New Song From Heaven

John sees 144,000 assembles with the Lamb on Zion. He hears music, a fourfold voice from heaven – like the voice of waters, the voice of thunder, the voice of harpists harping harps (Revelation 14:2).

As James Jordan has pointed out, the three descriptions match the three things before which the singers sing (v. 3):

The voice of the waters comes from the throne, the thunder is being associated with the living creatures, and the harps are linked with the 24 elders. What is being described is the music of heaven. Jesus speaks with a voice that is like many waters (1:15); the living creatures speak with a voice of thunder (6:1); and the 24 elders are given harps (5:8). This heavenly song is heard on earth. The choir of heaven is singing the new Song that began with the exaltation of the Lamb (5:9).

(Deeper in the background, the triad may be a Trinitarian triad. The voice of many waters is the voice of the Father, the Great Thunder is the voice of the Son, and the harps are the voice of the Spirit. The Father speaks from the heavenly sea, the Son from the storm cloud, the Spirit in music.)

Then we learn that this song of heaven is being picked up by the 144,000.  The 144,000 are on Mount Zion, not in heaven, but they are already beginning to learn the song of heaven, which is the Song of Moses and of the Lamb (15:3). From heaven to earth: This is the flow of liturgy and liturgical music. In the liturgy we learn (or should learn) the songs of praise that we’ll sing when we join the heavenly choir.

Only the 144,000 are permitted to learn it. Others from the tribes of Israel are not sealed with the seal of the Lamb and the Father, and they cannot learn the new song that comes from heaven. It is a Song of the Lamb, and so to learn the song and to join this choir, you have to be a disciple, ready to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.