Above All, Praise ~ by Kristin

 

central panel from Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Jan van Eyck


Revelation 5:11-14 (NABRE)

"I looked again and heard the voices of many angels who surrounded the throne and the living creatures and the elders. They were countless in number, and they cried out in a loud voice: 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing.' Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out: 'To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever.' The four living creatures answered, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped."

What a vision from the final book of the Bible!

There are many beautiful scriptures about praising God, but this one in particular captures the image of total, cosmic praise.

I think that praise is the privileged way of calling down the Holy Spirit, and then the rest can start to work itself out. When we put praise before the other facets of religion, we purify all of our religious practice.

Again, there are other facets to religion including forming communities, serving the poor, and growing in virtue. But this verse celebrates what I believe to be the foundation of our identity as religious people: to sing loud the praises from the earth, so that they resound not only in the celestial realms but from the terrestrial terrain.

Comments

  1. ScottJanuary 29, 2023 at 10:32 PM

    A very important thought. One of many scriptures that are songs of praise. If memory serves the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 where the Prophetess Deborah and Barak praise God for helping them defeat the Canaanites is considered to be some of the oldest verses of Hebrew scripture maybe dating back to the 1100's B.C. Praise from the very beginning. And then of course we have the Psalms which contain many praise hymns. It is also taught that we begin and end our worship, particularly our Sacrament meetings with a sacred hymn (usually of praise) as a way of bookending sacred space between which we renew sacred covenants. It would then be fitting that the great apocalypse would end with praise. Thanks a ton for getting this in the spotlight!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KristinFebruary 6, 2023 at 3:37 PM

      Thanks for that. I brushed up on the story of Deborah. I really liked this line from her song.

      "Villagers in Israel would not fight;
      they held back until I, Deborah, arose,
      until I arose, a mother in Israel." Judges 5:7 (NABRE)

      Don't mess with a mother in Israel! :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Malay Book of Mormon theory: It just keeps on giving!

Image
                                                (Wikipedia Photo: Banteng are native cattle to Southeast Asia)  I’ve been meaning to write a long blog post that details why the Malay theory of the Book of Mormon is the strongest geographic theory out there for where Book of Mormon lands took place, but I keep putting off the post because I get overwhelmed with all the interesting and exciting information that I keep discovering about the Malay Peninsula and the connections it appears to have to Book of Mormon lands. Rather than putting off my post, I’ll write a shorter post with the hopes of publishing my longer post in the future. It’s better to get something out than nothing at all!     To back things up a bit for those that have no idea what on earth I’m talking about, the Book of Mormon is a volume of scripture held sacred by members of my faith...
Read more

Walking in Circles

Image
The Enlightenment, that flowering of faith in reason and individual liberty was largely a reaction to the Renaissance which had looked to the past for answers.  Rather, the Enlightenment looked forward with a firm believe that man, armed with reason (largely without God) was the source of progress.  Kant defined the spirit of these times in his epoch defining essay Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment with its challenge to Sapere aude (Dare to Know). In many ways this faith was well placed. The scientific method, based on induction rather than deduction (much favored by the Scholastics) has extended our life spans, improved the quality and comfort of our lives piling up one achievement in process.  When a man was put on the moon even the sky didn't seem to be the limit. Most enlightenment thinkers thought the realm of human affairs would follow the same happy upward slope fostering systems such as the French thinker August Comte's Positivism (1798-1857) which la...
Read more

God our Rock, in an ever-changing existence ~ by Kristin

As a new parent, I am already astonished at how quickly kids grow. Every month, my daughters change. I never know when we do something, if it will be the last time.   But as I approach 40, I’ve come to learn that everything in life is like that…..it comes, and it goes. This can be one of the great sorrows of life. It's all too easy to base our need for fulfillment and happiness on one or more of these fleeting things. I’ll list a few below, and I’ll omit obvious categories like pleasure, wealth, and youth. Instead, I’d like to focus on the “good” things we are often encouraged to place at center. As good as these things are, they are still fleeting and insufficient as a foundation for life. Community: it’s always in flux. We experience a change in our state in life, like marriage or parenthood, and suddenly the old friend group doesn’t make sense. We get a new opportunity and move. We grow older and leave the community of our birth.  Education: no matter how much we try...
Read more