ISSL Reflections November 21 2021 Revelation 19:1–8 Post 2

V.
Let’s return to this song of praise and as you spend time with it today notice how it might draw you in.

VI.
Revelation 19:1-8 (NRSV)

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,

“Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power to our God,
    for his judgments are true and just;
he has judged the great whore
    who corrupted the earth with her fornication,
and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Once more they said,

“Hallelujah!
The smoke goes up from her forever and ever.”

And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying,

“Amen. Hallelujah!”

And from the throne came a voice saying,

“Praise our God,
    all you his servants,
and all who fear him,
    small and great.”

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his bride has made herself ready;
to her it has been granted to be clothed
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

VII.
I don’t know if you might be anything like me, but I have to admit not every “praise song” strikes me the same.  Some seem just loud and repetitious, some seem so full of emotion that I can hear little of substance, and some just seem plain foreign to me, like the singer (or singers) are really speaking in a language I do not understand.

And maybe that is a truth worth acknowledging – sometimes words of praise, a desire to praise, and even the idea of praise is so far from me, I cannot find my way there.

VIII.
How might this song in the Book of Revelation be for me, even when praise seems far removed from where I stand?

Well, I could at least give it a hearing, even if I cannot sing with them.

And maybe I can acknowledge my perspective may not be the same as these singers.

What is their perspective?  Where do they stand?  What are they able to see and affirm given what they know of past struggles and coming victories?

How can their view of the victory of the Kingdom of God be something I can sense even today?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


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