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I. THE BELIEVER'S BEAUTY.

1. It is all derived, and not natural. Our Lord Jesus first makes men beautiful through His comeliness put upon them, and then He commends and takes pleasure in the works of His own hands (Ezekiel 16:14).

(1) The believer is covered with the rich and ornamenting robe of the righteousness of His glorious surety. He is "clothed with the garments of salvation" (Isaiah 61:10).

(2) The believer is also "all glorious within," by the working of the Holy Spirit. His heart and affections ascend heavenward.

(3) The believer is fair and beautiful in respect of his outward conversation. The truly godly do not talk and walk at random: "Honey and milk are under their tongue," and they endeavour through grace to set the Lord always before them, and to regulate every part of their conduct according to the rule of His Word.

2. What are some of the qualities of the believer's beauty?

(1) It is a derived beauty.

(2) It is real (Song of Solomon 4:1). The judgment of Christ concerning His children, and the world's opinion of them, are very different.

(3) It is of a spiritual nature, His adorning is the hidden man of the heart (1 Peter 3:4).

(4) It is of a growing and increasing nature (Proverbs 4:18; Romans 8:18). Every new discovery that the believer gets of the King in His beauty by the eye of faith, in the glass of his own word, adds to his spiritual beauty, and carries him forward to a further degree of likeness and conformity to Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

(5) The Lord Jesus will perfect the beauty of His Bride and Spouse in due time. The beauty of a believer is perfect as to parts in the day of regeneration (2 Corinthians 5:17); and he that hath once begun the good work of beautifying a soul with salvation will finish it (Philippians 1:6).

II. THE DELIGHT WHICH THE LORD JESUS IS PLEASED TO TAKE IN THE BELIEVER'S BEAUTY.

1. He does so by looking upon it with pleasure and delight. He beholds the upright with a pleasant countenance (Psalm 11:17). We see with what pleasure he beheld the integrity of Nathaniel (John 1:47). And as He looks upon the beauty of His people with delight, so He is never more taken with it than when they are entertaining the lowest thoughts of themselves.

2. He does so by commending it (Job 1:8; Song of Solomon 2:14).

3. Christ evidences great delight in the beauty of His people by keeping company with them, and admitting them to the enjoyment of sweet fellowship and communion with Himself (Revelation 3:20)

4. He evidences the pleasure and delight which He takes in the beauty of His people, by letting them into the knowledge of these things which are hid from the men of the world (Psalm 25:14).

5. He evidences His delight and complacency in the beauty of His people by the many endearing characters and designations which He gives them; such as, His Sister, His Spouse, His Love, His Dove, His Undefiled, etc.

6. He does so by the honourable services He employeth His people in. He, as it were, ornaments Himself with them (Isaiah 62:3).

7. Christ evidences His desire of, and delight in, the beauty of His people by intimating His will to the Father, that they may be admitted to be where He is after they have served their generation according to His will in the present world (John 17:24).

III. USE.

1. For information.

(1) We may infer that man is by nature vile and loathsome in the sight of an holy God, and so liable to the Divine displeasure; he has lost the glorious and beautiful image of God that was instamped upon him in his first creation by his fall in the first Adam.

(2) Hence, see what it is that can render a man truly beautiful and comely in the sight of God; it is his being clothed with the righteousness of His Son, and His being made a partaker of the grace of His Spirit.

(3) Hence, see how it is that any come actually to partake of the beauty of holiness, and that is in their being espoused to Christ.

(4) Is our Lord Jesus pleased to take complacency and delight in the beauty of His people? Then we may see how careful and diligent they should be to become still more desirable in His eye by growing in likeness and conformity to Him.

(5) Hence, see that believers in Christ need not be much moved on account of the disrespect and contempt which a carnal world is disposed to cast upon them.

(6) We may see matter of reproof to all such as are instrumental in marring the beauty of the Church, whether by persecution, error in doctrine, neglect of discipline, or by perverting the exercise of it, or by the introduction of human inventions into the worship of God.

2. For trial and examination. Are you possessed of that beauty that is amiable in the sight of Christ? If so, we think that you have seen your natural blackness and deformity; if ever you saw yourselves in the glass of the holy law set before you by the Spirit, this must have been the case with you. You have seen and felt an utter inability in yourselves to acquire that beauty that is pleasing to Christ. But again, if you are partakers of this beauty that is so desirable to Christ, then your remaining sin and deformity is your burden. In a word, if you are blessed with the begun participation of spiritual beauty, it is your real concern to have it increased and perfected. You are sensible there is much lacking in it (Philippians 3:13).

3. For exhortation.

(1) As to you who are the children and people of God, and whom He has begun to beautify with His salvation, we exhort you to bless the Lord for His goodness to you; for His works of wonder done, both for you and in you; though you were once lying among the pots, yet mercy has lifted you up. To be upon your guard against everything that tends to stain your beauty. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. "Be not conformed to this world."

(T. Bennet)

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KJV: So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

WEB: So the king will desire your beauty, honor him, for he is your lord.