2023_11_13 Insight Post- Kim Feld

If you’ve read much of what I’ve written in these posts, you know I love studying God’s Word. Another love I have is praise and worship music. When the two intersect, it is significant and reinforcing to me. I take great delight and wonder in verses like Zephaniah 3:17 that tell me that the Creator of the Universe rejoices over me with singing. Verses like that are healing to me because the enemy often tries to convince me that I am nothing more than a disappointment to God.

As I read the powerful words of Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4, they felt familiar, not because I remembered them from my reading but because I had sung them. Verses from these two chapters were the inspiration for Jennie Riddle’s powerful Revelation Song originally written in 1999. The idea for this song came to Riddle through a request she made to the Holy Spirit to help her write a song that “the angels and creation were already singing so that we could join in…” (Riddle, 2008). The result was an incredible song recorded by Kari Jobe and others.

Ezekiel 1 records an other-worldly vision given to Ezekiel that displays the greatness, power, and beauty of God. God’s sovereignty over all He has created is evident, and it was such a powerful visual that Ezekiel fell on his face. Revelation 4 continues a vision given to the apostle John of Heaven’s Throneroom with all creation worshiping God as ultimate Lord and Master.

Some of the same elements are mentioned in both passages, their meaning having been debated for centuries. But these chapters give us an intense glimpse of the glory of God and the praise He is due:

28 All around him was a glowing halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day. This is what the glory of the Lord looked like to me. When I saw it, I fell face down on the ground, and I heard someone’s voice speaking to me (Ezekiel 1:28, NLT).

8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”

9 Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever), 10 the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say,

11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased” (Revelation 4:8-11, NLT).

The end of Revelation 4:11 says it all: “For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.” All of heaven and earth exist because God was pleased to create it.

“Clothed in rainbows of living color
Flashes of lightning rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor strength and glory and power be
To You the only one who’s King” (from Revelation Song by Jennie Riddle)

Kim Feld
Executive Director of Education and Outreach

Reference: Riddle, J. (2008, April 17). The story behind “Revelation Song.” Praise Charts. https://www.praisecharts.com/blog/the-story-behind-revelation-song/