“In the four living creatures, each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and night. They never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.'”
– Revelation 4:8
This chapter, Revelation 4:8 contains one of the most glorious pictures of God on his throne, which obviously there is so much imagery here, and all over Revelation for that matter, that just sends our imaginations running wild.
When we see four living creatures with six wings, full of eyes, all around within, I don’t even know how to picture that. All these images are just coming to my mind. But the point is, what you have is this picture around the throne of God, and we see in Revelation Chapter Four and Chapter Five surrounded by throngs of angels. Night and day, it says, they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is to come.”
God is incomparable to anything else.
Revelation 4:8 Says the Angels Praise God At All Times
That is an awesome thought that night and day, they never cease to say this. To think that right now while you’re listening to this, there are multitudes of angels around the throne of God, and they are just crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” That is happening right now, and will be happening all day long in everything you do today.
As you lay your head on your pillow at night, they will still be singing, “Holy, holy, holy,” when you go unconscious in sleep, they will still be singing. When you wake up in the morning, they will still be singing. You hear them, just picture them singing constantly, and then you realize their song selection is pretty consistent. They just never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy.”
What does that mean? It means God is other. He is totally different than anyone, anything else. He’s incomparable to anything else. He is holy. His love is perfect. His justice is right. God’s grace and glory are astounding in ways we can’t even begin to describe in ways that compare with nothing else we know. I just invite you to bow your heart before him now, and let’s just pray:
Revelation 4:8 Is A Reminder of God’s Holiness
“God, you are, indeed, holy. There is no one who is like you. You are greater than we can fathom. You are more glorious than we can imagine and so we, in this moment, join our hearts with multitudes of angels around your throne right now. We just join in their song, saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is, and is to come.’ We worship you.”
“We bow before you in awe and wonder before your splendor and majesty and glory. God, as you are worshiped every moment, every day and all night long by these angels, we pray that you would be worshiped in our lives. Help us to live lives today. Help everything we do in our lives to join in this chorus of worship and praise. Make us holy, we pray. Help us to be holy as you are holy, that your name might be known as holy through our lives. We worship you.” In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
