I WILL REFLECT Seeing is underrated, and often violated. We rarely stop and marvel at the wonder of visual perception. But we frequently live satisfied with God’s gift of sight. Vacation time is an annual occurrence for many of us to satisfy our visual craving and behold God’s diverse peculiarities in the world. On a negative note, our century has an obsession with the visual that violates this gift by turning images into gods, and subsequently seducing us to value what one should not. Whether used sacredly or profanely, the ability to see doesn’t change this fact: that the Creator’s irreproducible looking glass imbedded in every human is one of the most remarkable senses we have to worship that God who sees everything. The blessing of sight is not just in its pictorial sensation. The “inner eye” of the heart helps us interpret what we see materially. Take, for example, the striking experience of seeing the Grand Canyon or getting lost in the vast blue ocean or driving through a rolling country side or standing on the summit of a rocky peak. The awe- inspiring sensation is not only in what we “tangibly” see, but also in how we internally interpret with the eyes of our heart what we see. Worship happens in a similar way. How we “see” God through His Word will change the way we think about Him, love Him, serve Him, and approach Him. To put another way, how we see God through His Word will change the way we worship Him. In fact, worship is a time to reflect on the Lord. One of David’s living requests was to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life . . . .” (Ps. 27:4 NAU). Why does he want to do this? Surely he could have said he would rather dwell in his prestigious palace all the days of his life or take the luxury of constantly living in various places throughout his great kingdom. But David was—and even now is —a worshipper. He loved the Lord. He knew with Asaph that in reality he had nothing in heaven that could compare with God or nothing on earth that could satisfy like God (Ps. 73:25). And so it’s not strange that his request to dwell in the house of the Lord is for the purpose “to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple” (Ps. 27:4 NAU). David’s time of worship is a time to see and reflect on the beauty of the Lord. Our worship should have the same element. Whether at church, home, or work we should enter God’s presence reflecting on who God is and what He has done. When we enter church we should do so acknowledging that God’s presence is known among His people through His Holy Spirit. Just as David “saw” and reflected on the beauty of the Lord while in worship, we should also worshipfully reflect on the incomparable beauty of God. The Hebrew word for “beauty” means that which should be desired. To make the Christocentric parallel to what we’ve been saying: Worship is a time to reflect on the desirableness of Jesus. So we don’t rush headlong into idolatry, let me caution you what not to do when reflecting on who God is. Two strong warnings follow. First, we are forbidden by God to make any images of Him (Ex. 20:4). This means we don’t dare imagine how we think God looks. We don’t think on His shape (He has no shape) and we don’t think on His form (He has no form). God is spirit (John 4:24). And we don’ try and imagine a spirit (which is impossible). Second, because of the second commandment just listed, we must get our ideas of God from His Word. Since we don’t have the liberty to make any images of God—whether physical or mental—we don’t have the freedom to imagine how we think He acts or what we think He commands. Who God is dictates how He will act, and how He acts is directive for what He commands. All this is to say that we receive our revelation of God through His Word. And His Word will guide us into what is desirable about Jesus. Worship is a time to reflect on the desirableness of Jesus. Jesus is desirable because He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of His nature (Heb. 1:3). When we see Jesus, we behold God. God’s glory is His manifest perfection and excellence. Our deepest desires our bound up in a perfect God. Only when we feed on Jesus do we start to satisfy an otherwise insatiable desire. The desirableness of Jesus is enough to occupy a restless heart and thirsty soul, as well as to attract a hardened sinner and wayward child. Worship Him.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 20:14:47 +0000
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