Give unto the LORD, O you mighty ones,
Give unto the LORD glory and strength,
Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name.
And in His temple everyone says, "Glory!"
Ps. 29:1,2; 9

Our church meetings should be events where God's glory is present.
What is God's glory?
It is, "The revelation of God's being, nature and presence to mankind, sometimes with physical phenomena" (New Bible Dictionary). That is a very good definition - God should be present in our meetings and we should know that He is there.

How can we give God glory?
We can't actually give it to Him as if it is ours to give Him, a better translation of the word give would be "ascribe" or "acknowledge". Our churches should be places where God is recognised for who He truly is, we give Him glory by being true to His character as revealed in His word.

We give Him the glory due to His name.
In Exodus 3:13 Moses asked God for His name. God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM", "You shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" From this passage we have the name Yahweh (YHWH) translated in most of our Bibles as "LORD". It speaks about the unchangeable nature of God and His self existence. God is who He is because He is God, His very nature is determined by Himself, we cannot change Him, we cannot make Him up, we can only acknowledge Him as He is and as He has revealed Himself to us.

In the New Testament we have a new name, it is the name of Jesus, He is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of God (Heb. 1:3); He is our Lord and Saviour. He should be glorified in our midst.

In our church meetings God is glorified when we allow Him to be LORD and when we exalt the name of Jesus. He is glorified when we preach and teach the truth about Him. He is not glorified when false gospels are preached and His character is misrepresented.

In the Old Testament the glory of God appeared on several occasions:
Ex. 19:29; 20:18-21; 24:16,17 - God came down on Mt. Sinai and there were great signs, thunderings, lightnings, a thick cloud, the sound of a very loud trumpet and the people were very afraid. The people were forbidden to go near, in fact they were afraid to go near in case they died.
Ex. 40:43 - At the completion of the tabernacle the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle and no one was able to enter the tabernacle because of the glory of the LORD.
The glory of God is awesome and fearful, things change when He is present, people change when He is present. If He is present in our church we ought to know about it, it should have a dynamic effect on our lives. Too often we leave a meeting saying, "where was God?" Perhaps He wasn't there because He wasn't given the glory due His name?

Ex. 33:18-23; 34:5-7 - Moses asked the LORD if he could see His glory, the LORD said "no" because no one can see God in all His glory and live. But the LORD promised Him a sight of His back as He passed by, and He promised to declare His name. For Moses to hear God's name was the closest thing to seeing His glory, because the name would express the essence of His character:

Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation."
Ex. 34:5-7

It seems strange that Moses wanted to see God's glory, he had already spent a lot of time talking with the LORD on Mt. Sinai, had he not seen His glory? There is a lesson here, there is always more of the glory for us to see, we should never be satisfied. If we really love God and long to serve Him, we will want more of Him, want to see and know more of Him, we will want to be growing ever deeper with Him. We will want a greater and greater sense of His presence in our churches. And God will always have more for those who sincerely long for more.
Too many churches have settled for something less than the true glory of the Lord.

Ex. 34:29-35 - Moses face shone with the glory of God. How did that happen? It was because He spent time in God's presence. Have a look at people coming out of church, are their faces shining with the glory of God? Are they radiating something different to the people of the world? If we want to shine with the glory of God and be a witness to our neighbours and the rest of the world then we need like Moses, to spend time in His presence.

Isaiah
Isa. 6 - Isaiah had a vision of the glory of the LORD, it brought Him under deep conviction of His own unworthiness.
Ezekiel
Ez.1:28 - Ezekiel saw the glory of the LORD and he fell on his face.
When we catch a glimpse of the true glory of our God something happens, we are humbled, we realise our unworthiness, we worship Him, we fall on our faces. Sin is dealt with, bad habits are dealt with, there is renewed zeal for worship, for holiness, for obedience and for acts of witness and service. These attributes manifested among the congregation are a good sign that God is being glorified in their midst and that they have been "touched" by His presence.

The glory of the LORD and His wrath:
The name of the LORD has - as we saw - two distinct aspects contained within it - love and forgivensess of sin along with wrath and the punishment of sin. So the glory of the LORD appears when He is pleased with His people (as at the completion of the tabernacle); it also appears when He is angry with His people:
Nu. 14:10 - The people refused to enter Canaan, being discouraged by the report of the spies. They wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb who were the only ones to trust the LORD and believe His word. The glory of the LORD appeared and the people are punished with 40 years in the wilderness.
Nu. 16:19; 42 - Korah and his brethren stir up a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, the LORD is angry with them and appears in His glory, the earth opens and swallows them up with all their households. The rest of the people blame this disaster on Moses and Aaron and complain against them, the glory of the LORD appears again and many die in the ensuing plague.
Ex. 16:7,10 - The people complained that they did not have enough food, and the glory of the LORD appeared and He sent the manna.
Nu. 20:6 - The people complain again, this time because of a lack of water. The LORD appears in His glory and provides water from the rock.

For the people of Israel the glory of the LORD was proof of His presence among them, they had the promise of His presence through His word to Moses (Ex. 33:12-16), but they had no abiding sense of the presence of the LORD in their hearts, the Holy Spirit was not yet freely given. The physical manifestation of the glory of the LORD whether that was due to His pleasure or displeasure with them was a sure sign that He had not left them.
And the LORD could take His glory away, Ezekiel 10 sees the glory departing from the temple - continual idolatry, disobedience and refusal to repent brought about such a dire judgement. As it did in Samuel's day when the ark of God was taken by the Philistines and Phinehas' wife name her son "Ichabod" (1Sam.4:19).
We need to ask ourselves, "Is the glory of the Lord present in our church?"

But the LORD had something better in mind for His people. Isaiah 40:5 contains the promise that "The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together". This promise is fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah and in the church through the ministry of the Holy Spirit as we shall see in part 2.