Strive for Perfection and Beauty (Psalm 50 Devotional)
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shown forth. – Psalm 50:2
Perfection and beauty - the 2 things an artist strives for. We work our craft, practice, hone, develop, mimic, toil and work toward perfection and beauty. But why?
If we are fully loved and complete in Christ, if we are to cease striving and know that He is God, rest in Him and realize that we are clothed in His righteousness and seated in the heavenly places in Him, then, why do we tenaciously pursue excellence in our craft here on earth?
One reason, we touched on this previously - we are to dig through the mountain to get to the diamond that God placed within each of us so that we can present it to others. But there is another reason, that in a way encapsulates the entire story of God’s redemptive plan for us. In the garden, in the Adamic Covenant, God commanded Adam to subdue the earth. What does that mean? Simply put, it is to bring order from chaos. It’s to turn land overgrown with weeds into a productive farm that feeds others. It’s to draw elements from a mountain to make steel to build a city. It’s to discover the mysteries of God’s creation through science and use these discoveries for the betterment of mankind. And it is to bring forth beauty from the void of nothing.
In doing that, we are truly doing something divine. Beauty has no pragmatic necessity. You can’t eat a Beethoven symphony, clothe yourself with a Michelangelo statue or find shelter in a Rembrandt painting. Art exists simply because God is a God of beauty, not just the author of beauty, but the very embodiment of beauty. He is the spring from which all beauty flows. And in creating us in the image of a beauty-making creator, He placed in us an appreciation of beauty (and the abstract art form of music).
Societies throughout the ages and the world have appreciated the sublime creations of the great Creator of Beauty. As NT Wright says it is one of the 4 proofs of God - our desire for spirituality, justice, relationship, and beauty. And as redeemed humanity and artists we are to create beauty in this world as part of the redemptive story. Bring order from chaos, beauty out of nothing-ness. Pray that the Lord of all beauty would help you to create and advance the kingdom of God through the redemption of the arts and bring glory to Him in the process.
