Behold

 

“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.” Psalm 27:4 ESV

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:1-4 ESV

Behold is not a term we use a lot in our culture and yet we find this word all throughout Scripture.  Behold means to perceive through sight or apprehension; to gaze upon.  It is used a lot in Scripture to encourage people to look to God and also to pay close attention to what is about to be said.

By now I am sure you have noticed that we have titled Cobblestone’s worship team social media and blog, “Behold Worship” and you are probably wondering why.  I am very excited to satisfy your curiosity by answering this question.  About two years ago Katie and I had some friends over.  During this time Amanda Lawson mentioned that she started working on a new song rooted in Revelation 4 and 5.  It was titled, “Behold.” I grabbed my guitar and we began to get to work and we would continue to do so off and on for the next 18 months.  One week I felt the Lord impress on my heart that we need to do this song and so we sang it the next Sunday morning.  After that Sunday we received many reports of God working through the song.  Praise God!

Now I want to back up because there are important things the Lord was doing during the time of waiting before we introduced the song.  God began to work in our worship team to behold Him.  To fix our eyes on Him and worship.  In me personally the Lord had been encouraging me to behold Him and declare what I see.  We see this in 1 John 1.  This has become my life mission.  I long to gaze upon the Lover of my soul and declare to the Church and the world what I see.  To declare how amazing He is.  To let you in on a secret, I don’t believe this mission is just for me and the worship team.  I believe this is for you as well.  There are people called to debate doctrines and go toe-to-toe with brilliant secular minds and fight for the Truth.  Most of us are not called to that.  We are given the mission of knowing God and declaring to the world who He is.  What an amazing mission to give your life to.  You get to KNOW the God of all creation and tell people about Him!  To be clear, when we behold God and then declare what we see, we are echoing what Scripture has already declared.  We are not receiving new revelation that is equal to Scripture. 

So, as I mentioned before, we received testimony of the Lord working in peoples lives through the song.  Behold became a common theme in the worship team.  After prayer and discussion we decided to go with Behold Worship.  Our mission is to, you guessed it, behold God and declare what we see.  We want to live lives, write songs, and worship in a way that proclaims how holy, majestic, beautiful, just, merciful, loving, and worthy He is.  There is no one or anything else worth giving our lives to and we want to invite others to join us in this mission.  Will you join us?  Will you commit to behold God and declare what you see?  

You may be asking, “David, how do I behold God?”  Let me give you some practical ways.  Spend time every day reading the Bible, write down ways God is described, and then talk to Him about what you read.  Don’t just give Him two minutes in the Word and go about your day.  If you really want to behold God it requires time and intentionality.  Really stop and think about who Scripture says He is.  Why is He worthy?  Why is He beautiful?  Why is He holy?

Next I encourage you to sing to God.  What? Yes, sing to the Lord.  The Scriptures say to make a joyful noise.  God does not require a perfect and beautiful sound.  What should you sing?  Sing what you just learned about God in Scripture.  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Ephesians 3:16 ESV).  If you’re like me, it is easier to remember song lyrics than any other information.  Why? It is proven that singing helps us remember things.  This is why teachers like to turn information into songs for kids to learn.  Ever heard of School House Rock?  Oh yeah, you know what I’m talking about.  As you sing what Scripture says about God overtime you will notice that you know more.

Now, do not confuse knowing information about God with knowing God.  I can know a lot of information about people and never have relationship with them.  To know God is to have a relationship with Him.  Knowledge about God is very important though because you cannot be in awe or appropriately assign worth to something you do not know anything about.  This is why proper praise and worship requires us to read and know the Bible.  This Bible and the Holy Spirit produce worship in us.

Why do we behold God?  I will use the words of theologian James Hamilton to answer this question.  “What will it take to set you free from the world’s idolatries - what will it take to keep you from trusting in things that are no gods at all?  What will make you free from the world’s immoralities - what will it take to make you untouched by the lust of smut that the world peddles and with which worldlings ruin their lives?  What will it take to liberate you from the world’s false perspective on the way things are - the perspective that assumes there is no God, there is no revelation of truth in the Bible, and there will be no judgement?  I’ll tell you what it will take: it will take seeing God as he is.  Beholding God will break the chains of idolatry because when you see God, you see what Deity is, and that exposes the idols as worthless and unworthy of (your) trust.  Beholding God will purify you from immorality because when you see God you see what beauty and faithfulness are, and that exposes the ugliness of adultery.  Beholding God will give you new lenses through which to look at the world because God himself defines reality.” (Commentary on Revelation, 130)

This is why we behold God and why I urge you to gaze upon him.  Pray what David said in Psalm 27:4 until that becomes your desire.  You will not find anyone or anything worth more than Jesus!  Do not waste your life on earthly pursuits.  Behold God and declare what you see to a world that is in desperate need of truth.

Much Love,

David