Psalm 27:4; 2 Chronicles 20:21
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 when [Jehoshaphat] had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness…
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The glorious majesty of God is called “the beauty of holiness.”
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Holiness is the beauty of God Himself, He is glorious in it; it is the beauty of angels, it makes them so glorious as they are; and it is the beauty of saints, it is what makes them like unto Christ, and by which they are partakers of the divine nature.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): A chief emphasis is placed upon this perfection of God: God is oftener styled Holy than almighty, and set forth by this part of His dignity more than by any other. This is more fixed on as an epithet to His name than any other. You never find it expressed ‘His mighty name’ or ‘His wise name,’ but His “great” name, and most of all, His “holy name.”
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): This perfection, as none other, is solemnly celebrated before the Throne of Heaven, the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,” Isaiah 6:3. God Himself singles out this perfection: “Once have I sworn by my holiness,” Psalm 89:35. God swears by His holiness because that is a fuller expression of Himself than anything else. Therefore are we exhorted, “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness,” Psalm 30:4…Thus we read of “the beauty of the Lord,” which is none other than “the beauty of holiness,” Psalm 110:3.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK: Power is God’s hand or arm, omniscience His eye, mercy His bowels, eternity His duration, but holiness is His beauty.
JOHN HOWE (1630-1705): This may be said to be a transcendental attribute, that, as it were, runs through the rest, and casts luster upon them. It is an attribute of attributes.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK: As His holiness seems to challenge an excellency above all His other perfections, so it is the glory of all the rest; as it is the glory of the Godhead, so it is the glory of every perfection in the Godhead; as His power is the strength of them, so His holiness is the beauty of them; as all would be weak without almightiness to back them, so all would be uncomely without holiness to adorn them. Should this be sullied, all the rest would lose their honour; as at the same instant the sun should lose its light, it would lose its heat, its strength, its generative and quickening virtue. As sincerity is the luster of every grace in a Christian, so is purity the splendor of every attribute in the Godhead. His justice is a holy justice, His wisdom a holy wisdom, His arm of power a “holy arm,” Psalm 98:1, His truth or promise a “holy promise,” Psalm 105:42. His name, which signifies all His attributes in conjunction, “is holy,” Psalm 103:1.
JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): He is essentially holy―It is the infinite purity of His nature.
A. W. PINK: Holiness is the antithesis of sin, and the beauty of holiness is in direct contrast from the ugliness of sin. Sin is a deformity, a monstrosity. Sin is repulsive, repellent to the infinitely pure God, Habakkuk 1:13: that is why He selected leprosy, the most loathsome and horrible of all diseases, to be its emblem…At the opposite extreme from the hideousness of sin is “the beauty of holiness.” Holiness is lovely in the sight of God: necessarily so. It is the reflection of His own nature, for He is “glorious in holiness,” Exodus 15:11.
ANDREW GRAY (1805-1861): Another thing which we may call an element of beauty in God, is the combination of His various attributes in one harmonious whole. The colours of the rainbow are beautiful, when taken one by one: but there is a beauty in the rainbow, which arises not from any single tint; there is a beauty in it which would not exist if the several hues were assumed in succession―a beauty which is the result of their assemblage and collocation, and consists in their blended radiance. In like manner do the several perfections, which co-exist and unite in the nature of God, produce a glorious beauty.
MATTHEW HENRY: The harmony of all His attributes is the beauty of His nature…The “beauty of holiness” is called indeed the “perfection of beauty,” Psalm 50:2.
ANDREW GRAY: But, over and above all, there is a beauty which belongs to such combinations and harmonies as the Psalmist describes, when he tells us, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” Psalm 85:10.
A. W. PINK: It is this, supremely, which renders Him lovely to those who are delivered from sin’s dominion.
JOHN GILL: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts―mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts,” Isaiah 6:3,5―the same divine and glorious Person described here is none other than the Lord Christ (John 12:41), King of kings, and Lord of lords, King of saints, and Lord of the armies in heaven and in earth; and a lovely sight it is to see Him by faith, in the glory and beauty of His person, and in the fulness of His grace…“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined,” Psalm 50:2―that is, Christ; He is the perfection of beauty.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Jesus Christ, the true light, shone forth in the beauty of holiness and truth―God was in Christ, and in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
JOHN FLAVEL: What is the last instruction from God’s holiness? That all the despisers of, and scoffers at holiness, are despisers of God; for holiness is the very nature of God…There is none holy as the Lord.
A. W. PINK: He only is independently, infinitely, immutably holy.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Wherefore frivolous is the boast of those who arrogate more than God has conferred upon them. If we believe the Pope, in him is the holiness of holiness.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Indeed no less is implied in the Pope’s ordinary title, “Most Holy Lord,” or, “Most Holy Father”―claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.
JOHN CALVIN: Yet, since he does not produce God’s authority for this, but vaunts himself of titles invented without foundation, we may safely laugh at his stupid impudence.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We think too much of God’s foes and talk of them with too much respect. Who is this Pope of Rome?―“His Holiness?” Call him not so, but call him His Blasphemy!
JOHN GILL: Praise God, who is glorious in holiness, whose beauty lies in His holiness, and who is holy in all His ways and works.
ANDREW GRAY: We conclude by noticing some traits of the beauty of the Lord: It never deceives; it never fades; it never loses its power; it never disappoints.
C. H. SPURGEON: What a word is that―“the beauty of the Lord!” Think of it, dear reader! Better far―behold it by faith! What a sight will that be when every faithful follower of Jesus shall behold “the King in His beauty!”
