Overwhelming Beauty

“The one thing I ask of the Lord — the thing I seek most — is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.” Psalms 27:4 

David longs to delight in the Lord’s perfections, or more often translated to “gaze on the beauty of the Lord.” When we think of beauty, we think of things that are visually appealing - the beauty of a sunrise, a beautiful mountain view, or a beautiful painting. So what does David mean when he says that he seeks to gaze on the beauty of the Lord?

How can we gaze on the beauty of the Lord when John 1:18 says no one has ever seen God? We can gaze on the beauty of the Lord because God’s beauty is far beyond anything we can behold with our eyes. God’s beauty is a song in our hearts that we cannot stop singing. God’s beauty is present in the sunrise, in the rain, in the laughter, in the tears. The beauty of the Lord is God’s presence, his companionship, his faithfulness, his steadfast love.

David desired to live every day in the house of the Lord, in the awareness of the presence of God in all things, delighting in his incredible beauty. The beauty of the Lord is something to seek, to run after. In Jeremiah 29, God says, “If you look for me with all your heart, you will find me.”

Look for God with all your heart and you will see how incredibly beautiful he is. When God becomes the one thing you seek the most, his beauty will simply overwhelm you.