
Psalm 96:9
Which scriptures teach you and me how to worship our Lord? Off the top, can you think of anything beyond the well-known verse penned by an unknown author? “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (KJV). “Worship the Lord in the splendour of His holiness” (Psalm 96:9 NIV) Awesome! We worship Him because He is Holy.
What do we know about the holiness of God? We sing about it: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” but what do we mean? Jesus said “I have come to do your will” (Matthew 26:39) and “By that will we are made holy [set apart*] through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 10:10).
There are many other words associated with God’s holiness. “Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). One commentator notes: “God is supremely and exclusively God. He has no rivals. As uniquely excellent, He is His own category”. Samuel wrote “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one beside You” (1 Samuel 2:2). Apparently, the Bible calls God “the Holy One” over 50 times and calls the Spirit of God “the Holy Spirit” over 90 times. While God alone is holy [set apart*], there is a sense in which we humans also may be holy.
However, there are many temptations through life which would lure us away from the path of holiness. Peter knew that better than anyone. He warns his readers: “Just as He who called you is holy, be holy in all you do, for it is written ‘Be holy, because I am holy’ ” (Leviticus 11:44-45, 1 Peter 1:16). First of all we must be intentional.
We will never achieve the beauty of God’s holiness, but His example gives us something to strive for. We have the life of Christ revealed to us in God’s Holy Word. What might we take from this? Holy means to be set apart*. In the purity of His sinless life, Christ is indeed set apart. No other human has achieved the splendour of His perfect life. He has gone down through history as God’s Holy Son, God in a man’s body, pure and perfect.
How does this apply to you and me today? For one thing, God has given us instructions in moral purity to follow, in the Bible. We have been set apart to be different because the Holy Spirit lives in each believer, growing us into the likeness of our Lord Jesus, loving, joyful, peaceable, patient and kind…and the list goes on (Galatians 5:22). Christ is our hero in holiness!
Reflection:
Purity? Holiness? Is it fair that God sets before us what looks like an impossible task? Let me suggest it is only when we are inspired by the vision of His splendour, that we will strive to be more like Him! Have we seen Jesus in all of His glory, raised from the dead? If we take time to be holy, we will spend time in His presence, getting to know the God we say we worship. Regarding fairness we might ask: Do we long to suffer whatever life throws at us in the same spirit as He suffered all that He faced on the cross, and all that went before it?
“Majesty! Worship His majesty! Unto Jesus be all glory, honour and praise!”
By Marilyn Daniels (MarilynDaniels.net)








