I mentioned yesterday how much I've loved to sing the sanctus in St Andrew's Chapel near to the headquarters of Ligonier Ministries.

Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

Of course, the words are based on the sixth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah.

When Isaiah in the year that King Adziah died, saw the true king, the Lord, seated on

a throne in his temple and heard the voices of the seraphim chanting

these words, holy, holy, holy. We've thought about that chapter in Isaiah before in these

podcasts. I want to think about it again today. In chapter 1, Isaiah talks about the impoverished worship

that was taking place in the Jerusalem temple in his own day. But by chapter 6 he has seen his own

impoverishment because he saw and heard the worship of the Holy Serafim as they praised God as the great Holy One.

It must have struck him that these Serafim covered their faces with two of their wings.

I wonder what that really means. After all, they were permanently holy.

They were perfectly holy.

I think it's probably an indication that perfectly holy creatures, these seraphim,

needed to veil their faces before uncreated holiness, before this thrice holy God. So it's not surprising that when Isaiah saw and heard this,

he cried out that he was a man of unclean lips and felt he was disintegrating. And I'm pretty sure

that when he left the temple, he must have felt that he had been in the

presence of God in a completely new way, and he could never be the same man again.

Now, that's what worship is for.

That's why God calls us to worship regularly, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together,

as the author of Hebrews says.

Because in the rhythm of our worship week by week, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, we find ourselves

cleansed and renewed.

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