Day 357: Revelation 14:1–5

They sang a new song before the throne . . . but no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth (v. 3).

I am not a singer, but I dearly love to sing praise songs to my God. My favorite songs are the ones that become “mine” over time as I sing them to God through the filter of my own experience and affection.

Nothing provokes a new song in my heart like a fresh surge of hope in a wilderness season. The song “Shout to the Lord” will forever be special to me because I first heard it at a time of deep personal suffering. The words came to my soul from God as hope that I would survive . . . and even thrive once again. Allow me to use this song as an illustration for Revelation 14:3. First I “heard” the new song, then I “learned” it. My motivation to “learn” it came through its voice to my experience in that difficult but strangely beautiful season with my God.

John “heard” the new song, but “no one could learn the song” except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. The Greek word for “new” in reference to the new song in Revelation 14:3 implies new in quality as opposed to number. In other words, the song wasn’t new like a new release. The song of the 144,000 was “new” because it had an entirely different quality from anything they’d sung before. In other words, it meant something to them no other song had ever meant. Why couldn’t anyone else learn it? Because no one else had ever lived it. Out of their unique experience, God gave them a song that only they could learn.

Psalm 40 tells us God gave David a new song when He lifted him out of the slimy pit. I’d like to suggest that each of us who is willing can also receive a new song from God that arises in our souls out of hardship’s victories—not necessarily in musical notes but in fresh truths engraved on the heart. These are precious gifts that eventually come to those who keep the faith and wait to see God redeem great difficulty. These songs can be “heard” by others, but they cannot be “learned” secondhand. Songs of the heart are only learned through personal faith experience—through hurts, losses, and failures that have been handed over to Jesus to heal and transform. And once we learn the songs, no one can take them from us.