I did the devotions at our Circuit Meeting tonight. I used Song of the Three Young Men set as a canticle in the lectionary today. This is the prayer of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the three young men who praised God after they had been placed in the midst of the fiery furnace during a persecution of Jews in Babylon, as told in the Book of Daniel. It is a thanksgiving prayer, said by all three after having been saved by God. It’s a liturgical hymn of praise, a poetic expansion of the doxology that was sung in the Temple when the holy name of God was pronounced.
I have set the agenda for Circuit Meetings in the past and have wanted them to have a focus. That’s not my role in this appointment and I wanted to sit in the back row! I began the meeting by reminding those gathered why we were there: to commend Jesus and to remember the holy name of God who is blessed and with us and is our motivation.
It’s a lovely prayer. You might like to use it to say thank you at the end of the day. You may not have faced a fiery furnace today but there will have been trials you have escaped today by the grace of God.
1 Blessed are you, the God of our ancestors, worthy to be praised and exalted for ever.
2 Blessed is your holy and glorious name, worthy to be praised and exalted forever.
3 Blessed are you, in your holy and glorious temple, worthy to be praised and exalted for ever.
4 Blessed are you who look into the depths, worthy to be praised and exalted for ever.
5 Blessed are you, enthroned on the cherubim, worthy to be praised and exalted for ever.
6 Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom, worthy to be praised and exalted for ever.
7 Blessed are you in the heights of heaven, worthy to be praised and exalted for ever.
The Song of the Three 29–34
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