Charles Spurgeon Commentary Revelation 14:3

"and they sing as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders: and no man could learn the song save the hundred and forty and four thousand, [even] they that had been purchased out of the earth." — Revelation 14:3 (ASV)

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne,

They could not sing any old song there. The songs of earth, sweet as some of them are, are not good enough to be sung in heaven. With a new experience, new delights, and a clearer vision of their Lord, they must have a new song.

And before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

Heaven is not the place to learn that song; it must be learned on the earth. You must learn here the notes of free grace and dying love; and when you have mastered their melody, you will be able to offer to the Lord the tribute of a grateful heart, even in heaven, and blend it with the harmonies eternal.

Suppose, for a moment, that you could go there, and that you were unprepared to sing the new song, you would have to say, "I cannot join in the chorus, for I do not know the tune."

You must learn the song now, the new song of praise to our God, or you cannot be admitted there. I should not expect, if I went down to the Handel Festival, for the conductor to permit me to take a place in the choir.

He would ask me "Can you sing? Have you ever rehearsed the matchless music of Handel?" and when I answered "No," he would tell me to stand aside; so you must learn the music of Calvary, you must learn the music of the name of Jesus, or you cannot sing in heaven.

No man could learn the song but the redeemed from the earth; not redeemed, you see, by a general redemption, about which some talk so loudly; but redeemed from among men by a special redemption, which took them out from the rest of mankind, by a price paid for them, so that they were bought as others were not bought, by the precious blood of Jesus, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders:

See, brothers and sisters, how little the powers of darkness can do; not only are the saints all there, but they are singing. The devil cannot rob Christ of a single sonnet; the stanzas of our grateful praise shall continue to be poured forth though all the dragons howl as they may: They sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders.

And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

There is a special redemption, a "redemption from the earth."

For such redeemed men there is a special song, which no others can learn; and that song will be sung by them in the darkest of all days, in the roughest of all weathers. When the dragons seem to triumph, Christ shall still have his praise, blessed be his holy name.