There are several old and/or unique words from the Bible that are worth knowing. If the Lord wills, over the remainder of the year, I would like to highlight a word each week so that we can enter the New Year with increased knowledge and a better understanding of the words found in the Bible.
This week, let’s take a closer look at the word beautify.
“For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.” (Psalm 149:4 NKJV)
beautify
(byut’-e-fi) verb: to make beautiful
or add beauty to: embellish: to grow beautiful (synonym, adorn) (Webster’s
Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1986 edition)
beautify (byut’-e-fi) verb: from the Hebrew word pa’ar (H6286) to gleam, embellish,
glorify. It is from this word that the Hebrew word ‘pehora’ came which means ‘foliage (including limbs), as bright green’
(Abingdon’s Strong’s Exhaustive
Concordance of the Bible, 1983)
God made man in His own image (Genesis
1:27) – something already wondrous to consider – but because we falter and
sin, we fall short of His glory (Romans
3:23), our souls become dingy and dull in the darkness of sin, and we are lost.
What can
we do in such a state as that? There is no soap or detergent on earth that
can cleanse a soul from sin; how can we
be washed and cleansed from all unrighteousness?
By humbly
submitting to God!
When we submit to God, follow His clear instruction, and are
baptized, we will be forgiven of our sins (Acts
2:38). It is in baptism (where we are
buried in water, fully immersed) that our sins are washed away (Acts 22:16), and our souls can once
again gleam! It is baptism that puts us into
the body of Christ (Romans 6:1-14,
Galatians 3:27) and we become members of His body (which is the church, His
church, Colossians 1:13-18)! It is in submitting to God (in faith and repentance) and being
baptized that our souls are beautified by God with salvation!
As Christians and members of His body, we do our very best to walk
daily in newness of life (Romans 6:4),
to walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:3-6,
Colossians 2:6), but when we falter, we will repent and humbly confess our
missteps to God, and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)!
Isn’t it a lovely thought that the word ‘beautify’ also means to grow
beautiful (consider 2 Timothy
3:16-17, 2 Peter 3:17-18) and it is the basis for the description of bright
green foliage - that is how those who
trust in God are described in both Psalm 1:1-3 and Jeremiah 17:7-8 - please take
time to read those passages!
“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit on old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” (Psalm 92:12-15 NKJV)
May all come to a point of humble submission, while there is still time, so that they too can be beautified by God with salvation!! And may we who have been beautified, continue to grow in beauty through obedience as we joy in the God of our salvation (Habakkuk 3:18)!
You
can do it! So can I!!
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