Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty

Reginald Heber's classic poem has become a favourite hymn. Hear about his life as a priest and missionary, his sudden death, and how this brilliant piece of hymn writing came about!

Welcome to Friday Classic Hymns! Join me here every Friday as I take one of the great hymns and look at its story and what the lyrics mean, then sing it. A few weeks ago I spoke about "How Great Thou Art" and said that it was by far the greatest praise song ever written, but today's classic hymn is perhaps equal to "How Great Thou Art"—at least it's an amazing song of praise that just tells us so much about how great God is.

I think it's a pity that we don't sing it much anymore. It really was one of the standards and it's been lost to some extent. It's "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty," and it's an amazing song. Please share your memories of this song or any impressions that you have in the comments below. I'd love to connect with you there.

The Story Behind "Holy, Holy, Holy"

The words to this hymn were written by Reginald Heber. He was born in England in 1783 to a family of scholars and entered Oxford, where he became very well known because of his brilliant mind. He even won awards for his poetry. But instead of a career in academics, as everyone expected of him, he ended up going into the ministry because his true love was doing the work of God.

He was ordained as an Anglican priest and took over his dad's church in a small town called Hodnet, where he served for 16 years. He was very much respected as a great man of God and a man of unusually noble character. Even though he was a very good minister, his heart really was in mission work. He had a great desire to go and spread the gospel where it hadn't been heard.

In 1823, he accepted a post as the bishop of Calcutta and spent three years travelling around mostly in India, but also all around that part of the world, to share the gospel and to preach. One day in 1826, he preached a typically fiery sermon about the injustices in the system in India. He went back to his hotel room and got into a bath to cool off because it was so hot. Half an hour later, he was found dead in his bathtub. It seems as if he'd had a stroke, and very sadly, a brilliant life came to an end too soon.

It was around about a year later when his widow and some of his friends wanted to publish some of his works. His poetry was so beautiful and so great that they wanted to publish it. He had written over 50 hymns, and this one—"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty"—was probably the best of the lot. He wrote it originally for Trinity Sunday, the Sunday in the liturgical calendar where we specifically think about how God is one but three—the Blessed Trinity.

This hymn has really become so popular; it's really one of the greats. In fact, Alfred Lord Tennyson, the great poet, once said that this was the greatest hymn in the English language. Now that's high praise! It's still known as one of the greats, so let's have a look at the words that Heber wrote and see why it's considered so great.

What Do the Lyrics of "Holy, Holy, Holy" Mean?

Verse 1

"Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!"

This comes from a verse in Revelation 4, where John pictures all sorts of creatures at the throne of God, and they're saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty."

It's important to remember that God is holy. R.C. Sproul once said that no other characteristic of God is repeated in this way in the Bible. God is love, but the Bible doesn't say God is love, love, love. God is kind, but it doesn't say that He's kind, kind, kind. But the Bible says He is holy, holy, holy—twice. That's significant. We must not forget that God's holiness—His utter perfection and unique goodness and purity—is the very essence of who He is.

"Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee."

It's so easy to spend our morning times doing something else, especially in our time with technology being what it is. It's so tempting just to sit on your phone, to watch YouTube, to do whatever else you want to do, because the possibilities are endless. But really, early in the morning we should be singing God's praise. First thing in the morning we should be looking at Him, fixing our eyes on Him.

"Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!"

Lovely words, aren't these? He is both merciful and mighty. We must remember both.

"God in three persons, blessed Trinity!"

As I said, Heber wrote this to be played on Trinity Sunday so that the congregation could celebrate God in three persons.

Verse 2

"Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea."

All who have been saved by His grace must adore God—that is, worship. Worship is not just saying nice words and doing appropriate churchy things. Worship is about the heart. It's about desiring God and adoring God more than anything else. That's what worship looks like.

We cast our crowns—that's a great picture, another picture out of Revelation, of how the saints, in order to exalt God and humble themselves, cast their crowns down before Him. In other words, in comparison to Him, not even our greatest achievements mean anything. When we look at Him, all the crowns we've received and the applause and all of that will just be nothing but left to cast down, because how great is He!

"Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, which wert and art and evermore shalt be."

The cherubim and seraphim are creatures that we see showing up in the Bible doing the work of God here and there. Here, Heber says even these supernatural beings that are sort of slightly above humans, at least, are bowing down before God in reverence. That's because He was and is and will be forever. He is beyond time.

As far back as you could think, God existed. Right now He's here, and He will be forever. We praise Him for that, and that's another picture from Revelation—the words that the creatures sing around God's throne: that He was and is and will be. He is indeed worthy of our praise.

Verse 3

"Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee, though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see."

Heber is saying that even though some are blinded to God's glory because of their sin, it doesn't mean that God is not glorious and holy. I mean, if you're sitting in a dark house with all the windows barred up, it doesn't mean that there's no sun. It just means that you've blocked yourself off from receiving the sun's light.

Many people do that. They block themselves off from God's light. They just deny that there is a God, and so they live in their darkness. That doesn't mean God isn't here, and it doesn't mean that He doesn't exist. His goodness is shining forth; just sadly, some people don't see it.

"Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity."

Again, these are great words of God's utter uniqueness. Only He is perfectly holy. There's none that compare. There is none that can compare to Him.

Of course, we are called to be holy. God says over and over in the Bible, "Be holy as I am holy." He wants His people also to have holiness defining them. But it's different to God's holiness. As much as we can be holy in our being, in the way we love, and in who we are, of course we fall short of His perfection. Only He is perfectly good.

We need to remember that. We need to remember that He is worthy of our praise and that nobody else compares to Him. Words like this should always make our hearts soar as we think of who He is.

Verse 4

"Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth, and sky and sea."

The Psalms often show us how the whole of creation is worshipping—not just the human beings who can speak languages, but all of creation cries out in praise to God. A beautiful picture, isn't it?

"Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!"

That same line from verse 1.

Conclusion

These are great words. They're fairly simple, but they are so deep at the same time. They so capture God's greatness and majesty that we have to sing it with joy and fall down in worship. Join me as we sing it and give God the praise, and just declare from your heart that there is none like Him and that He is wonderful and utterly unique and perfect.

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