Revelation 4:8

Revelation 4:8 b. And they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord, who art God, the Almighty, he which was and which is, and which is to come. The Trisagion thus sung by the living creatures is found also in Isaiah 6:3, in a passage which we have already seen lies largely at the bottom of the description of this chapter. It is thus natural to think that it is sung to the glory of God in the same character as that in which He there appears, that it is sung therefore to God in the absoluteness of His being and perfections, and not as specially the Father. With this agrees the fact, seen especially in the last words of this chapter, that it is the glory of God as Creator rather than Redeemer that is especially contemplated throughout the whole vision. The ascription of praise appears to consist of three parts, not as commonly supposed of two. He to whom it is sung is first addressed as ‘Lord' or Jehovah, and is then celebrated as ‘God;' as ‘the Almighty;' and as ‘He which was, and which is, and which is to come.' The order of the clauses in the third part is different from that in Revelation 1:8. There the Lord Himself speaks, dwelling first upon the thought that He ‘is' before mentioning that He ‘was' or that He ‘is to come.' In singing this song the living creatures ‘rest not day nor night' We are reminded of the words of our Lord in John 5:17, ‘My Father worketh even until now, and I work.' The work of God as the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all knows no intermission. He is everywhere present throughout His wide creation, upholding all things by the word of His power, and as marvellous in that work as in the utterance of the first fiat which summoned them into being. Therefore do the living creatures, ‘full of eyes round about and within,' always waiting upon Him, always watching Him, never rest from adoring, as He never rests from working.

The Trisagion of the living creatures immediately awakens the response of the whole Church of Christ represented by the twenty-four elders.