Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
As we have been immersed in the Book of Revelation this Summer, we have come to appreciate it as a multi-dimensional witness to Jesus and the faithful. This book with language and twists in plots, has provided images our liturgy and hymns as well as many other things. We approached the Book of Revelation with great courage—we know and trust that the Holy Spirit will open it as a meaningful expression of faith for our world today.
It must be amazing as we sing hymns from Revelation that you might say “this is one of my favorites! I never knew it was based in Revelation!” One resource listed sixty-six hymns that are based on Revelation! The hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy,” a hymn that allows the organ and voices swell in worship uses images from scripture. The first verse above is based Isaiah 6:3: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” and Revelation 4:8 “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without creasing they sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.’” The verse from Revelation demonstrates how John uses the Hebrew scriptures for his letter to the seven churches.
The text was written by Reginald Heber (b. Malpas, Cheshire, England, 1783; d. Trichinopoly, India, 1826) wrote the text for Trinity Sunday, the day for which lectionary in the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer prescribes the reading of Revelation 4. It was first published in the third edition (1826) of A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish.
Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, Heber was ordained in the Church of England in 1807. He first served his family’s parish in Hodnet, Shropshire (1807-1823), and in 1823 his dream of being a missionary was fulfilled when he was appointed bishop of Calcutta. He worked and traveled ceaselessly until his sudden death in 1826. Heber began writing hymns partly because of his dissatisfaction with the poor psalm singing in his congregation and partly because he was influenced by the vital hymn singing among Methodists and Baptists.
Let us pray: Gracious God, we praise you for the love and mystery that fills our world that tells of your awesome work among and with us. Help us to sing “Holy, holy, holy” in our lives today, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pr Walter