Hymn of the Week: June 5, 2023
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty
Glory to God: 1
Text Reginald Heber 1826
Music: The United States Sacred Harmony 1799
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!
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
which wert and art and evermore shalt be.
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth, and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
Todays Devotion
In honor of Trinity Sunday on the 4th, I wanted to reflect on the beloved hymn of our faith; Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
is on record as having said that this was one of his favorite hymns.
It is indeed a Tennysonian hymn in that it has an almost artificial stillness and symmetry to it which can be found in much of his poetry.
It has the characteristics of Tennyson’s poems in that is able to handle a vast subject like the Trinity in language whose texture is almost delicate, so much so that it could almost be perceived as trivial, but this hymn is anything but.
Chesterton has said of Tennyson that the poet “loved beauty in its completeness, as we find it in art, not in its more glorious incompleteness as we find in nature.”
This can apply to this hymn as it becomes more a matter of doctrine rather than experience and the hymn presents theology in its completeness as you would find in doctrine more so than in Scripture and all its mysteries.
Doctrine of the Trinity
In sixteen lines the Doctrine of the Trinity becomes common praise. This is incredibly awe inspiring and wonderful to comprehend. There are three main reasons why we still know and love and continue to sing this great hymn today.
One is the use of the word “Holy,” the second is the word , “Trinity,” and the third is the scripture that it comes from, in Revelation 4: 6-8,
And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal…And they rest not day or night saying, Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was,and is, and is to come….and the Elders cast down their crowns before the throne. While the book of Revelation gets used in all sorts of manners to use the symbolism in a myriad of ways depending on the person interpreting these symbols, there is still much to learn from the final book of the Bible. For our purposes, I have simply provided the scripture and will let the scripture speak to each individual.
Holy
This word is used throughout the hymn and most of the hymn has its text based on the Old Testament. What is Holy in the Old Testament is thought to be untouchable. Holiness has a religious sense before a moral sense, and a superstitious sense before a religious sense.
A holy thing was something you couldn’t touch, a holy mountain was a mountain you couldn’t climb, a holy place (the holy of holies in the temples was a place only the priests could enter) is a place no one may enter. This instills a certain feeling of reverence and also confusion and taboo creating the dichotomy between love and fear.
In taboo you keep away from something because you hate or fear it, and on the other hand you stay away from it because you love it so much, you feel unworthy to get too near. So reverent was their idea of “holiness,” people in the Old Testament did not dare even speak the name of God. They preferred names such as “Most High” or “Our Lord.” The idea of holiness holds fear but also a feeling of love and mercy. The thing unapproachable was something both fearful and utterly desirable. And its in this hymn that these two emotions collide beautifully.
Stay tuned next week for a discussion of the Trinity as we continue to look at this great hymn of our faith.
