The essential feature of God's worship.
"O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." This is also read, "in the glorious sanctuary," and "in holy vestments." The Authorized Version is the more poetic sentiment, and may therefore be preferred. The expression is given in 2 Chronicles 20:21, where Jehoshaphat, in sending forth his army, "appointed singers who should praise the beauty of holiness." Holiness is the keynote of the worship of Jehovah; but it is the keynote of the worship of no other god. "Had a medal been struck in praise of Jupiter, who is the best of the pagan gods, on one side might have been engraved 'Almightiness, omnipresence, justice;' and on the reverse, 'Caprice, vengeance, lust.'" But the association of beauty with holiness now requires our attention. The best idea may be gained by thinking of ripe fruit; if it is really healthy and ripe, it cannot help having a bloom on. That bloom is the beauty of ripeness. "Beauty is a combination of elements according to the laws of harmony; the more beautiful the parts or elements, and the more perfect the harmonious combination, the higher the beauty." Then we must find the elements that go to make a worship so holy that, both in God's sight and in man's, it should be beautiful. Worship that can be thought of as showing the "beauty of holiness" must be—
I. LAWFUL. It may not be sufficiently recognized that public worship was arranged for, authorized. There is no room for self-will. There may be different views as to the ultimate authority for forms of worship. If it is to be "holy," the elements of mere self-willedness and pleasure must be excluded.
II. PURE. "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." This was at once typified and testified by the clean white linen garments of the priests, and by their washing before engaging in their offices. Bodily purity did but represent the moral purity God requires.
III. SINCERE. This brings before us the condition of the will. God's great reproach is levelled at the divided mind. That worship cannot be acceptable in which the man's hand is one way and his heart is another. Worship is only ceremony and routine unless a man's heart is in it. Absolute simple-mindedness is the beauty of worship, the bloom on the fruit.
IV. CHEERFUL. The psalmists constantly remind us of the joyousness of worship. It excited high emotions. Lifted out of all drudgery to become a holy delight, we feel still the "beauty of holiness" in God's glorious sanctuary and exalted worship.—R.T.
Nature sympathies.
There is a strange and wonderful response of material nature to the spiritual moods of men. Faces may not change, but expressions on faces change continually, and even seem different to different individuals. And so nature keeps the same, but seems ever-varying to us, according as our moods are to it. Lowth says on this verse, "Nothing can excel that noble exultation of universal nature, which has been so often commended. Poetry here seems to assume the highest tone of triumph and exultation, and to revel, if I may so express myself, in all the extravagance of joy." Keep in mind that nature is represented as suffering in consequence of the sin of man. It may well exult with man in the redemption which uplifts out of suffering both him and it (Romans 8:20-23). In a very well known discourse, Dr. H. Bushnell illustrates these two propositions:
I. NATURE SYMPATHIES WITH MAN IN HIS INNOCENCE. Show the kindness between the Garden of Eden and the man put into it.
II. NATURE SYMPATHIES WITH MAN IN HIS FALL. Bringing forth thorns, etc. Ground cursed for man's sake. A well known artist has a picture of Adam and Eve after their fall. They are seated, in utmost distress, at a distance from each other, and what seems to divide them is a hideously shaped tree, the trunk of which seems to take almost demon form. The artist made nature kin to our fallen parents.
III. NATURE SYMPATHIES WITH MAN IN HIS MOODS. Illustrate this by the darkness which fell behind the cross of Jesus when he died. See also the effect of the shading olives on Jesus in Gethsemane. Compare the harvest psalms—the corn, etc; shouting for joy in response to the glad and thankful moods of men.
IV. NATURE SYMPATHIES WITH MAN IN HIS REDEMPTION. For illustration, see Isaiah 11:6-9, where the very beasts are poetically represented as affected by the peace of eternal purity which one day shall come to men.—R.T.