Psalm 27:1-5 | Delight in Beauty

Preacher: Joel Fair
Scripture: Psalm 27:1-5

C. S. Lewis
The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.

Matthew 13:44–46
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Alexander Pope
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. "One master passion in the breast.
Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up the rest.

Charles Spurgeon's Notes on Andrew Gray in “Gospel Contrasts and Parallels.”
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. Holiness is beautiful; mercy is beautiful; truth is beautiful. But, over and above, 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.” “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep,” etc.

Psalm 85:10
Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Psalm 36:5–6
Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 
6  Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD.

Isaiah 33:17
Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar.

Isaiah 53:2–3
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Colossians 1:19
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

John 14:9
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

John 17:24
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Augustine of Hippo
Too late did I love you, O Beauty, so ancient, and yet so new! Too late did I love you! For behold, you were within, and I without, and there did I seek you; I, unlovely, rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty you made. You were with me, but I was not with you. Those things kept me far from you, which, unless they were in you, were not. You called, and cried aloud, and forced open my deafness. You gleamed and shined, and chased away my blindness. You exhaled odours, and I drew in my breath and panted after you. I tasted, and hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.