The Music Of Heaven

THE MUSIC OF HEAVEN based on Rev.15:1-8

By Glenn Pease

Most of us are not gifted in the realm of music. Many of us feel pathetic in our ability to sing, and even more so with our ability to produce music. We can easily envy those to whom it comes easy. Elizabeth Resen, at four could listen to music in a play at school, and then go home and play it on the piano. A classmate asked her how she did it, and she said , "I hear it in my ear then I hum it in my mouth. And then I play it with my fingers." If only it were that easy for all of us.

The good news is, we have every reason to believe that all of God's people will be so gifted in their new bodies in the eternal kingdom. God is a great lover of music, and He will want nothing but the best for all eternity. Everyone is expected to sing His praises, and so we can expect to be given unique abilities to do so. The fact that the Bible reveals there is so much singing in heaven implies that all who are there will be able to sing well. The book of Revelation has a host of happy hymns of harmony as part of the heavenly scene. Poems of praise are part of paradise. Joyful songs of jubilation to Jesus, and songs of salvation to the Savior are a major part of this book. It tells us about the adoration that is always an activity around the presence of the Almighty.

It makes sense that there will be a lot of singing in heaven. If there is plenty on earth, how much greater will be our desire to praise God, when all His promises are fulfilled, and we are enjoying the fullness of our salvation? It is also logical, because song is the best way known to unite a large number of people in a common activity. Hundreds and even thousands can join in one accord, as they sing the praises of the Lord. Singing is something a number of people can do together, and produce what is beautiful sound to the glory of God.

The interesting thing about the particular song in heaven, we are focusing on in Rev.15 is, it is both old and new. It is both the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb. The song of the Lamb was fairly new, but the song of Moses was well over 1200 years old when John wrote. We see ads all the time for records and tapes of songs that were popular in the 50's and 60's. They bring back memories, and people buy them by the thousands to relive the good old days.

Now we see John is telling us, they do the same thing in heaven. The great victory of the Exodus was the birth of Israel as a nation, and that event produced the first great song of Israel. It became like a national anthem. John said the dead in Christ go on singing that song of Moses, for it is a song of celebration, just like the song of the Lamb, which is the celebration of the ultimate Exodus--the Exodus of Jesus, as the Lamb of God, out of bondage to the flesh, out of bondage to matter, out of bondage to sin, death, and hell--into the liberty of the Kingdom of God. Jesus was our Moses, and He led the way, and was the pioneer of our faith, and enabled us to pass out of the Egypt of our bondage into the promised land of liberty.

What Moses did for the Old Testament people of God, Jesus has done for the New Testament people of God. The result is their songs are the top two on the charts of heaven, and they always will be, for all other songs are based on these two. The Old Testament saints sing the song of the Lamb too, for their exodus out of Egypt would have meant nothing if Jesus had not led the way out of death. On the other hand, the New Testament saints sing the song of Moses, for if he would not have led God's people out of Egypt to become a unique people, the plan for a Savior never could have been fulfilled.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament plan of God are vital parts of the whole, and the songs of heaven prove it. The new will be with us forever. We will sing endless new and enjoyable tunes, and music will be an endless progression of new songs. But the fact is, the old will never be obsolete, for the old will always be the foundation for all the new. The old songs of Moses and the Lamb will be enjoyed one hundred billion years from now, and we will appreciate them all the more, because we will have enjoyed so much more of what their salvation means. Don't waste your time trying to figure out which is best--the old or the new. They are both best, for they are both vital to the whole. The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb--cease to sing either and you rob the other of it's fullness of joy.