Behold the Beauty of the Lord

I'd like to begin by reading the first four verses of Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though when hosts should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.

Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. 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. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.

I used to think that David's desire to behold the beauty of the Lord every day of his life was a kind of indulgence in luxury, like wanting to go to the symphony three times a week when there's a war going on all around. But the longer I live, the more I see of my own heart, the more I see of the world around me, the more I begin to understand that David's desire to behold the beauty of the Lord and the effort David went to, to be able to do this, these were not a luxury. These are what kept David sane.

In a world where there are enemies, where there is danger, where there is all kinds of evil, ugliness, despair, everywhere, and where David finds sin in his own heart. For him to be able to daily turn aside from all this and somehow penetrate to the realm of spirit and behold the beauty of the Lord, see something good, something clean, something holy, something right. This is what kept that man on the track.

This is what kept him from going mad. 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. Now as long as David disciplined himself to behold that beauty, to seek it, there was no way anybody could corrupt him.

You remember the time King Saul and his whole army were pursuing David as if David were some kind of wild animal to be caught and killed. One day Saul stumbled into the very cave where David and his men are hiding. And he comes, and it's dark in the cave, and he can't see what's going on, but they can.

And David's men whispered to him, The Lord has given him into your hand. Kill him. Now's your chance.

And David responds, No way. I'm not going to touch him. That's up to the Lord.

He has a sense, because he's beholding God's beauty and living in God's presence, of what God would have him do and what God would not have him do. He just knows. It was when David began to drift away from this desire to behold God's beauty all the time, that he began to stumble and lose his way.

If David had been beholding the beauty of the Lord that afternoon, when he looked down from the rooftop and saw the magnificent Bathsheba bathing, he would have immediately turned away his eyes. And he would have lifted his mind once again to be renewed in a vision of the transcendent splendor of the God of Israel. And he would have said to himself and Bathsheba and Uriah and the whole nation of Israel, One thing, one thing, 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.

Now we're not talking about escaping the world, withdrawing from the world. We're talking about beholding the beauty of the Lord in the midst. Now apart from God, our everyday life is really not very nice.

Even when it appears to be quite nice on the surface, beneath the veneer, not very nice. Our own hearts, for instance, are not exactly innocent. If anyone ever played a tape of a thought that rattled through our heads in a single day, if anyone could put out a video of the images that go dancing across our minds in a single day, who of us wouldn't be embarrassed? Really.

And the world around us keeps bombarding us with voices that urge us to hate our neighbor, to envy our neighbor, to mistrust our neighbor, to covet what our neighbor has, to deceive him, her. The world around us also bombards us with all kinds of images that imply, that tell us often very directly, that paradise is really the fulfillment. And so Paul keeps urging us, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Otherwise you're going to sink down into this prod. And how in the world can we be renewed in our minds unless we're able to get our eyes off this and behold the beauty of the Lord? Yes, and even when we go out into the world as we are called to do and sent to do, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus with power, to give people healing and hope, when we really stop talking about it and actually go out there, whether it's on our jobs or in our neighborhoods, in our homes, wherever it is, and begin to proclaim the gospel in the real world, we soon find ourselves surrounded by absolutely overwhelming, horrendous problems. Problems that will engulf us unless we can see beyond the problems to the beauty of the Lord.

The TV movie last Sunday night, the day after, portrayed this hopeless parade of sick, dying, miserable victims of radiation not knowing where to go. And these people were portrayed as something that will happen perhaps in the future. See, but this misery that was shown to us or that they attempted to manifest to us as something that's going to happen to this world when the bombs begin to fall, this misery is already here.

It's here. And it's not only among the starving masses of Somalia or the refugee camps of Southeast Asia or Tripoli or the skid rows of... But it's everywhere you look. Everywhere we look, we see sad, lonely, troubled, angry, bitter, frightened people.

And it gets into us too. Now if we're going to bring any kind of meaningful hope to such a world, and if we're going to sustain that hope in ourselves, we're going to have to learn how to get our eyes on something truly good all the time, to train our minds to behold the beauty of the Lord, to see the transcendent splendor of God the Son. If we don't, we're just going to sink right down into all the despair.

See, and the despair is not always the hopelessness that you saw in that movie. The despair is also, get all the gusto you can, you only go around once. That's despair.

That's not hope. You know, if all there is, is an afternoon in the sun and a bottle of Slip, we're in bad shape. And so we read in Psalm 19, verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. So against the background, see, of all the lies that the father of lies spews out into this world to convince the world of those lies, God approaches us with something sure, right, pure, clean, true, righteous.

But, that's not going to do us any good unless we get our eyes on it. If we're looking at all the junk and we never see this, what good does it do us? So Paul says, 2 Corinthians 3.18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another by the Spirit of the Lord, telling us that it is absolutely possible to behold that glory with unveiled face. And Jesus promises that He will manifest Himself, reveal Himself to those who follow Him.

And these words from John 14.18 are not just to the twelve, but they're to everyone who ever follows Jesus. I will not leave you desolate. I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. And that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.

He who has my commandments and keeps them, He it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him, reveal myself, show myself to him. What we need to see, excuse me, if we're going to live in this world with a clear mind, and not become distracted by the corruption or the false hopes or the despair that surround us and that also fill our flesh, we have to see that it is absolutely possible, absolutely possible to behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, to see the splendor of the living God shining from the face of his Son, that it is possible in some way for every one of us to behold this.

And once we get it clear that such a vision is possible for every one of us, not just for St. Francis of Assisi or St. Augustine or Luke or John or Matthew, but for every one of us, once we get that clear that we can have such a vision of God, there are four things we need to do. And the first thing we need to do is to desire. 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.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart, the ones who desire to see that beauty. Think of the sacrifices we have made for lesser desires.

The efforts we've gone through, the time we've spent on much, much lesser goals than that. What is it that I desire? What is it that drives my life? What is the longing that leads me on? Lord God, help me to unload and Lord God, the one desire of my heart. The next thing we need to do is to seek the beauty of the Lord.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. Now I turn my desire into a pursuit. We don't just sit around and wish the vision would come.

We seek it. Every man or woman who has ever come to the place where they are able to behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled faith, got there by seeking. Somebody says, ah, wait a minute, the vision is a gift of grace.

True. A vision of God is always a gift of grace. But the only people who ever receive that gift of grace are those who seek it.

Oh, well, what about the Apostle Paul? He wasn't seeking it. Bang, there it came. But don't kid yourself.

Paul was following the light he had. This man was going by what he thought was right. He was wrong.

But this man at least followed the light he had. He didn't sit on top of truth and rot with it. And the vision came.

You want to see the Lord, the glory of the Lord with unveiled faith? Seek it. You want to hear God speak? Seek Him. You want to meet Jesus alive from the dead? Seek Him.

And seek Him in specific ways. For instance, that we make time. We say this again and again, but it still needs to be said to all of us, for all of us.

Make time for Him in prayer. Daily. Seek Him in the gathered fellowship.

We underestimate the awesome things that go on when the saints come together like this. Seek Him by following the light that has already come. If I'm really serious about having a vision of the glory of God and beholding the beauty of the Lord, then I'm going to take the trouble to block out some time every single day where I'm going to close off everything and look for Him.

If I'm really serious about having a vision of God, I am going to, I believe, not trying to lay down a rule here, but I believe this is important for me. I'm going to be with the saints gathered at least one day in seven, unless I'm dying or at the North Pole. I believe I need that.

You know, as long as it's, oh, my athlete's foot's acting up today, I think I'll stay home. Or, you know, I'm not in the mood. I don't feel very receptive.

I don't think I want to be around them. If I'm serious about pursuing the face of God, I'm going to be among the saints. And I'm also going to do the things the Lord, in whatever way He chooses to, shows me.

I'm going to follow the light I have. If I get light on the fact that I ought to go and get reconciled with that brother or sister, I'm going to do that. And if the Lord in some way shows me that it's time for me to open up my hand and share my goods with that person, I must do that.

And if it's clear that I have to go and find that forgotten sheep and bring it back to the fold, once we seriously pursue that vision, the vision comes. It always comes. It never, never, never fails.

And when the vision comes and we begin to behold the beauty of the Lord, we're ready for the third step, which is to open our hearts to it. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord. The house of the Lord is not a place, it's a state of a heart.

So that instead of a flash of vision and then nothing, a clear insight for five minutes and then nothing, it's that I dwell there, I live there. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High stays there, lives there, day in and day out, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. That means the opening of the heart.

It means that I take off the veil and behold His glory. With unveiled faith, it means that I humble myself and become a child. When the glory of the Lord descends upon us as we sing a hymn together, and it's there, and we know it's there, what do we do with it? See, do we open our hearts to it or let it fly on by? You know, have a couple goose pimples and go on our way rejoicing or do we open our hearts and let it come in? We come together around the Lord's table.

We eat His flesh and drink His blood. In, with, and under, that bread is the Spirit of the Lord. Breathing through that wine is the Spirit of the Lord.

And as we eat and drink this food, the issue is, do we open our hearts? That last, inmost door of our hearts and truly let Jesus get in there. And then finally, we need to conform our lives to the beauty of the Lord. Conform our lives not to the illusions of the world around us and not to the vanities and fantasies of our own hearts, but to the beauty of the Lord that we soak up everything.

Now I begin to bend my life into that. I form myself into that. I yield to it.

What, what I look at when I behold that glory with unveiled faith, I begin to rise up into it and become like it. To conform our lives to the glory of the Lord means that we look at it, keep looking at it, and keep peeling away from us everything in our lives, every thought, every desire, every ambition, every fear that interferes with it and keeps us from yielding and bending in until our eye is single and our heart is pure. Don't ever let anyone tell you or imply that it's impossible to behold the glory of God.

It is possible. Men and women before us have done it, and there are men and women on the earth right now who are beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled faith and are being transformed by it. And this can happen for us too if it's not already happening.

And if it is already happening, we know there's more ahead, more to be done. If we will desire the beauty of the Lord, seek the beauty of the Lord, open our hearts to it, conform our lives to it, then the Lord himself will anoint our heads with the oil of his Spirit, and he will cause our cups to so overflow with his light, with such an abundance that instead of sinking down into this world's despair, we will take authority over that despair, bring to that despairing world the one hope and the one beauty that it will ever know or see, from which every other beauty and hope, the beauty of God shining from the face. One thing, 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.

Let's just take some time now. I know we're young and old here, but we're all going to just hang together now and let's take time in silence and let the Spirit of the Lord speak to us and help us to find out what he would have us do.