Useful Bible Studies > Revelation Commentary > chapter 5
Songs seem to spread in a strange manner. A new song may begin as the personal expression of joy of just a few people. Other people hear it, and it expresses their own thoughts. So they join in with the song, and perhaps they develop it further. Soon, everyone is singing that song.
John seems to describe that process, or something similar here. In verses 9 and 10, he records the words of a new song to praise Christ. Originally only the 4 special angels (special servants of God in heaven) and the 24 rulers sang that song. With quiet musical instruments, they sang to praise Christ.
Soon, vast armies of angels were praising Christ. Perhaps we did not realise that there are so many angels. There are many millions of them, or even more. John’s word, myriad, means 10,000, so a ‘myriad of myriads’ means 100 million. However, there was not just one ‘myriad of myriads’, but many ‘myriads of myriads’. All God’s angels are strong and powerful, so this really was a very great army.
That describes the situation now. All God’s angels are praising Christ. Everyone in heaven joins to praise him as he sits in honour at the Father’s right side. However, that was not the end of what John saw.
The expression of praise that began in heaven, in the end will fill the whole world. Everything that God has created will, in the end, give honour to Christ. That does not mean that the devil or the inhabitants of hell will choose to serve Christ. Instead, it means that they must give all the honour to Christ; they cannot keep any honour for themselves. That was what Paul declared in Philippians 2:10-11; that is what John seems to describe in verse 13.
Next part: The first seal: the rider on the white horse (Revelation 6:1-2)
Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 700+ page course book.
© 2016, Keith Simons.