Reginald Heber

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.’ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing, ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,  to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’
Revelation 4:8-11

Holy, Holy, Holy LBW 165

1    Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
      Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

2    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 evermore shalt be.

 3    Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
     though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see,
      only thou art holy; there is none beside thee, perfect in pow’r, in love and purity.

4    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!

Text: Reginald Heber, 1783-1826, alt.

             Reginald Heber was an Anglican musician who found the music of his day a bit wanting, and so worked to improve it.  Heber was a bishop and during his time most church leaders frowned on any hymn not based on the Psalms. Two men who served under Heber, John Newton and William Cowper, had collated a hymnal for Newton’ congregation in Olney called the “Olney Hymnal”. It contained a number of new hymns they had authored like; Amazing Grace, Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken, and There is a Fountain Filled with Blood. Heber introduced this hymnal into the worship life of his diocese and was then instrumental in importing it to America where it was included in a hymn collection called “The Sacred Harp”.  Later, Heber accepted a call to be Bishop of Calcutta where, for the first time in his career, he discovered the reality of a pagan world.  So he wrote a hymn of his own as witness to that world, and set it to a tune called “Nicaea”, written to recall the place where the Council of Nicaea met in 325 to adopt the doctrine of the Trinity. It has since become a staple for Trinity Sunday, speaking powerfully of the heart of our faith: One God in Three Persons.

Prayer:  Holy God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, challenge the pagan world around us and by your holiness, transform and redeem it.  Enable us, your faithful people, to speak, walk and sing as one to the glory of your Triune name.  Amen. 

Here is a contemporary rendition, which demonstrates the timeless appeal of this venerable hymn!