Psalm-light for Trinity Sunday, May 2021

Psalm 29

 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
Psalm 29: 2

Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg once said that the beauty of a scientific theory lay in its ability to explain “why the world is the way it is.” He likened it to the beauty of hearing a Chopin sonata, and appreciating its coherence and inner unfolding. “The kind of beauty we search for in physics... works as a guide.”

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity— that the nature of God is a communion of self-emptying love between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, which graciously includes you, and me, and all of reality— is both true and beautiful. It is inviting, attractive, and compelling (in short, beautiful) to understand all of life, spiritual and material, as a web of connection and communion, rather than fragmentation and isolation. To borrow from Weinberg, the doctrine of the Trinity as “guide” leads us in paths of creativity, loving service, compassion, reconciliation, peace, and deep unity. 

The Psalmist invites us to go beyond “thinking about God,” to adoration, love, praise, devotion, and union— to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

Walking in the light
What is beautiful to you in life? In art? Science? Nature? People? Yourself? In what ways does beauty act as a door to the holy? Give space and time to allow your reflection to move  you into prayer and communion with God. 

Submitted by Archdeacon Peter Crosby