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Imagining Concourses of Angels and Bright, Shining Seraphs

Imagining Concourses of Angels and Bright, Shining Seraphs

Last updated on: August 8, 2024 at 12:18 pm by Delisa Hargrove

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Imagining Concourses of Angels and Bright, Shining Seraphs 2024-08-08T12:18:48-10:00 Delisa Hargrove

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What do “bright, shining seraphs” and “numberless concourses of angels” surrounding the throne of God look like? I’ve wondered this since reading scriptural accounts of angels surrounding God’s throne.

Concourses of Angels

Here are two depictions of angelic hosts at the throne of God:

concourses of angels By Gustave Doré - Alighieri, Dante; [[w:Henry Francisigiigkv Cary|Cary, Henry Francis]] (ed) (1892) "Canto XXXI" in The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Complete, London, Paris & Melbourne: Cassell & Company Retrieved on 13 July 2009., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93403

“Empyrean” By Gustave Doré – Alighieri, Dante; “Canto XXXI” in “The Divine Comedy by Dante”

Seraphim surrounding the throne of God

Fresco in Hagia Sophia, image by Christophe Meneboeuf

I’ve thought more about this concept of angels surrounding God’s throne since President Nelson admonished the study of Doctrine and Covenants 109 as a tutorial for the last days. In the second to last verse, Joseph Smith prays

And help us by the power of thy Spirit, that we may mingle our voices with those bright, shining seraphs around thy throne, with acclamations of praise, singing Hosanna to God and the Lamb! (Doctrine and Covenants 109:79)

Book of Mormon prophets Lehi and Alma saw this heavenly sight.

And being thus overcome with the Spirit, [Lehi] was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God. (1 Nephi 1:8)

Alma recorded

Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there. (Alma 36:22)

What a glorious vision!

Isaiah saw

the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

concourses of angels

Isaiah and the Seraphim (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

God’s Work and Glory

These images are wonderful and compel such ponderous thoughts. But God’s self-proclaimed work and glory kept coming to mind.

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

For me, God’s incredible work and glory evoke different imagery of servants and children of a creative and salvific God than standing forever around His throne. Not saying that wouldn’t be incredibly wonderful, but I felt like something was missing for an exalted heir. What are ways we can be “bright, shining seraphs” surrounding the throne of God and engaged in His work and glory? I kept searching for something to (metaphorically) represent the concourses of angels around God’s throne engaged in His work.

One day during an endowment session as I watched galaxies rolling past my view, I realized an answer was right before my eyes! If the throne of God is the center point, look at all those bright and shining worlds surrounding Him! This visual made so much sense to me! This is His work and glory … and a continuation of His works and glory eternally. And I can be a part of this work—my part, if done in righteousness, exlaims Hosanna and “Holy! Holy! Holy!” to my King forever.

The Lost Galaxy (NGC4535) via
NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Whirlpool Galaxy
via NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Abraham’s vision reinforced this thought for me.

And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were near unto it;

And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy God: (Abraham 3:2-3)

Check out the verbiage NASA provided with the images! The oldest stars are in the center, with the youngest, brightest stars on the outskirts of the galaxy.

This has been such a fascinating train of thought!

The Lost Galaxy/NGC4535

Located in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin), around 50 million light-years from Earth, NGC 4535 is truly a stunning sight to behold. Despite the incredible quality of this image, taken from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 4535 has a hazy, somewhat ghostly, appearance when viewed from a smaller telescope. This led amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland to nickname NGC 4535 the “Lost Galaxy” in the 1950s. The bright colours in this image aren’t just beautiful to look at, as they actually tell us about the population of stars within this barred spiral galaxy. The bright blue-ish colours, seen nestled amongst NGC 4535’s long, spiral arms, indicate the presence of a greater number of younger and hotter stars. In contrast, the yellower tones of this galaxy’s bulge suggest that this central area is home to stars which are older and cooler. This galaxy was studied as part of the PHANGS survey, which aims to clarify many of the links between cold gas clouds, star formation, and the overall shape and other properties of galaxies. On 11 January 2021 the first release of the PHANGS-HST Collection was made publicly available.

The Whirlpool Galaxy/M51 or NGC 5194

This Hubble composite image shows visible starlight as well as light from the emission of glowing hydrogen, which is associated with the most luminous young stars in the spiral arms.
The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as M51 or NGC 5194, is having a close encounter with a nearby companion galaxy, NGC 5195, just off the upper edge of this image. The companion’s gravitational pull is triggering star formation in the main galaxy, as seen in brilliant detail by numerous, luminous clusters of young and energetic stars. The bright clusters are highlighted in red by their associated emission from glowing hydrogen gas.
This Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 image enables researchers to clearly define the structure of both the cold dust clouds and the hot hydrogen and link individual clusters to their parent dust clouds.

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