Holy, Holy, Holy Is the Lord of Hosts – Seraphim and Nolene Prince

 

Isaiah encountered them. And then centuries later, an exile named John saw and heard some creatures like the ones Isaiah met (see the image here of seraphim that Isaiah described, as imagined by artists in a 14^th Century manuscript). So, it was really these creatures who sang “Holy, Holy, Holy Is the Lord of Hosts” and caused Isaiah and John to feel awestruck, unworthy even to be in their presence. That’s what happens when mortals come that close to God or His representatives, as when Simon Peter had to acknowledge that he was in the presence of God Himself (Luke 5:8). Evidently, a 20^th Century songwriter, Nolene Prince, also wanted some of this same sensation, so she musically translated the words that Isaiah and John recorded into something we can sing today. There’s not much more that we can surmise from what the creatures said. We can take from the behavior of Isaiah and John how we too might react when we see Him or His heavenly beings someday. Trepidation, astonishment, reverence…His presence will be like nothing we have ever seen or heard before.  

 

We can be sure that Nolene was reading from Isaiah 6:1-5 and perhaps Revelation 4:8 also, and was struck by the imagery and even more so by what these beings had to say. God has other creatures that serve Him, like the cherubim (Genesis 3:24; and other places, especially in Ezekiel chapter 10) that, like the seraphim, inspire wonder when the human eye beholds them. But the seraphim actually speak and sing for the mortals they contact. All they had to say to each other was for Isaiah’s consumption, and also necessarily to make him aware of his poor state in God’s presence. But God didn’t want Isaiah to wilt. Instead, He had a mission for him. In Isaiah’s case, the seraphim helped usher in God’s message and commission for Isaiah – that he was to be a prophet to the people. So, the message the seraphim deliver can be a way to help assign someone a task. What John the beloved apostle saw and heard during his exile on Patmos was likewise a Divinely-inspired idea for a human to take up, something for John to broadcast (Revelation 4:8). The four living creatures that John saw had six wings each, so they were perhaps rather similar to the six-winged seraphim that sang for Isaiah. And, the song they sang was also very succinct and yet potent, with the ‘holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty’ phrase that is reserved for Him alone. John’s apparent takeaway was to recount this experience to other believers of his era, those who felt the weight of a Roman Caesar (Domitian) who decreed that his empire’s subjects call him Lord. ‘Hold on Caesar, let me tell you who is really Lord’, John said to gird the faith of his Christian brethren. ‘This Lord is not only Almighty, but also ‘who was, and is, and is to come’, so just keep listening to these four living creatures. Domitian can make believe what he wants, but we know the truth.’ In Isaiah’s experience, the seraphim followed up the introduction of the holy Lord, by saying ‘the whole earth is full of His glory’. What they said was literally an earthshaking revelation (Is. 6:4). He can rock earthly kings (like Caesar) through a Christian movement, while also physically shaking another’s foundations.

 

This ‘Lord of Hosts’ is not to be ignored. He evidently has beings that work for Him, communicating with humans who carry His messages to others. The things they say about Him aren’t very complicated. He’s holy, a declaration that’s important enough to say three times for effect. And, He shakes things up and is eternally existing. In short, He’s the one in control, then, now, and forever. If He were evil, we’d all be in trouble. But those who introduce Him say He’s holy. Webster’s says that means He’s exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. Don’t believe Webster? But why would Webster say this? Have you met this God yet? People here on earth may not represent Him and His holiness perfectly at all times, as Webster’s describes holiness. And yet, that’s why we’re humans, and He’s God, and why each of us needs Him. We’re aiming to be with Him who will perfect us one day.            

 

Read about the four living creatures and the Tetramorph here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetramorph  or seraphim here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph

 

See more information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seraphim_-_Petites_Heures_de_Jean_de_Berry.jpg ... This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph

My Tribute (To God Be the Glory) -- Andrae Crouch

 

Glory. I recently learned that despite what I thought I knew, the word when it’s connected to God of the universe means a quality or characteristic of His nature that is too weighty for me to observe face-to-face. That should be evident if I had really grasped the import of Moses’ request at one time to see His glory, and that God’s response was ‘no’ (Exodus 33:18-23).  And yet, there are other places in which God-in-the-flesh Jesus, and then one of His apostles named Paul, expressly say that we mere humans will somehow be able to share in this glory. Once was during Jesus’ prayer (John 17; and see the artwork here that depicts Jesus giving His farewell discourse to 11 of the Apostles, recorded in John chapters 14-17, the occasion on which He prayed to His Father about glory in several ways), and that was one that evidently struck Andrae Crouch, motivating Him to write something himself about glory in “My Tribute” (also known as To God Be the Glory). Andrae wasn’t the only one who was involved in this exchange; read on about someone named Larry Reed.

 

Glory to God! Hallelujah! Imagine someone calling out those words really loudly, and that was Larry Reed, though most people who knew him not too much earlier in his life would never have guessed that this same Larry would ever shout those words. Larry was a teenage drug addict that Andrae befriended at a rehabilitation house in central Los Angeles in the early 1960s. Though he was an atheist, Larry would hang around the house just a little longer whenever Andrae coaxed him to stay and listen to some music. Eventually, Larry’s mental and emotional barriers to God broke down, especially as he listened to Andrae sing about God’s blood one day, and it wasn’t long before Larry became an on-fire Christian whose trademark was the phrase that began this paragraph. He telephoned Andrae once, years later after they both had moved out of that central LA house, to persuade him to read Jesus’ prayer in John 17, with the confident prediction that Andrae would write a great song based on that prayer. Though Andrae was skeptical, he did write ‘My Tribute’ and shared it with some friends who had also met Larry and were likewise dubious about loudmouth Larry’s premonition. But, upon re-reading John 17, they all immediately recognized why Larry had been so confident. The rest is history, as someone has said. You can hear Andrae re-tell the story in his own words with the link below, and see how the power of God’s glory can be so inspirational in a rendition of My Tribute sung by a group of believers (see another link below). Those links say it better than this blogger can!

 

Glory is pretty awesome stuff, but what is even more amazing beyond its meaning (see it described via one of the links below) is that believers get to be part of it. It’s in John’s gospel 27 times, including five times during Jesus chapter 17 prayer, and twice in that prayer (John 17:10, 22) He indicates the Apostles have actually participated in this glory that is God’s. It must have been something that the great apostle Paul picked up on too, especially as you read his letter to Romans. (See Romans 1:21-23; 3:23; 4:20: 5:2-3; 6:4; 8:17-9:23; 15:6-16:27 [21 times in all of Romans].) It’s not something easily captured however, as Paul’s opening words relate that humans had been in the habit of casting aside this glory (1:21-23). The whole dissertation by Paul to the Romans reads like a progression or an arc of gradual evolution regarding His glory and we humans. If/when humanity gets over itself (in Romans 1), we can only begin to navigate successfully to meet God and His glory by exercising something pretty basic --- humility. Read Romans 3:23 and see if you can manage that. Then you can press forward and react perhaps like Abraham (4:20), and press onward like others who’ve pursued God (5:2-3 and 6:4), so that you might actually do the incredible (8:17-18, 21, 30 and 9:4, 23) and share in this glory. When that is part of one’s life, your end result might be what also was in Paul’s overflowing cup as he thought and wrote about glory (11:36; 15:6-17; 16:27). Could that be what touched Larry Reed and Andrae Crouch too?

 

The song story is shared in the following: the book Celebrate Jesus: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2003; and the book I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008. See here also: https://www.staugustine.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2015/09/03/story-behind-song-my-tribute/16265280007/   and here, straight from the composer’s mouth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw7SQq1LZa4 (at about the 6:53 – end of video).

 

See/watch/hear/experience a stirring rendition of the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RZTYDPavEY

 

Read about the word ‘glory’ here: https://firmisrael.org/learn/the-weight-of-glory-and-the-hebrew-word-kavod/

 

See information on the artwork image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Taking_Leave_of_the_Apostles.jpg... The author died in 1319, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1931. ...found inside this document: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_Discourse   

Flee As a Bird -- Mary S. Dana

 

It was her way of therapy as she grieved. Thirty-year old Mary Dana (some 11 years later, she remarried and took the last name of her second husband Robert Shindler) had experienced enough death in her life in the period around 1839-1840, and one of David’s psalm images gave her some solace, as she thought about “Flee(ing) As a Bird” to escape and find in the Lord the One who could provide comfort. Perhaps she’d had enough of funerals and even the beautiful flowers at them that are intended to bring hope and healing (See here the typical habit of placing flowers at a gravesite in a cemetery, like this one in France, on 4 July 2011.) And so, Mary turned to writing verses to express her feelings, crying out to Him on behalf of herself and others like her. Evidently, she had found what she so desperately needed in His embrace, and thus she urged others with her poetry put to music.    

 

Mary suffered one tragedy upon another, then another, and another. At what point in watching as many as four others die did Mary think of fleeing? Her young son and husband both succumbed during a fever that became rampant in Iowa where they had recently arrived in 1839. This was after she had apparently already lost a sister and a brother in the space of the previous two years. She soon thereafter returned to her native South Carolina, perhaps as a way to leave behind the gloom and start anew. She must have felt like she was in flight, much like the bird fleeing to a mountain in David’s Psalm 11:1, even if that psalmist felt that this refuge-seeking method was ill-advised. When one is afflicted repeatedly, the reaction is oftentimes a gut-level response to fear, and one could excuse Mary if she was indeed feeling so much distress that she retreated into a secluded place. Unlike David, she must have thought that the mountain shelter was where she eventually found the succor of the Lord, for her poetry indicates that it was in this isolated place where she could wash in the ‘clear-flowing fountain’ that He provides (v.1). In short, she needed a place where only His voice – not death’s -- was in her head and heart. Instead of standing firm, as some might advise, Mary said to ‘haste’ (or ‘fly’, as some versions have it) in order to avoid ‘th’Avenger’ (v.1). Indeed, could Mary have also read of the many episodes when Jesus retreated, including so often to mountains, to pray by Himself and seek His Father’s face? (See Luke 5:16; Matt. 14:23/Mark 6:46; Luke 6:12-13; Luke 21:37; 22:39-46.) Especially if it’s sin that is ‘weary(ing)’ the soul, one needs to find Him in His space, to find ‘His bosom’ on which one can rest. Other miseries will surely come, but Mary said that He would not ‘forsake’ (v.2) someone who would ‘haste’ to Him, who needed to be free of ‘sighing’. He ‘wipe(s) every tear’, a promise that Mary must have read with hope in her bible’s concluding book (Revelation 7:17; 21:4).

 

Mary wrote the tune for ‘Flee As a Bird’ in the key of either D- or E-minor, but evidently not as a way to wallow in her sorrow. Instead, the uplifting parts of her lyrics are counterpoints to the burdens she bore that she could not just wish away. The woe she felt was not easily laid aside, but was certainly salved when she realized that He’s the remedy. Part of life’s challenge is not to wear rose-colored glasses and pretend that troubles are insignificant, but to know to whom you and I can go for strength, a most-certain strength. He also suffered in His physicality, and so His own body felt pain and His spirit also felt desolate, but He ultimately overcame. Hence, part of the minor key sensation that you and I hear in ‘Flee…’ must also be an acknowledgement of His awesome power to conquer death. Try hearing 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 in a minor key in your head, which is what Mary might have been thinking when she thought of death. You can hear it too, if you got Him with you.

  

Read about the hymn’s origin here: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780271096308-004/html  and here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40071689 and here: https://drhamrick.blogspot.com/2018/11/flee-as-bird.html

 

See the hymn’s original verses and the short biography of the hymnist here: https://hymnary.org/text/flee_as_a_bird_to_your_mountain  and http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/l/e/e/fleeasab.htm  and http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/h/i/n/shindler_msbd.htm

 

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