Saturday, September 1, 2007

Holy, Holy, Holy

I have wanted to blog this post for several days now but am still awe struck by God's Holiness. Words have not seemed adequate to try to express my thoughts. Last Sunday's sermon was from Isaiah 6. Here is verses 1-7:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the
seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he
covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and
said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of
his glory!"And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who
called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am
lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of
hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

Still I am a little short of words. I have felt and still feel a little like Isaiah. God revealed His holiness to Isaiah's heart and that awesome reality made him look at his own sinful and lost heart. Isaiah knew he was lost, undone, worthless before a Holy God. Yet God in His holiness saved Isaiah from his bottomless pit of dispare. Only a holy God can save a man. The holy God sent a seraphim to bring the soothing balm to Isaiah's burning soul, "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for".

One of the obvious songs we sang was Holy, Holy, Holy. I love singing these rich songs so here are the lyrics.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in 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 ever more shalt be.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee, Through 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!

I was inspired to go and read more on God's holiness from a few classics: Attributes of God by A.W. Pink and Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. Decided that I need to reflect on God's holiness much more than I do.

It is interesting to me that when God puts something to ponder on your mind and heart, it seems to pour in from many different sources. Recently, I have decided to re-read Pilgram's Progress, by John Bunyan when I go to bed at night. From my nightly reading (the same day I read the above classics) Christian is answering Prudence's questions.

"What makes you so eager to reach Mount Zion?"

"Why, there I hope to see the One who hung dead on the Cross alive again; and
there I hope to be freed of all the things within me that are such a struggle to
me. They say that there is no death there, and that I will live there with
wonderful companions. To tell you the truth, I love Him because He delivered me
from my Burden. And I am so tired of my inward sickness that I long to be where
there is no more sin and death and where I will be in the fellowship of those
who continually cry, 'Holy, holy, holy.'"


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah, the holiness of God! While many will say that God's love is His primary attribute, I am more convinced now as ever that His primary attribute is His holiness. It is what dictates all of His other attributes (holy love, holy justice, holy veracity, holy sovereignty, etc.). I love to think about this and know that my God is all together set apart!