“And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honour and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.”
Revelation 5:13-14 NLT
The song rings out through all creation. The verse, chorus and bridge reverberate through all creation, and then comes to an end. Just imagine the echoes dying away through the universe, before there is silence. And it is then broken by the four living beings saying the single word, “Amen”. This is a word we often use to end a prayer, or it may appear at the end of a hymn or song. It has the meaning, “so be it”, implying that what has been prayed or sung about, has finished. Finally, the twenty four elders fell down before Jesus and worshipped Him.
Revelation 5:14 brings the fifth chapter to an end, almost as though it is introducing a pause in the events that were unfolding before John, the Apostle. Of, course, there was no pause, but certainly things were about to change, as we shall see in Chapter 6.
What do we pilgrims think about introducing a pause into our lives, before we restart afresh on a new venture, or a new phase, perhaps, in our relationship with God? Are we in a place of wonder, touched by a move of God? Have we come through a time of great spiritual blessing? And are we now saying a big “Amen” before the echoes of our worship of God stop reverberating through our souls? In any time of blessing, the Sunday will come to an end, but there is always a Monday morning.
The God we worship is an amazing miracle Worker. The God we worship walks and talks with us. Perhaps, like the psalmist in Psalm 103:2-5, we can say, “Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!” But the challenge we pilgrims have is how we carry our wonderful life of blessings into a transforming experience to those around us. There will always be people who don’t want to hear our message. There will always be the spiritually deaf and the blind, who are comfortable in that. But the Apostle Paul wrote the following in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves”. Folks, we have to share what we have no matter how ill-equipped we feel we are. We might very much relate to Paul’s fragile clay jars, not feeling strong enough to share our faith, but the clue behind it all is the “great power” of God. A power we have within us.
Father God. John experienced amazing Heavenly worship in his vision. And we too can join the Heavenly song of worship to Jesus. We pray for Your help in sharing that song with those around us; those in this lost and unhappy world. We worship You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 