Holy Is The Lord

When Chris Tomlin invites us to “lift up our hands” and declare “Holy is the Lord God Almighty — the earth is filled with His glory,” he’s echoing a long biblical chorus that invites both awe and action. The lyric “the joy of the Lord is our strength” points directly to Nehemiah 8:10, where joy is not sentimental but sustaining. The call to lift hands and bow down recalls Psalms that model embodied worship (Psalm 134:2; Psalm 95:6), while the repeated cry “Holy, holy, holy” calls to mind Isaiah’s vision where the seraphim proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3) — a phrase John later takes up in Revelation 4:8 about the Lord God Almighty. Even the image of praise “rising up all around” connects with the biblical picture of creation and people declaring God’s renown (Psalm 19:1; Psalm 98:4–6).

Hearing these Scriptures alongside the song helps the words land as more than an emotional swell; they’re a theological claim about who God is and how we live in response. Calling God “holy” is to recognize His otherness and moral perfection; saying “the earth is filled with His glory” reframes our everyday surroundings as saturated with divine presence, not empty backdrops. When we sing together, lift our hands, and bow, we’re joining a biblical movement that names God’s greatness (Psalm 47:2), accepts joy as our strength (Nehemiah 8:10), and participates in the universal praise that creation and the church are invited into (Isaiah 6; Revelation 4). That changes worship from performance into participation in a story far bigger than our moment: it teaches humility, fuels hope, and reorients how we treat one another and the world.

If you truly believe the earth is filled with His glory and that the joy of the Lord is your strength, what one concrete choice would you make this week that shows the world you mean it?