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Surprised by Beauty



The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy.
Psalm 111:7

I read the Psalms every day because of their poetic beauty and depth. Mostly, they are an outpouring of praise from profound, personal experience. Praise which comes from the inner recesses of the heart is a true exaltation of God. The desperate cry of the overwhelmed heart is also manifest within the Psalms, which again is an honest expression of the human experience. Just in passing, the Bible as a whole makes no attempt to appear as a religious book. It is an accurate unfolding of the story of humanity with all its depravity and human weakness recorded.

As I read Psalm 111 recently, verse 7 caught my attention: the work of His hands are faithful and just. The very first time I ever felt conscious of God was at the age of eight while looking at the night sky. I would call this moment 'surprised by beauty'. I could literally feel the presence of God while marvelling at His handiwork. "The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of His hands!" pronounces David in Psalm 19 v 1. How true! I did not know God personally, but at that moment I knew He was the Creator and have never doubted His existence to this day. The night I determined not to sleep until I was right with God was also a night when I looked up into the heavens and thought to myself: since the night sky is so beautiful, surely God Himself must be more beautiful! That night at the age of eleven, after hearing the Gospel preached, I opened my heart through the working of the Holy Spirit to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour. The 'works of His hands' and the work of the Cross led me to the Eternal God.

Throughout the years, I have come to understand more fully the latter clause of verse 7: all His precepts are trustworthy. My Hebrew dictionary tells me that the word translated 'trustworthy' is 'âman', meaning 'steadfast, sure, verified, faithful, of long continuance'. The root means 'to build up, support' as well as 'to foster as a nurse or parent'. Many people think that God's commands and precepts will rob them of life and are designed to take away all enjoyment of living. How wrong is this! Every one of God's precepts is for our good. Just as parents or nurses give commands to their child or patient for their good, so our Heavenly Father has given us precepts for our benefit.

As we embrace life with God, we are to read His handbook, the Bible, and adopt His ways. Together with the life-giving Spirit within and the life-giving Word, we can learn why we are on this earth and what our destination is. We are eternal beings who need to consider seriously the precepts of YHWH, the One who upholds all things. Sometimes God speaks to us as Christians and we doubt the wisdom of His command. Let us never forget: all His precepts are trustworthy! If we are sure God is telling us to do something, then we must have the faith to obey. Very often God will bring us through an experience we never expected; very often, we will be surprised by beauty.
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