May 2

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders, and no man could learn that song, but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.— Revelation 14:3.

1. They sung. Powerful emotions of joy seek for outward expression. This is one of the laws of our very nature. The expression will be suitable to the emotion. Grief pours forth its wailings; joy is heard in the modulations of verse, and the sweet swells and cadences of music. One reason for this is, that thus our joy may be social. The shout of one warrior animates another. The song of one laborer cheers another, as well as himself, in their mutual toil. The song of victory in one part of the field stimulates the combatants, where the battle is yet doubtful; and the common chorus heightens the common triumph. In heaven all is social, all is action and reaction. There is song in heaven, because there is joy there; joy too strong to be confined to the heart. It must not only be felt but sung; not only sung, but song in united chorus, rising, till the voice is "as the voice of many waters, as the voice of a great thunder."

2. They sung a new song. Every deliverance experienced by the saints of God calls for a new song: how much more, therefore, this, the final deliverance from earth! Their salvation is completed, and they now sing, "To him that loved us, and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father: to him be glory and dominion for ever." Their song is new, as demanded by new blessings. John saw before the throne "a Lamb, as it had been newly slain." The phrase intimates that blessings for ever new will flow from the virtue of his atonement, and the manifestation of the Divine perfections by him. Nor shall the song be new as to individuals only, but as to the whole glorified church. The church, even upon earth, has ever sung the mercies and the judgments of God. At the passage of the Red Sea, the construction of the tabernacle, the opening of the temple, the people sung praises to God. As they went to their great festivals, they were found "coming to Zion with joy." So now. Every Sabbath hears the church singing her psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. And all heaven shall sing, when the mill-stone is cast into the waters, and antichrist is destroyed. And this song is new, because its great subject, Christ crucified, never waxes old. I appeal to yourselves. Yes, brethren, when human poets have put these subjects into verse, and tuned them with human harmony, even then you have a new song. Who that knows the good will of God calls for new joys, a new Christ, a new salvation? Even here "the people of God are satisfied with his goodness;" how much more when heavenly poetry modulates the verse, and heavenly voices attune the lay!

3. They sung it before the throne. The glorious fruit of "the travail of his soul." Before "the living creatures;" angels who now see their charge secure, after that benevolent anxiety which they would feel. Much as an angel knows, he knows not whether I shall be finally saved. "Before the elders;" the presbyters, ministers of the church, who see, in souls redeemed from earth, both the fruit and reward of their past labors.