be! Or as Jon Piper puts it, “beholding is becoming.” We do not simply behold beauty: beauty takes hold of us and challenges the allegiance of our hearts.

Beauty calls us to reshape our lives and exposes the shabbiness of our conduct. It awakens us to the reality of a transcendent Being to whose likeness of beauty we are being called and conformed by his gracious initiative. Beauty has the power to dislodge from our hearts the grip of moral and spiritual ugliness. The soul's engagement with beauty elicits love and forges new affection that no earthly power can overcome.

Jonathan Edwards wrote of this transforming beauty in his sermon The Way of Holiness.

“Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above all other beauties; 'tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly and far purer than anything here on earth-this world is like mire and filth and defilement [compared] to that soul which is sanctified-'tis of a sweet, lovely, delightful, serene, calm, and still nature. 'Tis almost too high a beauty for any creature to be adorned with; it makes the soul a little, amiable, and delightful image of the blessed Jehovah. How may angels stand with pleased, delighted, and charmed eyes, and look and look with smiles of pleasure upon that soul that is holy."

To be continued...