God’s Beauty Upon His People

GOD’S BEAUTY UPON HIS PEOPLE

“Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us.”
— Psalm xc. 17.

WHEN I read these wonderful words, this morning, there came to me, quick as a lightning flash, the solemn question,” Soul, is this beauty now resting on thee, and on all thy daily life?” Alas! there was no reply by speech or voice; but a bowed head, and silent lips, and the inward sighing of a convicted, yet penitent heart, gave the only possible answer.

     Then I sat down before the Lord, wondering and ashamed, and the multitude of my thoughts within me took form and fashion thus: Father, Thou knowest that I covet earnestly the loveliness of sanctification, I would fain obey Thy command to be holy; and if longings after complete surrender to Thee would avail to secure this special grace, I should possess it. What is it that so constantly defeats my purpose, and foils my efforts, and prevents the fulfilment of my most devout desire? 

     Dear Master, if Thy will concerning me be my sanctification, why is not that will more absolutely done in me? Can it be that I am unconsciously cherishing something in my heart that hinders the work of Thy Holy Spirit, and so the blessing Thou hast designed for me does not reach me, because the way is barred by a will not wholly yielded to Thine? Or have I been satisfying myself with mere empty desires after conformity to Christ, indulging in poor feeble longings in which there was so much half-heartedness that the Spirit of God was grieved, and would not reveal His power?

     O Lord, pity me, and pardon me! Awaken my soul to an earnest sense of the solemn responsibility involved in belonging to Thee, and bearing Thy Name! Rouse in me, Lord, a blessed eagerness to become all that Thou wishest me to be ! Fill me with that mighty influence which worketh in us “both to will and to do” of Thy good pleasure! Yea, chasten and afflict me, Lord, if nothing else will serve to make me a partaker of Thy holiness!

     “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” Dear Father, I must have this blessing. Help me to pray the marvelous prayer intelligently, remembering at what an awful cost Thou hast secured to me an answer, and glorifying Thee for the matchless love which makes me —

“With His spotless vesture on,
Holy as the Holy One.” 

     What hath God wrought! I can see, only too plainly, the ugliness and deformity which sin has worked in my nature, and the havoc it has made among all the creatures God had formed for Himself. If it had not been for this deadly thing, we should have borne “the image of God ” even now. Doth the lily plead for its whiteness, or the tree for its lovely foliage, or the sun for his splendor? Nay, they are as God made them; they have kept their first estate, and are still “very good;”  but man, sinful man, has fallen, and he who was made in the likeness of God is defaced and disfigured by the evil within. 

     Ah! dear Lord, when Thou dost give us a sight of our own evil heart, we are overwhelmed with horror, and should soon be driven to despair, didst Thou not at once turn our eyes to that wondrous hill of Calvary, where One ” altogether lovely ” made the great Atonement which brought us back to Thee! That precious blood, which cleanses us from all sin, restores to us the beauty which that sin has forfeited; its royal purple not only covers our disfigurement, but removes it, and bestows upon us the comeliness which the Lord looks on with pleasure.

     O soul of mine, dost thou not desire above all things that this “beauty of holiness ” may be thy glorious dress? Then thou must keep very close to the Master, shutting the door of thy heart to every evil thing, and opening it wide to the incoming of His Holy Spirit, who, in revealing Christ to thee, will make thee like Him. An old fable tells how a piece of common clay became sweetly scented by close contact with a rose; the fable will be a blessed fact in thy experience if the Rose of Sharon blooms in thy heart, and sheds its fragrance around thy life. “Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty,” yea, may God grant it; but the condition is thus expressed,” Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”

     Everlasting praises be to the Well-beloved of our soul, that His perfect righteousness covers us now, and that in the day when He shall bring us home to His Father’s house, we shall be ” PRESENTED FAULTLESS BEFORE THE PRESENCE OF HIS GLORY WITH EXCEEDING JOY.”