My coronary heart longs for the wonder and peace of heaven, though typically it’s tough to wrap my thoughts round life there as a result of a lot about heaven stays a thriller. Not too long ago, I used to be delighted to find one essential characteristic – heaven shall be full of music.
Studying by the e book of Revelation, the Apostle John’s imaginative and prescient of the tip of human historical past, we examine sobering judgments and epic struggles between good and evil. However the final e book of the Bible contains the lyrics to many songs that look like sung regularly by the inhabitants of heaven.
God even seems to encourage the singing of songs. A glimpse of his coronary heart might be seen in Revelation 15:2 the place the singers are utilizing “harps given them by God.” God is the one supplying devices to keen musicians within the hallways of heaven!
Of all of the essential insights we are able to take from the quantity of music within the e book of Revelation, probably the most vital realizations that has implications for us now’s that worship in heaven contains each previous and new songs.
Biblical Themes Shared by Outdated and New Worship Songs
In Revelation 15, Christians who died for his or her religion sing a tune. Their tune choice is known as the “tune of God’s servant Moses,” which is a reference to one of many very first books of the Bible. In Exodus 15, the “tune of Moses” is the primary time within the Bible that the phrase “tune” or “sing” is used. So, a few of the songs sung in heaven are the oldest songs in salvation historical past. After hundreds of years, God has not grown uninterested in listening to the tune of Moses. In the identical approach, God doesn’t develop uninterested in listening to historic hymns or different traditional songs. He loves when the psalter, or the e book of Psalms, is ready to music and sung. These are the songs that the church has been singing for hundreds of years. Since we’ll seemingly be singing them in heaven, now is an effective time to study the phrases.
However it’s not simply previous songs. In Revelation 5, angels and the elders sing “a brand new tune.” Later in Revelation 14:3, we learn once more that “they sang a brand new tune.” Although Christian historical past is full of significant and highly effective songs, all of the songs written to this point can not specific each facet of who God is and the way He has labored in our lives. God is worshipped in heaven with new music that’s nonetheless being written. The encouragement for at the moment is that we should always maintain writing and singing new songs that specific new experiences of grace and the brand new ways in which God is at work in our lives and communities.
If we’re going to be singing previous and new songs for eternity, let’s discover some essential Biblical themes in each previous and new songs.
1. Reward
Reward is the human’s response in phrase, motion, and tune to God’s character and the ways in which he has demonstrated love and charm to humanity. Songs of reward fill heaven in Revelation and are often sung when the church gathers at the moment.
Embracing an Outdated Music: “Reward to the Lord, the Almighty”
Written in 1680 by Joachim Neander, one of many first hymn writers of the German Reformed Church, “Reward to the Lord, the Almighty” is a festivity of God. Neander based mostly his hymn on the phrases of Psalm 150 that encourage believers to reward the Lord once we collect collectively. Restating the phrases of Psalm 150, Neander wrote, “Reward to the Lord! O let all that’s in me adore him! All that has life and breath, come now with praises earlier than him.”
Singing a New Music: “Each Reward”
Brooklyn-based gospel singer Hezekiah Walker additionally brings Psalm 150 to life within the exuberant 2013 tune “Each Reward.” This joyful tune written to be sung by a refrain of voices reminds us that “each reward is to our God.”
2. The Holiness of God
All through the e book of Revelation, the residents of heaven sing to God songs describing him as “holy.” Holiness is without doubt one of the elementary qualities of God that highlights that he’s exalted above all of creation and fully separate from sin.
Embracing an Outdated Music: “Holy, Holy, Holy”
Probably the most beloved hymns nonetheless being sung in church buildings all over the world, “Holy, Holy, Holy” reminds us of the endurance of previous songs. Written by English vicar Reginald Heber to show his congregation concerning the holiness of God, Heber based mostly his tune on the phrases from Revelation 4:8, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” First printed in 1826, it speaks of the day once we will be a part of the angels in heaven to worship a holy God.
Singing a New Music: “Echo Holy”
Worship collective Crimson Rocks Worship launched the 2021 tune “Echo Holy” that begins by imagining being welcomed to heaven with “an anthem I’ve all the time identified.” The tune invitations us to hitch with the angels in a brand new tune as we echo, or repeatedly sing collectively, one of many oldest songs, “Holy is the Lord” (Revelation 4:8) in a brand new approach.
3. Eternity in Heaven
One of many nice assurances of salvation for Christians is that we are able to know that our eternity in heaven is safe if our names are written within the “e book of life” (Revelation 3:5), whether or not we enter heaven at loss of life or when Jesus returns.
Embracing an Outdated Music: “When the Roll Is Known as Up Yonder”
Written in 1893 by James Milton Black, there are greater than 500 on-line variations of this common hymn. A prolific hymn author (greater than 1,200 songs!), Black taught music and edited hymnals in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Black appeared for a tune that “spoke of what a tragic factor it will be when our names are known as from the Lamb’s Guide of Life if one in every of us needs to be absent.” When he couldn’t discover a tune that spoke to this concept, he merely wrote one.
Singing a New Music: “I Will Rise”
The peace of mind that “I’ll rise when He calls my title. No extra sorrow, no extra ache” anchors the 2008 tune, “I Will Rise” by Chris Tomlin. Tomlin mirrored that this tune is a tune of hope as a result of, “this life, the bodily flesh shouldn’t be the tip, however God has given us life eternal.”
4. Goodness of God
To declare that God is sweet is to affirm that there is no such thing as a evil in his actions, ideas, or deeds. God’s goodness signifies that all his methods are for our final blessing and good.
Embracing an Outdated Music: “God Is So Good”
“God is So Good” was a conventional African tune identified to have been extensively sung on the continent within the first half of the 20th century. Transcribed after which translated into many languages, it rapidly made its approach into church hymnals all over the world with the reminder that God loves us, solutions prayers, and cares for us as a result of “He’s so good to me.”
Singing a New Music: “Goodness of God”
Launched in 2019, the one “Goodness of God” celebrates that God “has been so, so good” to us, each once we are singing in gratitude and as we navigate the struggles of life. Singer-songwriter Jenn Johnson stated that the tune was an impromptu “overflow of my coronary heart,” a brand new tune to sing about God’s goodness.
Picture Credit score: ©GettyImages/freedom007
Initially printed April 03, 2025.
