What Is The Beauty Of God?

Psalm 27:4 One thing have I asked of the Lord that I should seek…to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. 

 

Truth, Goodness, and Beauty

The earliest philosophers recognized the absolutes of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. These three absolutes parallel the 3 aspects of humanity, as well as the three ways men are called to worship God (Deut 6:4-5). This is because these three absolutes are rooted in the triunity of God. Because man was made in the image of God, he possesses the ability to think, feel, and act, so that he can worship God in truth, behold God’s beauty, and subsequently live rightly before him. 

Of these three absolutes, beauty is the most misunderstood. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of God being described as beautiful, since beauty is frequently considered a feminine quality. In a similar vein, beauty is often assumed to be a superficial or temporal quality, neither of which line up with the nature of God. These difficulties arise because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the meaning of beauty. 

The Meaning of Beauty

Webster’s dictionary defined beauty in the following way: the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).

The word beauty should be contrasted with the term pretty. Something that is pretty considers that which attracts the eye. The term comes from the Old English prættig— meaning “cunning”, being itself derived from prǣtt, “a trick”. That which is pretty is that which has an appearance of goodness or beauty. The etymology of pretty emphasizes superficial attractiveness, whereas beauty speaks to sincerity and depth. This is exactly why Peter exhorts Christian women to not focus on the prettiness of outward appearance but to cultivate true beauty of the heart—Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:3)

The Beauty of God

Objective beauty has depth and power to stir the soul because it reflects God and his work. The Bible tells us that God in his nature is beautiful. There are primarily three different Hebrew words that speak to the beauty of God. 

Tiphʾarah which can be translated— beauty, glory, splendor, radiance, ornament (Ex 28:2, 40 Is 3:18 4:2 2 Chron 3:6. The psalmist uses the word to describe the radiant beauty of God’s presence. 

Splendor and majesty are before him; 

strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. (Ps 96:6)

 

Isaiah 33:17 uses the word to describe the Messiah who will establish his kingdom in a renewed Jerusalem.

Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; 

they will see a land that stretches afar. (Is 33:17)

 

The Hebrew word noʿam also can be translated beauty, pleasantness, gracious, favor. As David uses it in Psalm 27:4.

One thing have I asked 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 gaze upon the beauty of the Lord 

and to inquire in his temple. (Ps 27:4; cf. Ps 29:2)

Another Hebrew word for beauty, hôd, also is used in reference to God. It is frequently translated as splendor, majesty, vigor, glory, honor. This word is frequently connected to the glory of God. It describes his majesty as seen in the creation (Ps 8:1), and in the starry heavens (Ps 148:13; Hab 3:3). When the psalmist looks around at creation he is compelled to worship his beauty (Ps 145:4). The word is used to describe God’s figurative appearance (Ps 104:1). It also describes the coming Messiah who shall build the temple and bear royal honor (Zech 6:13). But note in particular its use in 1 Chronicles 16:28-30.

28  Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, 

ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 

29  Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; 

bring an offering and come before him! 

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; 

30    tremble before him, all the earth; 

yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. (1 Chron 16:28-30)

Three key words are mentioned in this passage: Glory, which refers to the majesty, weight, worth, significance of God; Holiness, which refers to the otherness, separateness; and Beauty, which refers to radiance of God. Each of these words speak to the essence of God’s nature. As Jonathan Edwards’ explained, “God's is an infinite excellency, infinite glory, and beauty itself; he is an infinite, eternal, and immutable excellency; he is not only an infinitely excellent being, but a being that is infinite excellency, beauty, and loveliness.” (Jonathan Edwards, Works, vol. 10, 421). God is so beautiful that the most beautiful aspects of creation pale in comparison. 

The beauty of trees, plants, and flowers, with which God has bespangled the face of the earth, is delightful; the beautiful frame of the body of man, especially in its perfection, is astonishing; the beauty of the moon and stars is wonderful; the beauty of [the] highest heavens is transcendent; the excellency of angels and the saints in light is very glorious: but it is all deformity and darkness in comparison of the brighter glories and beauties of the Creator of all, for "behold even to the moon, and it shineth not" (Job 25:5); that is, think of the excellency of God and the moon will not seem to shine to you, God's excellency so much outshines [it]. And the stars are not pure in his sight, and so we know that at the great day when God appears, the sun shall be turned into darkness, shall hide his face as if he were ashamed to see himself so much outshined; and the very angels, they hide their faces before him; the highest heavens are not clean in his sight, and he charges his angels with folly. (Jonathan Edwards, Works, vol. 10, 421).

Because God by his nature is beautiful, he designed man to both see and enjoy his beauty. God not only wanted man to know him (truth) and obey him (goodness), but he also wanted him to enjoy him (beauty). What is even more amazing, is that God went one step further in creating man, going as far as to impart some of his own beauty upon man, by creating him in his own image. 

The Beauty of God in Men

In Genesis 1:31 when God calls his creation of man very good, that word can be translated beautiful. For man in his unfallen estate radiated the pure beauty of God as his image bearer. As God’s image bearer, man possessed the beauty of God as God’s representative on the earth. 

But everything went awry when we, seeking to be like God, corrupted ourselves (Gen 3:5). Not just Adam but “we” likewise are guilty of the same essential sin. Their treasonous blood pumps through our veins, and this particularly manifested in the fact that we also hunger to be like God. We are not content with our inherent value as image-bearers; we want others to worship us, the image, rather than the One whose image we bear. Instead of being content to reflect the beauty of God, we seek to acquire our own beauty. But it is not true beauty. Its prettiness—superficial, vain, worldly glory. But this is not the worst of it.

The worst of it is that one of the primary manifestations of sin is that we tend to view our fellow image bearers as either threats or tools to be used for our own interest. The next story after Adam and Eve’s departure from the Garden was of Cain killing Abel. Why did he kill him? 

And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” (Gen 3:4-7)

Cain didn’t rule over his sin, instead he became enslaved to it. And this led to the murder of his brother. Sin degrades the image within us as it degrades others in our eyes. This is why murder happens. This is why slavery takes place. This is why human trafficking, and abortion and infanticide take place. It’s because sin prohibits us from seeing other people as image bearers and instead they are seen as tools or threats. This was why Darwinism was both so attractive and so horrible. Darwinism preached the survival of the fittest which implied that that if you could identify a person as “less than” another then you could “dehumanize” them. The most egregious display of this was the Nazi ideology that was propagandized in films, books, and other media. Eugenics was also an amplification of “the survival of the fittest” as it sought to exterminate people deemed as weaker. It was eugenics that gave rise to abortions, which continue to be performed in our culture at an astronomical rate. When people are convinced that it is okay to view other people as tools or threats—be they babies, children, or other races—they will justify assaulting God’s image. This is why proponents of abortion insist on calling babies “fetuses”. To kill a baby is murder; to get rid of a fetus is to remove a problem. This is what sin does. But it was sin that Christ put to death when he went to the cross.

Jesus took on human flesh and died in order to restore man’s full beauty as an image bearer. He not only saved us from God’s wrath, but he also enabled man to function according to God’s design. When we trust in Christ, we are united with him, and are restored to our potential to radiate the beauty of God that was lost at the fall. The philosopher Aristotle recognized that things are most beautiful when they function according to their original design. He concluded that every created thing had a purpose, a “final cause”. And things are most beautiful when they function according to their designed purpose. The more we function according to our ultimate design (to glorify God and enjoy him forever), the more beautiful we become. Our new nature has been made beautiful, and we become more beautiful as we live according to it.

This is exactly why Peter exhorts Christian women to not focus on the outward appearance but to cultivate true beauty of the heart—Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:3)