worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”
Psalm 29:2
What are your expectations when you come into a worship service on the Lord’s Day? Or in other words, what do you expect to experience? Is it to be moved by the music? Or is it the good feelings that come from the surroundings of stained glass, pews, hymnals and Bibles? Is it to see your brothers and sisters? Or is it to hear something that affects you from the sermon that might carry you through the week?
Our verse tells us something very significant about what our expectations should be. We should come with the anticipation of coming into experiential contact with the glory of our holy God, in particular, the beauty of His holiness.
This is exactly what Isaiah first experienced when he came into the place of worship. He “saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). Seraphim “cried to one another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!’” (verse 3). For Isaiah, this was to encounter the profound impact of the holiness of God, which is His glory. To speak of God’s glory and holiness is to speak of His “heaviness”, His uniqueness, His pristine moral perfections, His powerful presence, His prevailing magnificence, His sovereign rule, and His beauty.
Coming into worship with this expectation radically affects all we do in the course of worship. Our singing of hymns become heartfelt expressions of the wonders of God, marveling in who He is and what He has done in creation, providence, and His gracious salvation in Christ. Our prayers become true offerings of praise and thanksgiving, giving God glory in our petitions by acknowledging Him as the only true source of help, strength and goodness. We come to hear of our sinfulness and feel true sorrow so that we might hear of His exceedingly abundant, holy and glorious forgiveness and righteousness as it is offered to us in Christ who has “loved us and given Himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2). We present our tithes and thereby gloriously acknowledge God who owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10), and who purchased us through the precious blood of His Son such that we are no longer our own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). In our coming together as brothers and sisters, we see the glorious fulfillment of Christ’s promise to build His church with sinners who were once spiritually dead, but are now new creatures in Jesus Christ (Matthew 16.18; 2 Corinthians 5.17), showcases of His glorious redeeming grace.
Someone has written, “A worship service that contains the power to change you is a worship service that leaves you with grand impressions of Divine personality, not grand impressions of human personality. Isaiah did not leave the temple thinking, ‘What great music, what a great building, what a great preacher.’ He left thinking, ‘What a great God.’”
Brothers and sisters, come to worship with great expectations of an encounter with the one true living God, your Savior and Lord. Be in anticipation of God “rending the heavens” that you might catch a glimpse of His excellence and His awesome holy presence. Be wonderfully mindful that you and others in the pews around you join in with a host of magnificent heavenly creatures, with saints who have gone ahead of you to heaven, and with the saints around the world gathered before God’s throne to give God the glory due His name, and to worship Him in the beauty of His holiness. Let our worship be like the worship of the angels and heavenly creatures described in Revelation 7:11-12, standing before God’s throne and saying,
Amen! Blessing and glory
And wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and
Power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.