“[2] Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” Psalm 29:2 KJV.
When I think on the glory of the Lord I think about the radiance and beauty of His excellence, but as I think longer and a little deeper about it; His glory is so much than just that. God’s glory is used to describe the manifestation of God’s presence as perceived by humans. His glory is tangible and visible (Isaiah 40:5) (Exodus 16:7) (Exodus 24:17) (Revelation 21:23). In my mind the hugeness and vastness of God is awe inspiring. As humans we could never fully put our minds totally around it. Anything we could ever need spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially, etc. lies in Him. Of course He is not a genie but He is our Father and He loves to dote on His children. As His children we should always give him glory (honoring) (Psalm 105:3).
To be more thorough in explaining my thoughts I looked at Strong’s Concordance and NAS Exhaustive Concordance. According to what I have read it can be used as a noun or a verb, so it is an action word and an object. We give God glory, “[3] Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord” (Psalm 105:3 KJV). God’s glory is doing something and it is His “clothing”, “ [10] Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty” (Job 40:10 KJV). When we are glorifying Him we are honoring Him with what He has given us, but He Himself is in Glory; clothed in it. It’s showing off the many aspects His essence. According to NAS Exhaustive Concordance glory is to be heavy, weighty, burdensome. These words used to describe what God’s Glory is doing and what it is are not negative. We need God’s Glory to be great in any way, all good and perfect things come from God (James 1:17) and exhibit His glory. When we enter Heaven we will be surrounded by His Glory, the glory of His presence, His being; and it will never fade.
Everything bows at the weight of God’s Glory. Everything is transformed in some shape or form when exposed to the glory of God. When we are soaking and in deep praise and worship with the Lord we slightly touch His glory; He gets close to us. Since He gets close to us and He is leaning in, we are transformed because we are in communion with Him; we are entering His realm and dimension. Your mindset, circumstances, physical ailments become subject to His glory and are changed in order to exhibit and reflect His Glory because of the heaviness of it.
There are two examples of God’s glory/goodness being seen that I want to share. The first one was with Moses where God’s Glory appears as a cloud as He gives Moses instruction and the transformation of Saul into Paul by the brightness of His glory. Both instances God was able to bring people into deeper understanding of His character and drawing them into a deeper fellowship with Him. Also He was able to transform difficult circumstances and use the most unlikely of candidates to carry out heavy assignments in a dramatic way.
MOSES
Exodus 33:7-11 MSG [7-10] Moses used to take the Tent and set it up outside the camp, some distance away. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who sought God would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. It went like this: When Moses would go to the Tent, all the people would stand at attention; each man would take his position at the entrance to his tent with his eyes on Moses until he entered the Tent; whenever Moses entered the Tent, the Pillar of Cloud descended to the entrance to the Tent and God spoke with Moses. All the people would see the Pillar of Cloud at the entrance to the Tent, stand at attention, and then bow down in worship, each man at the entrance to his tent. [11] And God spoke with Moses face-to-face, as neighbors speak to one another. When he would return to the camp, his attendant, the young man Joshua, stayed—he didn’t leave the Tent.
Exodus 33:12-23 MSG [12-13] Moses said to God , “Look, you tell me, ‘Lead this people,’ but you don’t let me know whom you’re going to send with me. You tell me, ‘I know you well and you are special to me.’ If I am so special to you, let me in on your plans. That way, I will continue being special to you. Don’t forget, this is your people, your responsibility.” [14] God said, “My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end.” [15-16] Moses said, “If your presence doesn’t take the lead here, call this trip off right now. How else will it be known that you’re with me in this, with me and your people? Are you traveling with us or not? How else will we know that we’re special, I and your people, among all other people on this planet Earth?” [17] God said to Moses: “All right. Just as you say; this also I will do, for I know you well and you are special to me. I know you by name.” [18] Moses said, “Please. Let me see your Glory.” [19] God said, “I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I’ll call out the name, God , right before you. I’ll treat well whomever I want to treat well and I’ll be kind to whomever I want to be kind.” [20] God continued, “But you may not see my face. No one can see me and live.” [21-23] God said, “Look, here is a place right beside me. Put yourself on this rock. When my Glory passes by, I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll take my hand away and you’ll see my back. But you won’t see my face.”
PAUL
Acts 9:3-16 MSG [3-4] He set off. When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?” [5-6] He said, “Who are you, Master?” “I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you’ll be told what to do next.” [7-9] His companions stood there dumbstruck—they could hear the sound, but couldn’t see anyone—while Saul, picking himself up off the ground, found himself stone-blind. They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus. He continued blind for three days. He ate nothing, drank nothing. [10] There was a disciple in Damascus by the name of Ananias. The Master spoke to him in a vision: “Ananias.” “Yes, Master?” he answered. [11-12] “Get up and go over to Straight Avenue. Ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus. His name is Saul. He’s there praying. He has just had a dream in which he saw a man named Ananias enter the house and lay hands on him so he could see again.” [13-14] Ananias protested, “Master, you can’t be serious. Everybody’s talking about this man and the terrible things he’s been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! And now he’s shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us.” [15-16] But the Master said, “Don’t argue. Go! I have picked him as my personal representative to non-Jews and kings and Jews. And now I’m about to show him what he’s in for—the hard suffering that goes with this job.”
I wrote on this topic because I was really questioning what is God’s Glory exactly and how are we effected by it. The glory of God is weighty, magnificent and amazing. We serve an amazing God, whose capabilities cannot be measured. His Glory has a transforming effect and provides intimacy in our relationship with Him. His Glory is a display of His Splendor. He leans into us and gives us a hint of it when we are close with Him.
Final Note:
Allow Him to transform you with the goodness of His presence. Praise and honor Him; get close to His Glory.