Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (Psalm 29:2 and 96:9)

 

These words flooded my heart and mind after studying and teaching in my Prayer Matters Bible study class the past two weeks. 

 

In Bible study we looked at one of my favorite Old Testament stories of David dancing before the Lord with all His might in 2 Samuel 6. I love the story because it is filled with the emotion and passion that real relationship with the Lord elicits. 

 

The emotion and passion seen on the pages of Scripture here present a very visual picture. I can close my eyes and see the earthly king dancing with pure unabandoned worship before his God, the one true King. I love his passionate display of worship and when I imagine the scene, I see the beauty of holiness. 

 

Old Covenant Holiness

 

We need to understand the context of David’s dancing before the Lord. David encountered the holiness of God prior to his passionate worship dance. His encounter brought him to a place of recognizing his own unholiness. Out of the fear of the Lord, David stepped back and looked into his own heart. This encounter changed everything for David and caused him to take the necessary actions of holiness according to the old covenant. 

 

David and his people consecrated themselves in preparation for moving the ark of God. To consecrate themselves means they set themselves apart as the people of God and followed God’s specified instructions of how to walk in obedience and honor the holiness of God. 

 

Once God’s people consecrated themselves, 2 Samuel 6:13 says they sacrificed every 6 steps. The distance they traveled was a minimum of 3 miles (maybe more) which means a ridiculous amount of sacrifices were made to insure their holiness before the Lord. All of this was to protect their holiness because, in the old covenant, holiness could only be attained temporarily. 

 

Hebrews 10:4 says, “For if is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” The best the blood of animals could do according to the old covenant was temporarily cover sins and give God’s people a short-lived holiness to be in God’s presence. 

 

But that temporary and short-lived holiness caused David to worship, dancing before the Lord with all his might in the beauty of holiness. 

 

The Better Covenant of holiness

 

Let’s look at holiness through the lens of our better covenant, the one-time sacrifice of our perfect Savior, Jesus Christ. His sacrifice gives us true beauty that is wrapped up in our true identity, which is holy and blameless. 

 

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,

yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.

Colossians 1:21-23

 

In light of the multitude of sacrifices made on behalf of maintaining holiness for David and his people as they brought up the ark of God, Hebrews 9:14 and 10:9-10 says, 

 

How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Hebrews 9:14

 

Then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified (made holy) through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. 

Hebrews 10:9-10

 

What a great salvation we have been have been given! The beauty of holiness supernaturally imposed on undeserving people! Thank You Jesus!

You and I have so much of a greater reason than David to worship the Lord with all our might because of our God-given true beauty of holiness. Supernatural holiness has been imposed on us even while we still walk this earth in the frailty and weakness of our unredeemed human flesh.

 What Hinders Us From Embracing Our Beauty Of Holiness

The obstacle that hinders us from worshipping God in the beauty of holiness is most often, our unredeemed flesh. Another way to say that is the awareness of our own weaknesses and struggles with our imperfectness, and yes, sometimes sinfulness. 

 

I love the example from Scripture about how Jesus washed Peter’s feet as a ceremonial demonstration in the physical of something that had already taken place spiritually in Peter’s life. 

 

Peter too, had a problem with grasping his spiritually imputed holiness. In John 13:8 Peter told Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet.” Peter said this because he recognized Jesus holiness and his own unholiness. But Jesus told Peter, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

 

Then Peter immediately says, 

 

“Lord not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” 

John 13:9

 

Then Jesus said to Peter,

 

“He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet,

but is completely clean; and you are clean…”

John 13:10

 

Jesus wanted Peter to understand that the beautiful gift of holiness that He adorned him with was done and could not be undone by anything that Peter did or did not do. We, like Peter, are supernaturally imputed with the beauty of holiness. It is so important for us to see this, understand this, and embrace our already Jesus-imputed holiness. 

 

Because this understanding positions us to freely and confidently worship God with all our might. This understanding of our true beauty and true identity will also compel us toward our calling to “be holy.” 

 

Dear Sister in Christ, 

You are beautiful! You are anointed with the beauty of holiness. Embrace your supernatural gift. Believe that you are made holy by the blood of Jesus. Step into your true identity and worship the Lord with all your might in the beauty of holiness. 

If you missed my blog post about our wrestle with outer beauty, make sure to read it as well, One Of Our Deepest Inner Desires As A Woman Is To Be Beautiful.