The word holy simply means other, unique, or distinct. It carries the idea of being set apart because of distinctiveness or uniqueness. God’s glory is His holiness. Actually, the word glory in its original meaning carries the idea of “opinion,” in the sense of what you think is true about something or someone that is honorable or beautiful. When speaking of God, glory speaks of the obvious splendor of His nature and His attributes. Many things have a glory to them. You can speak of the glory of a painting, a person’s personality, or physical beauty. Many things in nature can be glorious. In other words, many things have a beauty about them, but the beauty, of the Lord, which is immeasurable compared to all other glories, is His holiness; His otherness.
In Psalm 27, David, when he was 60 years old, said that the one thing he wanted was to spend the rest of his life beholding the beauty of the Lord and then talk to God about his discoveries. In Revelation 4:8, we are told that the four living creatures who are full of eyes all around and within, day and night surround the throne of God and never cease crying out “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was who is and who is to come.” I believe that these angels are full of eyes because it requires that many lenses to every millisecond catch a new glimpse of God’s beauty, and their holy convulsive response is a perpetual crying out of how beautiful He is in all of His glory. To glorify God, or to give God glory, is not to add anything to Him but, instead, is to simply acknowledge and honor His beauty.
The most transformational thing a human being can do is to behold His glory; His holiness, in both your prayer life, and moment by moment as you pray without ceasing, beholding His glory as it’s revealed in the person of Christ. Look at these amazing two verses from Ps. 34:4-5, “I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” Notice, that those who look to Him and behold His beauty have a radiance transferred to them, and things like shame and fear are broken off of them.
I’ll leave you with this admonition from Ps. 99:9; “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for holy is the Lord our God.”