Tremble before Him, all the earth.
One of God’s most defining attributes is that He is holy. "Holy" according to Webster’s 1828 dictionary means "Hallowed; consecrated or set apart for consecrated use." God is set apart from creation. He is infinitely above it in truth, goodness, purity, wisdom, knowledge. He is "set above" it because He is the ruler of it.
When God instructed the Israelites to build the tabernacle, He designed it to be a beautiful place. They used blue, purple, and scarlet embroidered fabric (Ex. 26:1); lampstands were decorated with gold almond blossoms (25:33); and the Ark was overlaid with gold and embellished with gold cheribum (25:19). Doesn’t that say something about what God thinks of beauty? He wanted the Israelites to worship Him in a beautiful place because He is beautiful. Along with making the Tabernacle beautiful was making it holy. Everything had to be consecrated and set-apart to God. Even the High Priest wore a sign that said "HOLINESS TO THE LORD" (Ex. 39:30). Everything about the Tabernacle was designed to reflect God’s beauty and holiness–the beauty of His holiness–so His people could worship Him in the beauty of holiness.
Christians today are still told to follow this command. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, "but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." We are supposed to live lives that are set apart to God. We were rescued from the sin of the world, and we need to continue living differently from the world. Several days ago, I was talking to a friend about movies and books. He couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t watch, read, or listen to certain things; he said I could watch them without participating in them myself. That contradicts the idea of being holy to the Lord. As Christians, what we do, say, and think is different from what the world does, says, and thinks. We are called to "be holy as He is holy." Even though we can never attain to God’s standard of holiness, we still need to strive after who He is. When people say a Christian’s life is beautiful, it’s because he has tried to follow God’s command to live a holy life. After Christ died to save us, we gave our lives to Him. They are set apart to God. Just as the set-apart Tabernacle was beautiful, our lives also become beautiful when they become sanctified to the Lord.
The world doesn’t like the beauty of holiness. The more beautiful and holy Christ is, the more dirty and sinful they look. While Christians can worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness, the world trembles before. A holy God is a terrifying thought to sinful people. But in the end, every knee will bow to Him, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:11). All the earth will one day be worshiping the Lord in the beauty of His holiness.
Key: Count the letters; take the squares of the numbers 1-18 (1 squared=1; the first letter is P. 2 squared=4; the second is s. etc.) Answer: Psalmninetysixnine
