15
Having beauty as an umbrella term for the manifold terms in the Psalm allows us
to see that the Psalms declare that the beauty of God shines forth from his person and his
works. Psalm 96 is a call to all nations to worship the Lord. Rather than reducing the
revealed God to a redemptive mantra--he saved me--the Psalmist focuses on who God
is and what he has done in a more comprehensive nature.
46
Psalm 96:4-6 proclaims, "For
great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all gods
of the nations are idols but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before
him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary." These verses make it clear that God
radiates beauty like the sun releases light. Where God is, beauty is.
47
God's beauty far
outshines the dull luster of the idol. In our proclamation of the Gospel would we not do
well to emphasize how the vision of God fills the heart with a sense of wonder, awe,
completeness and beauty?
The acts of God are also beautiful. Psalm 111:2-3 pronounces: "Great are the
works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic
are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever." The Psalmist links together
contemplation and delight, thinking and spiritual titillation. When God does, he does
beautifully. Thus, his great work of redemption is beautiful. Psalm 111 goes on to
describe what God has done for his people, showing that the redemptive works of God
are great, glorious, majestic and delightful, all components of biblical beauty. Thus we
would have biblical justification that the work of the cross is somehow beautiful.
46
Incidentally, many commentators on beauty have argued that beauty is diversity in unity or
complexity in simplicity. This Psalms keeps together the simplicity of who God is and what he has done
redemptively without sacrificing the complexity of the wholeness of God.
47
One may wonder if the beauty of God will be in hell. Is it proper to say the "beauty of God's
wrath?" Is every attribute of God beautiful, even his wrath or are the attributes joined together in his
person beautiful ? That is wrath, of itself, is not beautiful but when added to the plethora of God's