We want to worship God is ways that are pleasing to him. How can we do this? The Bible offers us many examples of how the angels worship. Let’s walk through some of them.

Examples of Worship by Angels

Isaiah 6

Isaiah chapter 6 begins with angels before God on the throne and offering him worship. Isaiah sees a vision of God sitting on his throne, lofty and exalted (Isa 6:1). The Seraphim before God call to each other, “Holy, Holy, Holy is Yahweh of armies. Heaven and earth is full of his glory” (Isa 6:3). What we can see here is that the angels express a central attribute of God. He is holy. This doesn’t mean he avoids smoking or drinking alcohol, obviously. God’s holiness primarily refers to his otherness from everything else.

Worship at Jesus’ Birth: Luke’s Gospel

Another important example of worship by the angels is recorded in Luke 2. When Jesus was born, an angel of the Lord appeared to some shepherds. The glory of the Lord “shined around them and the shepherds feared with a great fear” (Luke 2:9). A great heavenly host appeared as well.

They praised God and said, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14). The angels declared God’s glory and praised him by recognizing his glory.

Worship in Revelation

Revelation 4

Beyond these two instances, there are many times the angels offer praise to God in the Book of Revelation. There are four living creatures before God’s throne and they continuously (day and night) call out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the omnipotent One” (Rev 4:8).  Omnipotence is another theological term. It means that God is the almighty ruler over all things. They also assert God’s everlasting nature by saying, “Who was and is and is to come” (Rev 4:8).

The angels emphasize, as they did in Isaiah’s day and when Jesus was born, that God is holy. He is also all-powerful. That can be a comfort to us because God is able to do whatever he wills in any situation that you are facing.

John tells us that when the four living creatures give glory and honor and gratitude to the One on the throne who lives to the ages of the ages (a way to say “forever”), the twenty-four elders around the throne worship the one on the throne who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns down before God’s throne. They say, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things and because of your will, they were created” (Rev 4:11). God is the creator of everything and it is by his will that all things were created. That includes you, Your existence is God’s will.

Revelation 5

In Revelation 5, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, and sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slaughtered and purchased for God by your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation, and made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will rule upon the earth” (Rev 5:9-10).

This song describes what Jesus the Messiah has done for all people, and the destiny of those chosen by God. The important point to notice is that the words are about the Lamb of God and directed to the Lamb of God.

Next, the angels with a loud voice say, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing” (Rev 5:12). This praise is all about Jesus and angels are directing this praise to the Lamb.

Then, everything in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and everything in them offers praise: “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing and honor and glory and sovereignty forever and ever” (Rev 5:13). Then, the four living creatures say, “Amen” repeatedly and the elders fell down and worshiped.

If you think that the book of Revelation (not Revelations) is all about scary monsters and judgments, you might want to take a second look. This book is full of praise and prayer.

Revelation 7

In Revelation 7:10, people from every nation, tribe, people, and language are standing before God and the Lamb, and they cry out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb” (Rev 7:10). The humans offer praise to God and to the lamb. Since worship should not be given to any being but God—even the angels refuse worship—it must be the case that the lamb is also God.

A Few Words about Understanding God

Even though we can’t know how God can be three persons in the one true God, this verse is part of the evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity. It implies that Jesus is God, even as the Father is God. Every attempt to make this doctrine more understandable reduces Jesus to something else, like a second God or an angel or some other spiritual being or denies that the one God is three persons in one. The early church rightly labeled all these attempts to understand who Jesus was as heresy.

I have a very good friend who lives out his Christian faith in large and small ways, but he does not accept the concept of the Trinity. It’s clear from talking to him that he wants a view of God that makes sense. So, he lessens the Son and the Spirit in ways that he can understand. However, as God says through Isaiah, “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts.” Isaiah said, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9). God is above us. 

I’ve written this before, but if God explained all about himself to us, it would be like a physicist trying to explain quantum mechanics (which I can’t explain) to a two-year-old baby. We lack the ability to understand God fully. If you think, like my friend, that you are able to do that fully, your god is too small.

Revelation 11

An angel cries out in a vision in Revelation 11: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah and he will reign to the ages of the ages (=a Hebrew way to say ‘forever’)” (Rev 11:15). Immediately after this, the twenty-four elders “who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to you O Lord God Almighty who is and was because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign and the nations became angry and your wrath came and the time to judge the dead and to give the reward to your bond-slaves the prophets and to the holy people/saints and to those who fear your name, the small and the great and to destroy those who destroy the earth’” (Rev 11:16-18).

Falling on your face would not be a normal pose for worship in a church setting, and in a church worship service it would be all but impossible. It could, however, be done at home. Yet, in its display of humility, it is an appropriate prayer position. Imagine, these elders, whoever they are, get to sit before God’s throne. The thought of doing that is both scary and wonderful all at once. It also points to the need to not simply scroll into God’s presence casually, failing to recognize to whom we are talking. That doesn’t mean that God is impersonal and unapproachable. It does mean that

The elders give God praise because he has begun to reign (“may your kingdom come”). As part of this reigning, God will judge the dead and will give the reward to his bond-slaves the prophets and to his holy people, the saints (all believers, not only those some church has declared to be saints) and to those who fear God. Fearing God is appropriate, given that he is God and you are not. Finally, as part of God’s reign, he will destroy those who destroy the earth.

Isaiah 65:17 describes God making a new earth. The current earth has been treated so badly by humans that the only way to fix it is for God to make a new one. We don’t normally sing songs that talk about God’s judgment on those who reject him. Maybe we should. What do you think?

Where Do We Go From Here?

I’ll stop here, but if you go on to Revelation 12, you’ll find further praise from there to the end of Revelation.

What do we learn from these moments of praise? It’s about God, his holiness and honor and glory. These are not “gospel songs” about us, like Amazing Grace is. They are all about God and directed to God. In most worship services I’ve been in for many many years, there are a lot of gospel songs. “It’s so great what Jesus has done for me.” There is certainly a place for such songs, but it seems like those take the place of the sort of worship that the angels do.  I think they know better than we do how to worship God properly.

This post is not about “what’s wrong with modern worship music.” On the one hand, I really like the old hymn, “And Can It Be,” by Charles Wesley, which by my definition is a gospel song because it’s about the person who is singing. I also like the modern worship song, “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech. It’s about and is addressed to God. I want my worship to be more like that of the angels. What do you think?

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