And when it took the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.
The Lamb takes the scroll, and heaven falls on its face. What follows is not silence but harps and golden bowls — and the verse tells us what fills the bowls.
He has not opened one seal yet. No judgment has fallen. Heaven bows first, and the order matters.
There is both worthiness and competency in Him to unfold the counsels of God. "Behold, I have come to do Your will," whatever it might be. The Lamb in the glory is the centre of worship. Notice, they worship before the seals are opened.
In the previous chapter the worship was for creation. Here the ground has shifted.
Now redemption was in question, and so the Lamb is the Object of worship. All gladly honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Indeed the Father refuses honour supposedly offered to Himself if the Son is not honoured.
What the elders hold in their hands tells us who they are.
The elders in heaven have harps and golden bowls full of odours, "which are the prayers of saints," This shows that they act as priests (Rev. 5:8)... They are doubtless the redeemed, including both Old and New Testament saints.
The number twenty-four reaches back into Israel's worship.
David first brought in the harp, setting apart the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for songs in the house of the Lord. These singers, like the priests, were divided into twenty-four groups. So the reference is clear, with that measure of difference which marks this book. Priestly and choral service are blended here in perfection.
Commentators differ on whether both companies hold the harps and bowls, or only the elders.
The two objects are not decoration. Each stands for a part of priestly work.
Priestly praise (the harp) and service (the bowls) are here united... "Golden bowls" mark their value and prove the high and holy service for which they are used. "Full of incenses." It is not one perfume, but many. The fragrance is full and varied. The "incenses are the prayers of the saints." Prayer on earth is incense in Heaven. We sometimes think our prayers are worthless. Ah! it is not so. God in His own matchless way and rich grace values our cries and pleadings, and they rise to Him as incense.
The elders are already in heaven, already singing praise. So whose prayers fill their bowls?
But who are those "saints" that pray? The elders, or the church, were in heaven, and in full choir of praise. Whose prayers then are these? They come from saints who will suffer when the church is above... They are in the place of adoration and praise, whereas prayer implies need. If they have to do with prayers, they are the prayers of others, not their own.
Another writer stops short of naming them, and still reaches the same conclusion.
Scripture does not tell us how the prayers of the saints are presented through them, or who these saints are. But this much is certain: the glorified saints do not need to pray. So we may well conclude that these odours are the prayers of the saints on earth.
There is a limit to this priestly work. Set it beside a later scene in chapter 8.
Notice here, that when the saints (Rev. 5:8) act as priests, they add no incense at all — it is privilege enough to have such a place, but they can add nothing. The odours are the saints' own prayers on earth. Here (Rev. 8:3) the Angel-High Priest adds much incense to give effect to the cry of the saints.
The bowls are full. That fullness says something about every prayer that ever seemed to go nowhere.
There are things His people suffer from that He never forgets. All their prayers are treasured up before God — their tears are put in His bottle and treasured up. What! the sorrow I have forgotten, has God written that down?... Not only does God remember my prayer; He puts it away on His own throne. It is like the pot of manna He wanted laid up, kept as a trophy of the way He carried His people through the wilderness... Is that said of the prayers of saints? Yes, not one of them lost.
The storing has an end in view.
Many of these saints left the world as martyrs. They praised a God who did not step in to rescue them from their enemies. Their prayers, at times, seemed unanswered and even unheard. At last their praise will be justified and their prayers answered.
- The Lamb first. Heaven worships the moment He takes the book, before one seal is opened. He is honoured for what He is worth.
- Priests, not angels. The twenty-four elders answer to Israel's twenty-four groups of priests. Their harps and bowls mark them out as the redeemed at priestly work.
- Two hands, two acts. The harp is praise; the golden bowl is service. The bowl's contents are named for us: incense that is the prayers of the saints.
- Prayers not their own. Prayer implies need. Saints already in heaven have none left, so the incense rises from saints still on earth.
- Nothing wasted. God stores every cry before His throne and answers every prayer at last. The saints add nothing of their own — the place itself is privilege enough.
And they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
Heaven's throne room holds a sealed scroll that no one can open, and a Lamb who steps forward and takes it. The song that follows tells us why He alone has the right, and it raises a question commentators still weigh: who are the redeemed it sings about?
An old law in Israel stands behind this scene.
In Israel there was a rule for buying back the inheritance, and also the heir or the person (Leviticus 25). If either an Israelite or his possession had been sold, it was his relative's duty and right to ransom him and it. Now Jesus has proved Himself our kinsman in both ways. The Son of God became the Son of Man, and so showed His kinsman nature. He died to purchase us and our inheritance by blood, and so showed His kinsman love... His blood as the Lamb slain gave Him the title to it. His strength as the Lion of the tribe of Judah must now give Him possession of it.
Why could heaven not sing this song before? Sin changed what praise must rest on.
Now that sin has come into the world, the creative glory of God is not enough, nor even the way He governs the world. Suppose He is to be glorified in some way other than pure judgment of His enemies. Suppose merciful goodness is to be shown in a world like this. Suppose a new song is to be sung in heaven. Then there must be redemption — and not by power only, but by suffering and blood.
Older translations read because where the ESV has for. Either way, the song traces His worthiness to one event.
As the Lion of the tribe of Judah He acts in power, but as the Lamb He was slain. Here the carrying out of God's plans of grace and glory goes back to the cross as its basis. "Because You have been SLAIN." Without the cross, Christ would have entered spheres of glory alone. Without it there could be no redemption for sinners. The cross is the grandest counsel of eternity and the grandest fact of time.
Does this mean the whole human race will be saved? One writer answers with careful distinctions.
There is no redemption of the race, but of persons out of it... Purchase is universal, and means a change of ownership. Redemption is special, and refers to a change of state. "Redeemed to God" — then we are His... Israel's redemption in the past was carried out by power; the redemption of sinners out of the race is by blood.
What divides people here divides them no longer there.
They may speak many languages on earth, but they will sing the one new song in heaven. They may belong to many nations, but they have only one Lord.
Redeemed people have always sung. So what makes this song new?
The praying time is over, the singing time has come... Until now the ransomed of the Lord had been on the way to glory, singing songs of redemption. But those songs looked forward to victory and the reign of glory. They were songs of hope. With the taking of the book their hopes will all be fulfilled, and the songs of hope will be changed to songs of victory... All heaven is occupied with the Lamb — "YOU are worthy," "YOU were slain," "YOU ransomed," and "YOU have made."
Some translations read "redeemed us"; others leave the pronoun out. Commentators differ on what that means. One holds the singers are still the redeemed, kept out of view:
The word "us" should probably be left out. Still, if so, the ones meant are the redeemed, represented by the twenty-four elders. They stay in the background, because they celebrate the worthiness of the Lamb rather than their own blessings in redemption.
Another argues the singers are praising God for a different company altogether:
The elders are so completely at rest about themselves that they can be taken up with others... They are speaking about the saints whose prayers they were offering... They show that in taking the heavenly saints above, He had not finished with His rich mercy. Even while He was judging, He would have a purchased people, who were to share the glory of the kingdom as a royal priesthood.
One difference between angels and the redeemed shows up here.
The angels, as has often been noted, say their praises; they do not sing them. It is only those who are redeemed, as Scripture everywhere shows, who can put their praise into song.
- Slain. The song gives one reason for the Lamb's worthiness, and it is not His power but His death.
- Worthy. His blood gave Him the title to the inheritance; His strength as the Lion will give Him possession of it.
- Bought. Purchase changes who owns you; redemption changes your state. God takes persons out of the race, not the race as a whole.
- Sung. Creation's glory drew worship; only redemption drew a song. Angels say their praise; the redeemed sing it.
- New. Songs of hope become songs of victory the moment the Lamb takes the scroll. Every line points to Him: You are worthy, You were slain, You ransomed, You have made.