| CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE | June 1993 |
The New Song
“O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.” —Psalm 98:1
SINGING HAS ITS origin in remote history. It is more than a modulation of voices, for there is that singing which is prophetic, poetic, or victorious coming from the heart, which is pleasing and acceptable to the Lord. Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”—Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19
Jesus also sang to God, his Father, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. This was on the occasion of his celebrating the Passover and the institution of the Memorial of his death together with his disciples. We read, “When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” (Matt. 26:30) The Scriptures tell us of different songs: the song of joy; the song of Moses; the song of condemnation against Satan; the song of the Lamb, and the song that no one could sing but the 144,000.
The Song of Joy
Doubtless the first to sing praises to the Creator were the angels, when they saw God’s work of Creation completed. To their eyes the creation of an infinite number of stars and planets in the celestial space, all in perfect order and harmony, gave them reason to praise the Eternal One, and to sing a song of unspeakable joy. Jehovah, speaking to Job, said, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the cornerstone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”—Job 38:4-7
It is obvious that these sons of God were not human beings, because man, at that time, was not yet created. They were the angels, and among them were the morning stars, the Logos and Lucifer. This was before Lucifer’s outward rebellion against his Creator. The Logos—Jesus Christ in his pre-human state—was the beginning of God’s Creation, the first-born of all creatures, and was known as the bright, morning star. (Col. 1:15,16) “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.” (Rev. 22:16) “I will give him the morning star.”—Rev. 2:28
Peter wrote, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” (II Pet. 1:19) It is before the beginning of the Millennial Day, that the morning star, Jesus Christ, arises as a forerunner of the morning of the glorious day of resurrection and of healing for all mankind who will be obedient to the just laws of the messianic kingdom.
The other morning star, Lucifer, by rebellion became Satan, Adversary, Devil (slanderer), serpent (seducer). Speaking of him, the Prophet Isaiah says, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.—Isa. 14:12
The Song of Moses
The Israelites moved into Egypt, where, for no fault of their own, they were afflicted and put into slavery, serving the Egyptians until God freed them through Moses. In Egypt God performed great miracles, and he became known to the Egyptians through the severity of his judgments. But God released the Israelites from their hard and long slavery, causing them to pass through the Red Sea with dry feet. While all Israel passed through safely and were freed, the Egyptian army that followed them, perished in the waters that closed in on them. (Exod. 14:21,22,27) When beyond the Red Sea, following their liberation, Moses composed a glorious hymn of praise to their Savior, God, and he sang it together with his people. From the standpoint of Moses, it might be called the song of liberation: “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.”—Exod. 15:4,5
The Song of Condemnation
After the Israelites were freed from Egypt and entered the land that God had promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were favored by God until they became rebellious, for which God punished them at the hands of the Midianites and Philistines. Later, they were taken as slaves to Babylon where they were held for seventy years, known as the years of their captivity. However, the Lord caused several prophets to write against the King of Babylon. Isaiah wrote a song of reprobation against the king, saying: “Thou shalt take up this proverb against the King of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.” (Isa. 14:47) This prophecy was fulfilled against the king of Babylon, over which Israel rejoiced; yet, since the King of Babylon was a symbolic picture of Satan, this prophecy remains to be fulfilled against Satan, at which time all the earth will rejoice and burst into song!
The Song of the Lamb
In a prophetic psalm of the sons of Korah, there is a prophecy saying that when God will reign over all the earth, all mankind will sing a hymn to him. “God is the king of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding; God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.” (Ps. 47:7,8) An invitation to sing to the Lord is found in Psalm 33:3,4: “Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth.” It seems reasonable to think that this hymn will be raised to God by the true church at the completion of the mystery of God, hidden for the many centuries, and ages past. Then the church will be the tabernacle of God, the meeting place between God and men.
The psalmist recorded the song which the church sings today—that melodious, new song that none other can learn to sing except the 144,000 (Rev. 14:1-3): “Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints.”—Ps. 149:6-9
It is worth noticing the fact that a similar prophecy is found in the Book of Revelation, which is a record of the words of the resurrected Jesus. It is a promise to those who follow in his footsteps during the Gospel Age: “He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.”—Rev. 2:26,27
The Israelites had a typical priesthood, and in their Temple they sang praises to the Eternal One. In that typical Temple the singers sang hymns to the Lord, magnifying his holy and glorious name. “These are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after that the ark had rest. And they ministered before the dwelling place of the Tabernacle of the Congregation with singing, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem: and then they waited on their office according to their order.”—I Chron. 6:31,32
But now the spiritual temple, consisting of the elect class, the church of God, are the singers of the Lord, and are the “royal priesthood,” (I Pet. 2:9) according to the order of Melchisedec. It is not a priesthood contaminated by the politics of this world, but a holy priesthood that walks in the footsteps of the Master. It is one that gives itself in living sacrifice as its High Priest did—he who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. The Apostle Peter wrote to the Christians of his day, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”—I Pet. 2:5
In Revelation is found a great and wonderful scene. In it John saw those that obtained the victory over the beast and his image, standing on a sea of glass, with the harps of God, and they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. (Rev. 15:14) Doubtless these victorious personages are the true church—the wife of the Lamb—who, through the blood of Jesus, and by the work of witnessing, have overcome the beast and his image, and are singing the song of victory over Pharaoh and Egypt—picturing Satan and his kingdom. They are singing from the heart and with grace, the sweet and melodious song of the Lamb. This is the song of the great victory of Christ who, by giving himself for the sins of the world, purchased the world; and through him, and with him, they are winning the victory. These elected ones are seen by John in the vision as standing on a sea, mixed of glass and fire.
The New Song
The new song, which is raised to the honor of the Eternal One, is sung only by the 144,000 redeemed from the earth who “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” No others could learn the song, and the number could not be increased.—Rev. 14:1-5
The new song is also presented in Revelation 5, but this time to the honor of the Lamb, who had received the book from the hand of him who was sitting on the throne of glory. The book was sealed with seven seals, and this was the song: “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on [over] the earth.”—Rev. 5:9,10
These were bought with the blood of the Lamb, and selected to reign together with Christ over the earth for the blessing and restoration of all the nations, as God promised Abraham. Then the 144,000 under their Head, Christ, and all Creation, will praise the Lord and Creator of all things. We read, “Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.”—Rev. 5:13
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul said: “The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”—Rom 8:19-21
The choir of voices that join in the jubilation of praise to God singing the new song, has its beginning soon after the seventh angel starts to blow the seventh trumpet, and when “the kingdoms of this world” become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.—Rev. 11:15
The Apostle Paul wrote that the mystery of God is Christ the Head, and the church, his body. (Col. 2:2; Eph. 1:22,23; Col. 1:18) This is the elect class, the Lamb’s wife, the number of which is 144,000—the singers of the new song that no others can sing.