Sweetest note in seraph song,
Sweetest name on mortal tongue.
Do you know what a seraph is? I bet you have heard the word “seraphim” before and know it is a kind of angel. But even that is not quite right.
In English we form plurals in several different ways: “s,” “es”, “ies”, plus those plurals that are Latin derivatives where “is” becomes “es” (analysis/analyses), “um” becomes “a” (memorandum/memoranda), and “us” becomes “i” (cactus/cacti).
One way to form a plural in Hebrew is to add “im.” So there is one seraph and more than one seraphim, one cherub and more than one cherubim. A “seraph” song is a song a seraph, or several seraphim, might sing.
We don’t really know a whole lot about angelic beings. I can tell you one thing, though: they don’t look like chubby little naked flying babies with wings, shooting bows and arrows!
The only word picture I could find of seraphim is of those around the throne of God in Isaiah’s vision of chapter 6. They are anything but “cute.” Those seraphim had six wings. When they spoke the threshold of the Temple shook and smoke filled the rooms. Those creatures could hold live coals in their hands. John said the angels around God’s throne were “mighty,” Rev 5:2. I do not know if those were seraphim or not, but they stood in the same place as Isaiah’s seraphim.
As to angels singing about Jesus, is that scriptural?
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:13,14.
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Rev 5:11,12. Earlier, in verse 9, John calls what they were doing “singing.”
So from his birth to his ascension and afterward the angels sang about Jesus. Seraphim, cherubim, archangels, whatever--I doubt any refused, do you?
But here is the point of the song: what our Savior did for us is so glorious, so marvelous, so gracious and good that everyone should be singing his praises, whether “seraph” or “mortal.”
It is sad that our books do not contain the following verse to this song:
And when to that bright world above
We rise to be with Jesus,
We’ll sing around the throne of love,
His Name—the Name of Jesus.
Isn’t it an appropriate idea that where the seraphim stand guard over the throne of God, singing, we will also stand, singing praise to the Great Physician?
After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and [about] the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, [be] unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Rev 7:9-12.
Dene Ward
Sweetest name on mortal tongue.
Do you know what a seraph is? I bet you have heard the word “seraphim” before and know it is a kind of angel. But even that is not quite right.
In English we form plurals in several different ways: “s,” “es”, “ies”, plus those plurals that are Latin derivatives where “is” becomes “es” (analysis/analyses), “um” becomes “a” (memorandum/memoranda), and “us” becomes “i” (cactus/cacti).
One way to form a plural in Hebrew is to add “im.” So there is one seraph and more than one seraphim, one cherub and more than one cherubim. A “seraph” song is a song a seraph, or several seraphim, might sing.
We don’t really know a whole lot about angelic beings. I can tell you one thing, though: they don’t look like chubby little naked flying babies with wings, shooting bows and arrows!
The only word picture I could find of seraphim is of those around the throne of God in Isaiah’s vision of chapter 6. They are anything but “cute.” Those seraphim had six wings. When they spoke the threshold of the Temple shook and smoke filled the rooms. Those creatures could hold live coals in their hands. John said the angels around God’s throne were “mighty,” Rev 5:2. I do not know if those were seraphim or not, but they stood in the same place as Isaiah’s seraphim.
As to angels singing about Jesus, is that scriptural?
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:13,14.
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” Rev 5:11,12. Earlier, in verse 9, John calls what they were doing “singing.”
So from his birth to his ascension and afterward the angels sang about Jesus. Seraphim, cherubim, archangels, whatever--I doubt any refused, do you?
But here is the point of the song: what our Savior did for us is so glorious, so marvelous, so gracious and good that everyone should be singing his praises, whether “seraph” or “mortal.”
It is sad that our books do not contain the following verse to this song:
And when to that bright world above
We rise to be with Jesus,
We’ll sing around the throne of love,
His Name—the Name of Jesus.
Isn’t it an appropriate idea that where the seraphim stand guard over the throne of God, singing, we will also stand, singing praise to the Great Physician?
After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and [about] the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, [be] unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Rev 7:9-12.
Dene Ward
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