Saturday 10 June 2023

Psalm 150

Background

Revelation is the most amazingly complex and mind-boggling book in the New Testament. It is a series of visions and mystical experiences given to a Christian disciple called John, exiled on the island of Patmos because of the way he was testifying about Jesus the Messiah. Scholars disagree on whether John's Gospel, the Letters of John, and Revelation to John were written by the same person. However, the identity of the author is insignificant when we consider the powerful images and experiences he recorded. He was a follower of Jesus and a servant of God. Surely that’s all that matters!

Chapters 1-3 give an introduction, where the risen Jesus appears to John and dictates seven letters for him to take back to the churches in and around (present-day) Turkey. In chapter 4, John is taken through a door into heaven. But it’s not as we might imagine it – the final resting place of God’s people. That would be something for the future. Rather he is given a behind-the-scenes pass into the very throne room of God; the control-centre of the Almighty! Later, he receives visions of things to come in pictorial and metaphoric language. But chapters 4 and 5 can be understood as the present reality of heaven, usually hidden to mortal eyes. In theological language we could say he went ‘through the veil’ that presently separates earth and heaven (although the two are often closer that we think). It is a distinction that will be abolished altogether at the coming of the New Jerusalem, as John sees in the final part of this book.

As we read John’s description of the heavenly throne-room, we can conclude that heaven is in fact very difficult to describe! There are images that take us to other parts of the Biblical revelation of God: the rainbow, for example (verse 3), reminds us of the promise of God in the story of Noah, and also of the prophet Ezekiel who had a very similar experience (Ezekiel 1). 

There are the mysterious 24 elders, sitting on their thrones – who most likely represent the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles, forming a united government. (In which case, John the Apostle would surely be one of them.) There is thunder and lightning, which suggests that presently heaven is not ‘peaceful’ but rather a place of power and holy wrath, engaged in a dramatic battle. But most striking of all is the worship... First the song of the four living creatures (representing the worship of the animal kingdom) and then the worship of the elders themselves (representing God’s people). Imagine the sound of that choir! 

To Ponder:

• What is your most memorable experience of worshipping God?
• The worship of the ‘living creatures’ is emphatic and unqualified: God is to be worshipped! The worship of the elders, however, adds reason: “for...” and “because...”  How important is it, as God’s people, to understand why God is to be worshipped and glorified?
• This is a passage that’s hard to appreciate in a detached or academic way. As with all the readings this week, God ‘invites us in’ to his presence and purposes. Spend some time meditating and praying through the images of the throne room of God.  Let yourself be transported into worship.