Sue’s aunt came up in conversation yesterday. We were talking with some friends after the Sunday service and someone remarked on the necklace Sue was wearing . . . a piece of jewelry owned by her aunt. Auntie Barb went home to be with the Lord in February. Most of the ladies in the family were invited to claim a piece or two of Auntie Barb’s jewelry as keepsakes. Anyway, the conversation led to what a classy lady Auntie Barb was . . . and the fact that she always dressed as she thought a lady should dress . . . always wearing a dress . . . even gardening in a dress. That’s just how she did it . . . it was the appropriate Auntie Barb thing to do . . . it was what we had come to expect of her . . . it was befitting.

This morning in my reading in Psalm 93 I came across something else that is befitting . .

Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits Your house, O LORD, forevermore.   (Psalm 93:5 ESV)

The psalm’s five verses aren’t overly complex . . . the “big idea” is not hard to get . . . “The LORD reigns” (v.1). He is robed in majesty . . . His throne is established forever . . . He is mighty . . . His word is extremely trustworthy. As such, holiness befits His house.

The glory of God commands holiness to adorn His courts. The majesty of God invites the sacred . . . the set apart . . the consecrated. His throne, by nature, is a hallowed place. And so, it’s just right . . . it’s appropriate . . . it’s befitting . . . that holiness adorns the house of God.

And church, we be that house!

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.   (Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV)

The church is designed as a dwelling place for God . . . and the place where God dwells is a place meant to be arrayed in holiness.

We have been made to be holy (Eph. 1:4) . . . set apart for His purpose and His glory . . . invited into His presence . . . declared to be fit for His dwelling . . . solely because of the finished work on the cross and the sin-cleansing blood shed by the Lamb of God. But we have also been called to be holy . . . just as He is holy (1Peter 1:16) . . . to declare ourselves set apart to Him . . . to offer ourselves as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1) to the One who redeemed our souls. Paul says it’s our spiritual act of worship . . . that it’s acceptable to God . . . that it’s befitting.

A modest dress, accompanied with a piece or two of modest jewelry, just seemed like the right way for Auntie Barb to be adorned. Similarly, holiness is what you would expect . . . and what our majestic LORD commands and deserves . . . to adorn the house of God. It’s just befitting.

Oh, that by His grace, and through the enabling power of the 24/7 Spirit of God, may I be . . . for His pleasure and for His glory alone . . . befitting. Amen?