Singing as Prayer: The Trisagion Hymn

Congregational singing can take on a number of forms and purposes in the corporate worship service. Raising our voices can be declaration of our love for God, expression of our faith, articulation of our understanding about God and his work in the world, or as a form of prayer. Actually, any form our singing takes probably ought to be seen as prayer in some way. But sometimes, the song or hymn ends up feeling like a prayer before it is anything else. Such is the case for me and the “new” confessional hymn that was introduced to us over the last two weeks – Trisagion. As Chris Hiatt has noted, Trisagion means thrice holy and that may be all we really need to know in order to be drawn into this prayer-hymn. Having never heard it before, I resonated so much with that song that I looked it up online (Fernando Ortega’s version), and for two days I could not stop playing it. Every time I listen, it draws me in, focuses my thoughts on the holy God, and gets turned into prayer in my mind.

When I looked further into The Trisagion, though, I learned that this is not a “new” song at all. In fact, some date it all the way back to the apostles. More consistently, though, it is dated to the 5th Century – around 435 during the office of Patriarch Proculus in Constantinople. While there are various traditions about the history and origin of this hymn, it has been a significant regular component of the eastern church liturgy (sometimes chanted) and figures into Roman Catholic liturgy for Good Friday. The simple, yet profound lyrics speak of the awe of a triply holy Trinitarian God, and they acknowledge the humble place of us the singers: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, Have Mercy on Us”. Furthermore, I appreciate the way it is plural in it’s perspective of the singer(s), expressing our collective looking to this holy God as well as our collective need for his mercy. Personally, I really need this reminder of where I stand before God. I think too frequently we boast of our righteous standing before God if we are in Christ without realizing that we are still the creature and he, the Holy Creator. A good dose of awe before this God always causes me to pause before boldly asserting my being justified with God. There was and still is a very real sense that even as we stand clothed in Christ’s righteousness, we are still human and he is still God. I can think of no better confessional prayer than one that acknowledges this.

Todd Best

for more on The Trisagion:
http://stanford.edu/~buhler/trisagion/Trisagion.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01211b.htm