Angels in Scripture: Worship is Their Labor of Love

Angels in Scripture: Worship is Their Labor of Love.

“Let all the angels of God worship Him!” (Hebrews 1:6).

“Proskuneo” = The Greek word for worship that combines the actions of bowing down in reverence,  lying prostrate in humility, kissing with affection, and paying homage in awe; literally to crouch down low in adoration.

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (Tune: Mendelssohn – 3vv) [with lyrics for congregations]

The Joyful Duty of the Angels. Angels enjoy a primary job that is the hub of the wheel for them, the resource for all their other duties and responsibilities…  eternally worshipping Him without ceasing. Angels have free will, so they choose to reverently adore God and rejoice over Him with singing and praise. They are sinless, pure spiritual beings, undefiled servants of the Lord who are privileged to be constantly in God’s presence in glory. Angels never cease to behold God’s face and offer their praises to the only Being in the universe Who is worthy of such worship. We see some glimpses of the angels at work:

1. As witnessed by Isaiah in his glimpse of the throne room in heaven, “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Above Him were angel-seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And the angels were calling to each other: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!’ At the sound of the angels’ voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the Temple was filled with smoke.” (Isaiah 6:1-4).
2. As revealed to John in his heavenly vision of the angelic beings described in Revelation 4:8-9: “Each of these four living creatures 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 chanting: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty– The One who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”
3. As revealed to John again in his vision in Revelation 5:11-14: “Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living creatures and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered – to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.’”
4. As once again revealed to John in Revelation 7:9-12: “And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. They sang, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen!‘”

Angels are our Partners in Worship. When we sing our praises, when we worship our Lord with each other, we are not alone. All heaven comes alongside us in our praises, or maybe we could say we come alongside them. We join with the heavenly host around the Throne when we worship together. The words which introduce the Holy Communion service in the Anglican liturgy says it all: “Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious Name, evermore praising you and saying, ‘’Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of the Angelic Host, heaven and earth are full of your glory! Glory be to You, O Lord Most High.” (BCP).

The Eastern Orthodox Church believes that earthly worship is the faithful act of participating with heavenly worship. The Divine Liturgy, the central act of Orthodox worship, is seen as an “entrance, passage, and ascension to the Throne of God where the faithful join with angels in praise and worship.” Specific prayers, like the “Prayer of Entrance,” explicitly acknowledge the presence and participation of angels in worship: “Master, Lord our God, Who has established the orders and hosts of angels and archangels in heaven to minister to Your glory, grant that holy angels may enter with us, that together we may celebrate and glorify Your goodness.” After their Trisagion Hymn, “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us”, the Orthodox worshipers then acknowledge the presence of the angelic powers through the priest’s prayers, “O Holy God, Who is resting among the holy ones, praised by the Seraphim with the thrice-holy voice, glorified by the Cherubim, and worshiped by every celestial power… We thank You for this Liturgy, which You have deigned to receive from our hands, even though thousands of archangels and tens of thousands of angels stand around You, the Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring aloft upon their wings.”  And finally, the priest’s emphasizes that the entire church is declaring the holiness of God “together with these blessed powers” of the angelic hosts. As the Orthodox priests like to say, “We’re constantly being reminded throughout the liturgy of our overlapping role and unity with the angelic powers in their worship of and obedience to God in ministry.”