Praising God as Holy
Today’s passage: Revelation 4:1–8
Focus verse: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” (Revelation 4:8)
Having considered Jesus’s seven letters to the seven churches, we move forward into the third and longest part of the book of Revelation.
Jesus, with a voice booming like a trumpet, explains what’s about to occur. “Come,” he roars to John. “I’ll show you what must happen next.” These events unfold in the remaining chapters of the book of Revelation.
In an instant John’s spirit is whisked into heaven before a mighty throne. Father God sits on it. John describes what he sees, but it’s challenging for us to grasp the imagery. Instead, we should merely stand in awe.
Circling God and his place of authority sit twenty-four more thrones. We can infer that these thrones are smaller and less important than God’s. In each one of these twenty-four chairs sits an elder.
John describes the twenty-four elders as dressed in white and wearing gold crowns. From the Almighty’s throne shoot bolts of lightning and resounding booms of thunder. In front of him blaze seven lamps, representing the sevenfold Spirit of God.
Enthroned in the center sits the Almighty God. Before him burn the lamps of the seven spirits. Surrounding them are the twenty-four elders. Between God’s throne and the twenty-four elders are four living creatures.
Though John describes what these surreal beings look like, his words fall short of giving us an image we can fully comprehend. They have animal features, eyes cover their body, and they have six wings.
Recall that seraphim also have six wings (Isaiah 6:2), but it’s hard to imagine them looking like these four living creatures with their nonhuman traits and eyes everywhere.
Regardless of the appearance of the four living creatures, it’s what they do that matters. They spend all their time—day and night—praising God.
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8).
The threefold repetition of holy is for emphasis. It’s like adding a couple of exclamation points after the word holy or moving from holy, to more holy (two times), to most holy (three times).
Father God, the Lord Almighty, is indeed most holy.
The four living creatures never stop chanting this.
If this worship of God sounds familiar, let’s jump back to the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, where the prophet recounts another instance where God is praised as “holy, holy, holy,” this time by seraphim (Isaiah 6:2–3).
If the seraphim were praising God in Isaiah’s time, and the four living creatures are doing it centuries later, might God have been receiving continuous praise between these two events? Might it still be happening today?
May we never forget that God exists as the highest form of holiness, worthy of our praise and adoration.
Questions:
- How do we think we’ll react when we see the splendor of heaven?
- Do we praise God as “holy, holy, holy”?
- What can we do to worship God more fully?
- How can we give God our praise?
- How can we show God our adoration?
[Discover more about the four living creatures in Revelation chapters 4–7 and Revelation 14:3, 15:7, and 19:4, as well as Ezekiel 1:5–6. Read the parallel account in Isaiah 6:1–4.]
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Read more in Peter’s devotional Bible study, A New Heaven and a New Earth: 40 Practical Insights from John’s Book of Revelation.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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