“The Splendor of Holiness - Because of Jesus Psalm 29:2 – “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” David issues us a very direct call in Psalm 29, “worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” We are called to worship, created to worship, and redeemed to worship. Worship becomes for us as followers of Jesus Christ the highest calling of our lives. It is our purpose and our reason for living, to give God glory. The study notes in the Gospel Transformation Bible say this, “As David observes a storm moving inland from the Mediterranean, he imagines a Redeemer riding the winds like a warrior on a horse. Rather than cower from this awesome vision, David concludes that this warrior comes to bring peace.” This warrior is of course none other than Jesus Christ, who came to earth to reveal to us the glory of God. Before we could only see a glimpse of that glory and even now we don’t see it fully, but it is fully revealed in the person of Jesus. We see His glory and we are compelled to worship. Yet David’s writing is very direct, “worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” There is only one way that we can worship God and that is in holiness. That poses a problem for us doesn’t it? How can we worship in holiness, when we certainly aren’t holy. How can we enter into the presence of a holy God when His holiness is beyond our reach and if we are called to worship in the splendor of his holiness how then can we worship? How can we do what we are called to do? How can we do what we are created to do? How can we do what we are redeemed to do? After all we were created to worship and as David says “to worship God in the splendor of His holiness”, but we have absolutely no holiness, so how can we worship? We worship because we are not depending on our holiness but rather on the holiness of God. We worship because we can enter “boldly into God’s presence” through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We worship because if we are followers of Christ, we are covered by His blood and His righteousness and holiness has been attributed to us. In short we can only worship because of Jesus. He lived a holy life and when we are “in Christ” that holiness is attributed to us as well. John Bunyan talked about the misery that he felt each day trying to find righteousness, “My peace was in and out sometimes twenty times a day, comfort now and then trouble. But one day this sentence fell upon my soul, ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven; and I thought I saw with the eye’s of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there I say is my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also say that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8)’”. In other words Bunyan says I can worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness, because Jesus is my holiness and righteousness. If our ability to worship was contingent on our holiness or righteousness we would never be able to worship, we would never be able to do what we were made to do, but because of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus we are holy. We are righteous, we are saints who can now worship Him in the splendor of His holiness. This is not a reason for arrogance or pride however, in fact just the opposite, it is a reason for humility. We are not righteous or holy through our own actions but only through the life of Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect sin free life. He always acted “justly and He always loved mercy” and because of His grace that righteousness is credited to us. It is all about Him and not about us at all. What a privilege it is then to be able to worship. To be able to worship God in the splendor of His holiness. We can’t do that on our own, we can only do it through the grace of God. Because of Jesus we can do what we were created to do. Because of Jesus we can do what we were Redeemed to do, because of Jesus we can worship! To God be the glory!
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 19:05:21 +0000
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