Canticle 8 (Dan 3:57-88 LXX)
Last time we considered Old Testament Canticle Seven, with its vulnerable and striking confession of Azariah, with the story of how he and his friends are cast into the furnace, and with the beginning of the song of the Three Youths. Their song opens, as we saw, with the sight of the LORD high and lifted up, yet looking into the very depths of the earth. The rest of the canticle invites the entire created universe to sing to God along with the three persecuted men: “sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout the ages!” When the song is sung in liturgy, it becomes a litany of praise that folds God’s people into the praise of the entire cosmos, from the winds and rains to the persecuted faithful, epitomized in three young men. The song was so well-known in past ages that it is frequently not even printed out in full in service books, but simply indicated for use by its title “Blessed art Thou,” or “the Canticle of Blessings” Indeed, it is referred to as early as the fifth century by the French witness St. Caesarius of Arles (Sermon 69 in St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermons 1–80, trans. Mary Magdeleine Mueller, Fathers of the Church Series, vol. 31 [New York: Fathers of the Church, 1956] 325). It is an ideal song for God’s people, not only in times of persecution, but in any context—throughout all the ages!—for it places us within a lively cosmos of praise and thanksgiving, no matter if our station is humble or, humanly speaking, high. Unfortunately, it is not as well known today, especially in Protestant circles, because it comes from apocryphal or “deuterocanonical” passages. Even Orthodox do not sing it as often as was the custom of the early Church, and so it commands our careful attention. Listen to this marvelous psalm, and notice how God is especially glorified in the temple (for Christians, the temple is wherever Christians may be found!) and adored for His general mercy toward His creation:
Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, you angels of the Lord;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, you heavens;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, all you waters above the heavens;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, all you powers of the Lord;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, sun and moon;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, stars of heaven;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, all rain and dew;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, all you winds;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, fire and heat;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, chill and winter cold;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, dews and falling snow;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, ice and cold;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, snows and hoarfrosts;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, nights and days;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, darkness and light;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, lightnings and clouds;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Let the earth bless the Lord;
let it sing hymns and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, mountains and hills;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, all that grows in the ground;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, rain storms and springs;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, seas and rivers;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, you sea–monsters and all that move in the waters;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, all birds of the air;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, four–footed and wild animals of the land;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, all humans on earth;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, O Israel;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, you priests, slaves of the Lord;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, spirits and righteous souls;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, you who are holy and humble in heart;
sing hymns and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
Bless the Lord, Ananias, Azariah, Mishael;
sing hymns, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
[For he has rescued us from Hades
and saved us from the hand of death
and delivered us from the midst of the burning flame
and released us from the fire.]
Having already envisaged God on his throne looking into the depths of our world, the song proceeds to invoke all the creation; it moves on to the angels, then to the heavens and all that is in them; then it recalls the elements of rain, wind, fire, and snow; then day and night, light and darkness; then the parts of the earth, including mountains and hills and various waters; then the creatures in those waters, in the air, and on the land; then finally human beings, including Israel, the priests, the souls of the righteous, the humble. It ends with the three youths encouraging themselves to give praises, because they have ample reason to praise, since they are being delivered even as they sing. As they glorify God, the three youths also exemplify what it is to be truly human: they give the created order a voice, acting in a kind of mediating role for those elements of the creation that do not normally speak out. The whole cosmos is brought before our eyes, and offered in praise to God, in recognition that everything that God has created has its own way of honoring the Creator.
This seems appropriate for human beings, who were given the role to tend and nurture the earth from the beginning. However, we do not simply give a voice to the animals and plants, but we also call upon the angels! This may seem a bit impertinent since those are the very beings who now see God face to face: surely they do not need to be encouraged to worship. Yet, still, the three do it, in exuberant remembrance of God’s greatness and goodness, present with them even in their hour of need. Angels, I guess, can learn from the joy of simple human beings, for God has become one of us, while, as the book of Hebrews tells us, He never became an angel in the same way. Of course, the three young men do not know about Jesus, as we do, but they see a glimmering of God’s great mercy as a fourth Figure walks, mysteriously, in the fire with them!
This Song of the Three is also a wonderful example of how, in authentic worship, the personal and contemporary are commingled with the historic and general. We see this in the last verse of the Biblical passage which says: “Bless the Lord, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever; for he has rescued us from Hades and saved us from the hand of death, and delivered us.” As the story of Daniel’s three friends is recalled in its particularity, the praises of the three heroes merge with the praises of God’s people, who see themselves also as rescued from death and from imprisonment by Christ. We are people who praise with our minds as well as hearts, giving a concrete reason: for he has rescued us! The recollection of the burning flame (he has rescued us from Hades) is made even more poignant by the ancient tradition of the church, in which the mysterious figure “like a man” or “an angel” who joins them in the furnace is seen as a pre-incarnational appearance of God the Son. He is “God’s enduring mercy” personified, there with the three, and with us, too.
When we sing the Canticle liturgically, the Church has also appointed that we add these verses, recalling all that God has done for us since the time of Daniel and his friends:
O you Apostles, Prophets, and Martyrs of the LORD, bless the LORD;
sing hymns and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
We bless the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the LORD;
sing hymns and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
We praise, and exalt the LORD in all the ages;
sing hymns and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
We praise, bless, and worship the LORD;
sing hymns and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
We praise and glorify the LORD in all the ages;
sing hymns and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages.
By this liturgical addition, the youth’s stirring recital of God’s care for the whole of creation, and for particular servants, is joined to a recollection of the whole Church, and of the triune God of whom the youths themselves were not aware. When Christians add their praises to the three persecuted young men, this means that we invoke God as we now know Him, through the One who was, incognito, with the witnesses in the furnace.
As we have been following the confession of Azariah, the narrative of the story, and the Song of the Three Youths as it emerges in the Bible, there is something that we know that the pagan king only learns at the end of the song—that the three have been joined by the Angel of the Lord, who is not only with them, but protecting them. King Nebuchadnezzar is astonished when he realizes that the three have not been killed, and looking more closely into the furnace, sees this mysterious fourth Figure. So he calls them out, and in the presence of all acknowledges the power of the God of Israel. It seems, however, that the king has much to learn regarding the nature of that God—that hHs mercy endures throughout all the ages. For, almost comically, he decrees now that anyone who blasphemes the God of the three youths will be dismembered, and that person’s property confiscated. The confused response of the monarch leads us to contemplate the nature of our true and only God, as revealed to us in Christ. We learn not only about His power from nature, but also about His mercy and truth from the manner in which He has entered into our history, come to be with us in the furnace of this fallen world, and even in the realm of the dead, and rescued all His people from sin and death. The prophets, the apostles, and the martyrs bear witness to His being and His actions on our behalf, and at this bright time of the year, to the wonder of the Resurrection. This is our God: let us sing praise to Him more and more, and highly exalt Him throughout all the ages!