Doxology
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above you heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”-Bishop Thomas Ken, c. 1674
“Let praise … not merely thanksgiving, but praise—
always form an ingredient of thy prayers.
We thank God for what He is to us; for the benefits which He confers,
and the blessings with which He visits us.
But we praise Him for what He is in Himself.”-Edward M. Goulburn
Doxology, from the Greek doxa, meaning glory, and logos, meaning word. Taken together, one could interpret this as a spoken word of praise. With my liturgical heritage, Doxology was beautifully woven through our church service and even extended into fellowship meals following the service. Congregants would file downstairs, circumference the basement cafeteria, and sing the above Doxology a cappella. The Lutheran liturgy left an indelible imprint on me. I even have a memory in which my childhood friend Paula Piccioni and I played out an entire liturgical service in her family’s vacant shed.
This glorious word or expression of glory brings praise to the Holy Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When Thomas Ken inscribed these words in 1674, it was to encourage personal devotional habits at the boys’ school where he served as chaplain. The morning stanza—of which there were thirteen in all—opened with:
“Awake, my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise, to pay thy morning sacrifice.”
At the close of day, the boys were encouraged to sing:
“All praise to Thee, my God, this night, for all the blessings of the light!
Keep me, O Keep me, King of kings, beneath Thine own almighty wings.”
Laced between these stanzas was the text which is the most familiar to us today and known as The Doxology.
Oh! that our days would be laced and woven with dedicated prayer such as this, a 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 type of prayer that cultivates a constant conversation with the Lord: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. The Message says it like this: Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live. It’s the instruction given to Jews in Deuteronomy 6:7, that we are to “be on your hearts.”
“Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
-Deuteronomy 6:7-9
This passage, known as the Shema, is a Jewish prayer that is internalized by recitation and literally carrying out its precepts by the wearing of tassels and phylacteries (small boxes to wear as reminders to keep the law) and fixing scrolls (a mezuzah) on the doorposts of their homes. When my children were small, I remember helping my children decoupage tissue paper on raisin boxes and rolling up the verses to tuck inside, and we ticky-tacked the box to the doorframe of their bedrooms until the blue ticky tack leached onto the white paint.
We don’t have those raisin boxes anymore; the children have grown and we live in a different house. But no doubt the ticky tack blue is still on the doorframe, and I pray the lessons are still being lived out. They were the embers of faith that I would stoke in their young lives and that I still blow on in my own faith walk.
I remember serving on a short-term mission trip in Tianjin, China, with my husband and first-born son, then two years old. We spent a few evenings with relatives who served there at the time, and I would help clean up dishes after a meal. Upon beginning to wash up from another meal together, Lara exclaimed, on a humorous but somewhat serious note, “Deborah! Stop doing my dishes! I need to pray for so-and-so, and I always pray for them while I wash my dishes!”
As I cultivate my conversation with the Lord, as I interact with Him, listening, petitioning, asking him to replace my human thoughts for His kingdom perspectives, inviting His divine persuasion in my thought life, I am walking out doxology. With my unique expressions of who he created me to be, I can be sure that He understands.
“It shall often happen that when thy heart is numb and torpid,
and yields not to the action of prayer,
it shall begin to thaw, and at last burst,
like streams under the breath of spring, from their icy prison,
with the warm and genial exercise of praise.”-Edward M. Goulburn