January 25 - Doxology (pt. 1)

January 25 - Doxology (pt. 1)

When I hear the word, Doxology, I immediately hear the melody of the traditional song sun during worship services in churches I have attended all my life.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise God, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
(Words by Thomas Ken)

The Greek word "Doxa" means glory. When God shows his glory, creation returns with songs celebrating this. We find these hymns of praise all throughout scripture and they also well up within our hearts to the awesome work of our Creator.

If you were to guess, how many songs of praise do you suppose there might be in the Revelation? If you guessed seven, you were right. The holy number of God - the number of perfection. It just keeps popping up.

I'm going to look at these doxologies closely - even though we'll traipse through the entire book in a few days.

Revelation 4:8-11 - The First Doxology.

The Living Creatures offer ceaseless praise. Day and night they never stop singing. There are only a few words here, but they say quite a bit.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

Our God is holy. Moses sang of that Holiness in Exodus after they passed through the sea to dry ground. Exodus 15:11 says, "Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?"

Our God is almighty. The use of this word in the NT tells us that God is the absolute and universal sovereign. The Greek word is 'pantokrator' which means 'almighty, or ruler of all.' We find the Hebrew word (El Shaddai) in the OT for the first time in Genesis 17:1. "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, 'I am God Almighty (El Shaddai); walk before me and be blameless."

Job 11:7 asks, "Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?"

This God is Almighty, Our God is omnipotent. Our God is El Shaddai, whose bounty is inexhaustible and pours forth every good thing for His people.

Our God was, is and is to come. This reiterates what we heard in Rev. 1:4, 8. Eternity is safe in the hands of God. He existed prior to time. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

At the end of the Bible, the final book, the final chapter, Jesus claims this: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." (Rev. 22:13)

As soon as the living creatures offer this doxology, the twenty-four elders offer theirs. This doxology is a bit different, the focus changes. We'll look at that tomorrow.