HEBREW WORD STUDY –  BEHOLD BEAUTY – CHAZON NO’AM  חזון נעם Cheth Zayon Vav Nun   Nun Ayin Mem

Ps 27:4 One [thing] have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

So what is the beauty of the Lord?  Commentators say the Psalmist is thinking of the sanctuary of the Lord.  The sanctuary stood in the Western half of the rectangular courtyard. This was as far as anyone including David was allowed to go if you were not a priest.  If the general thinking is right and this Psalm was written by David, then the temple did not yet exist and what we are referring to is the tabernacle.  I don’t see what would have been beautiful about the outer court of the sanctuary.  I doubt very much it is a reference to the tabernacle.

Some commentators say it is a reference to the rituals. I really do not see any references where he even speaks of rituals in loving terms. In fact he seemed to have no problem eating the shrewbread when he was hungry.   Perhaps it is a reference to rituals but I just don’t see David as one who really gets hung up on rituals.  However, I can picture a commentator sitting up in his high tower who attends high church every week where they have elaborate rituals assuming that this is what David was referring to.  For this old Baptist where the extent of our rituals was a pulpit and listening to sermon after two hymns and a prayer, I have nothing to related to as beauty in rituals.

The word beauty is no’am which means kindness, pleasantness, delightfulness, beauty and favor.  

So, ok, I admit there is something to corporate worship in a beautiful sanctuary and maybe the commentators may have it right, David is referring to that special time of worship in the tabernacle of the Lord and that is the house of the Lord.   But allow me to offer something more.  David could be referring to the House of the Lord as the heart of God, not a physical building or place.  When he enters the heart of God he beholds the beauty of the Lord. 

The word behold is chazah which is often used for spiritual sight although it can be used for a physical seeing this would be limited to seeing like from an experience or an intellectual understanding.  Ra’ah is a physical seeing and spiritual seeing.  Chazah, however,  is the word applied to a prophet or a seer who sees visions and glimpses of a person’s heart.  So if David longs to chazah, see the  beauty of  the Lord and beauty in Hebrew here is no’am which means kindness, delightfulness and favor then he could very well be speaking of something abstract and not physical.

How can you see kindness, delightfulness and the presence of God?  We have to separate our thinking from the spiritual and the natural.  Let me explain it this way.  When the husband thinks of his wife while at work he may reflect on that kiss she gave him as he left of work.  He could feel that kiss, not physically but in his mind and heart.  He can even smell the freshness of the soaps and shampoo that she used, not physically but in his heart and mind.  He can still feel the softness of her kiss, and he can even taste the minty flavor of her toothpaste when he gave him that kiss. Most of all he can see how beautiful she looked as her eyes shinned and sparkled after giving him that kiss.   All his senses are in play, yet they are coming from his heart, mind and/or spirit and not from the physical around him at his office or place of business.   He is chazon beholding his wife’s no’am beauty. I believe this is the same chazon. and no’am that David longs to feel with God.  No, he cannot see God but he can with his spiritual eyes or the eyes of his heart or mind.  He can sure feel Him, taste him, see Him, hear Him and even smell him with all the senses bound up in one big sense of his heart, mind or spirit. 

I recall attending a service at church associated with the International of Prayer.  If you know anything about I Hop they go on and on for three or four hours of just worshipping God.  Sometimes singing the same song over and over.  However, during that time the worshipper is focusing more and more upon God and after a couple hours the cares of the world the distractions of the world tend to disappear and your mind, body and soul begin worshipping God together.  On this particular day that I attended I thought after a couple hours I was beginning to hallucinate because suddenly I saw what appeared to be an opening to another dimension on the right side of the platform. I could not see into the portal but I it was definitely some sort of entrance way or gateway.  Suddenly people began leaving their seats and walking up to this portal and began praising God from the very depths of the being, the depths of their soul.  I figured I was not the only one hallucinating. After the service was over I asked some of the worshippers why they left their seats and walked to the area of the platform.  Most simply said: “I don’t know, I just felt closer to God there.  I was apparently the only one hallucinating.  I then asked if they saw anything. One person said she saw glorious colors, another said he smelt roses, another said he heard the voice of God another said he just felt the presence of God.

I believe we all chazon, beheld the no’am beauty of God just like David each in our own special way.