TOWARD THE THRONE
"...and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” (Rev. 4:8b–11)
This scene in heaven ends in worship directed toward God on His throne. Here and in Revelation 5 are five great hymns of praise, each gradually increasing in the number of singers—from a quartet (the four living creatures) with the twenty-four elders joining in (verse 10), then myriads of angels adding their voices (verse 11), and finally, all created beings in the universe filling in the mighty chorus of praise to God (verse 13). This mighty oratorio of praise and worship can be divided into two movements: the hymn of creation (chapter 4), and the hymn of redemption (chapter 5).
This hymn of creation, the first movement, may be divided into several elements. The four living creatures begin by focusing on God’s holiness: “day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God.’ ” The threefold repetition of holy is also found in Isaiah 6:3. Holiness is the only one of God’s attributes repeated in this way, since it is the summation of all that He is.
Next, the four living creatures refer to God’s power. He is the Almighty, a title by which God identified Himself to Abraham (Genesis 17:1). That term identifies God as the most powerful being, devoid of any weakness, whose conquering power and overpowering strength none can oppose. Because God is Almighty, He can effortlessly do whatever His holy will purposes to do (cf. Isaiah 40:28).
God’s power is seen in creation. Psalm 33:9 says, “He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Having created the universe, God also controls it. But as was the case with His holiness, the aspect of God’s power most clearly in view here is His power exhibited in judgment. For example, He judged Satan and the sinning angels, expelling them from heaven; destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain; drowned Pharaoh’s army; and shattered the most powerful king in the world, Nebuchadnezzar, reducing him to eating grass like an animal for seven years. And it will be God’s power that unleashes the terrible, irresistible judgments on sinful mankind during the tribulation before the Lord’s return.
The four living creatures also praise God for His eternity, extolling Him as “He who was and who is and who is to come.” Scripture repeatedly affirms God’s eternity, that He has neither beginning nor ending (e.g., Psalms 90:2; 93:2; Isaiah 57:15; 1 Timothy 1:17).
The praise of the four living creatures, as they give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, triggers a response from the twenty-four elders. They will “fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever.” This is the first of six times the elders bow before God (5:8, 14; 7:11; 11:16; 19:4). This is a posture of reverential worship, a natural response to the majestic glory of God.
Amazingly, after prostrating themselves the twenty-four elders “cast their crowns before the throne.” They are not concerned about their own holiness, honor, or reward. All those things pale into insignificance and become meaningless in light of the glory of God.
The elders add their own note to the chorus of praise, crying out, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” The Greek word for “worthy” was used of the Roman emperor when he marched in a triumphal procession. The focus of the elders’ song is on God’s glory in creation. He is presented as Creator throughout Scripture (10:6; cf. Genesis 1:1; Exodus 20:11). The elders are acknowledging that God has the right both to redeem and to judge His creation. Their song anticipates paradise lost becoming paradise regained.
