Revelation of John 14:2-3

Verse 2. And I heard a voice from heaven. Showing that the scene is laid in heaven, but that John in the vision was on the earth.

As the voice of many waters. As the sound of the ocean, or of a mighty cataract. That is, it was so loud that it could be heard from heaven to earth. No comparison could express this more sublimely than to say that it was like the roar of the ocean.

As the voice of a great thunder. As the loud sound of thunder.

And I heard the voice of harpers. In heaven: the song of redemption accompanied with strains of sweet instrumental music. For a description of the harp. Isa 5:12.

Harping with their harps. Playing on their harps. This image gives new beauty to the description. Though the sound was loud and swelling, so loud that it could be heard on the earth, yet it was not mere shouting, or merely a tumultuous cry. "It was like the sweetness of symphonious harps." The music of heaven, though elevated and joyous, is sweet and harmonious; and perhaps one of the best representations of heaven on earth is the effect produced on the soul by strains of sweet and solemn music.

(d) "voice" Rev 19:6 (e) "harping" Rev 5:8,9
Verse 3. And they sung as it were a new song. Rev 5:9. It was proper to call this "new," because it was on a new occasion, or pertained to a new object. The song here was in celebration of the complete redemption of the church, and was the song to be sung in view of its final triumph over all its foes. Compare Barnes on "Re 7:9"; Rev 7:10.

Before the throne. The throne of God in heaven. Rev 4:2.

And before the four beasts. Rev 4:6-8.

And the elders. Rev 4:4.

And no man could learn that song, etc. None could understand it but the redeemed. That is, none who had not been redeemed could enter fully into the feelings and sympathies of those who were. A great truth is taught here. To appreciate fully the songs of Zion; to understand the language of praise; to enter into the spirit of the truths which pertain to redemption; one must himself have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. He must have known what it is to be a sinner under the condemnation of a holy law; he must have known what it is to be in danger of eternal death; he must have experienced the joys of pardon, or he can never understand, in its true import, the language used by the redeemed. And this is only saying what we are familiar with in other things. He who is saved from peril; he who is rescued from long captivity; he who is pardoned at the foot of the scaffold; he who is recovered from dangerous illness; he who presses to his bosom a beloved child just rescued from a watery grave, will have an appreciation of the language of joy and triumph which he can never understand who has not been placed in such circumstances: but of all the joy ever experienced in the universe, so far as we can see, that must be the most sublime and transporting which will be experienced when the redeemed shall stand on Mount Zion above, and shall realize that they are saved.

(f) "new song" Rev 15:3 (g) "one hundred and forty-four thousand" Rev 14:1
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