Song's from Pain
Revelation 14:1–3 (ESV) Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
In this midst of these difficult chapters in Revelation, a song is sung! The 144,000 of God's saints who come through the tribulation, having endured the climax of human wickedness and stayed the course have a song that unites them and no one else can sing.
Where do the most popular songs originate from? Pain that people relate to. Someone experiences a loss and gets through it, others resonate with the emotional quality of the song and it takes off. Singing is healing by nature.
But this song is exclusive to those who experienced the tribulation. God gives them a song. A song that resonates with His glory and goodness brought about in their lives AFTER the pain of their persecution. A song that unites them together. A song that changes the scene from death and darkness to life and light.
The Old Testament contains a corollary to this event. The people of God will be brought back from exile in song:
Isaiah 35:10 (ESV) And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Here is our hope in affliction. We cannot escape pain, but God is the one who providentially brings us past it and through it, with a song in our mouth. Sometimes you have to sing and worship through the difficulty like Paul and Silas in Acts 16. But either way, there will be singing.
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