Heavenly Music

...

Jesus Christ is not American.

My thoughts have pondered Heaven of late. Christ's return and the new earth and new Heaven are the culmination of His redemptive work. Heaven is where we will spend eternity, our lives here are just a blip on the screen of infinity, really. So, doesn't it seem weird that we spend so little time studying the Word about Heaven, pondering our lives in the now in light of the eternal? I mean, is it really (all or mostly) about getting our "Christian life" together right now? Do we get too fixated on that? I do.

If you had 30 seconds of time to spend in Heaven... the real one as revealed in Revelation... right now ...and then were returned to your earthly life, would it radically change how you live your life on earth?

So, to break myself out of the gravitational pull of this existence for a minute and stretch my perspective beyond the orbit around my personal world, I sojourned a bit in Revelation this morning. And I was drawn to this song of worship that will be sung in Heaven, revealed in Rev. 15:3-4:

And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

Great and marvelous are Your works,
         O Lord God, the Almighty;
         Righteous and true are Your ways,
         King of the nations! 
    "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
         For You alone are holy;
         For all the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed." (emphasis added)

Having studied five languages, this particularly caught my attention. The family of God is truly international. What a sound it will be! I don't know if we will all sing in some common heavenly language or if, each of us in our own tongue, will blend in a harmony unheard on earth. Imagine even today, on this spinning globe, the wondrous praise offered by lips of many races in multiple tongues that fly to Heaven. Begin to imagine by first seeing the worship song cited above in many languages from Bible Gateway:

唱 神 仆 人 摩 西 的 歌 ， 和 羔 羊 的 歌 ， 说 ： 主 神 ─ 全 能 者 阿 ， 你 的 作 为 大 哉 ！ 奇 哉 ！ 万 世 （ 或 作 ： 国 ） 之 王 阿 ， 你 的 道 途 义 哉 ！ 诚 哉 ！

  主 阿 ， 谁 敢 不 敬 畏 你 ， 不 将 荣 耀 归 与 你 的 名 呢 ？ 因 为 独 有 你 是 圣 的 。 万 民 都 要 来 在 你 面 前 敬 拜 ， 因 你 公 义 的 作 为 已 经 显 出 来 了 。

~ Chinese, spoken by over 900 million people

وَيُنْشِدُونَ تَرْتِيلَةَ مُوسَى، عَبْدِ اللهِ وَتَرْتِيلَةَ الْحَمَلِ قَائِلِينَ: «عَظِيمَةٌ وَعَجِيبَةٌ أَعْمَالُكَ أَيُّهَا الرَّبُّ الإِلهُ الْقَادِرُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ، عَادِلَةٌ وَمُسْتَقِيمَةٌ طُرُقُكَ يَامَلِكَ الدُّهُورِ.

  مَنْ لاَ يَخَافُكَ يَارَبُّ وَلاَ يُمَجِّدُ اسْمَكَ؟ فَأَنْتَ وَحْدَكَ قُدُّوسٌ! وَالأُمَمُ جَمِيعاً سَيَأْتُونَ وَيَسْجُدُونَ لَكَ، لأَنَّ أَحْكَامَكَ قَدْ ظَهَرَتْ جَلِيَّةً».

~ Arabic, spoken by over 174 million people

И пееха песента на Божия слуга Моисея и песента на Агнето, казвайки: Велики и чудесни са Твоите дела, Господи Боже Всемогъщи; праведни и истинни са Твоите пътища, Царю на вековете.

    Кой няма да се бои от името Ти, Господи, и да го прослави? Защото само Ти си свет; понеже всички народи ще дойдат и ще се поклонят пред Тебе, защото се явиха Твоите праведни съдби.

~ Bulgarian, spoken by 9 million people

하나님의 종 모세의 노래, 어린 양의 노래를 불러 가로되 주 하나님 곧 전능하신이시여 하시는 일이 크고 기이하시도다 만국의 왕이시여 주의 길이 의롭고 참되시도다

 ⁴주여 누가 주의 이름을 두려워하지 아니하며 영화롭게 하지 아니하오리이까 오직 주만 거룩하시니이다 주의 의로우신 일이 나타났으매 만국이 와서 주께 경배하리이다 하더라

~ Korean, spoken by over 77 million people

Kei te waiata hoki ratou i te waiata a Mohi, pononga a te Atua, me te waiata ano a te Reme; i mea ratou, He nui au mahi, e miharotia ana, e te Ariki, e te Atua Kaha Rawa; tika tonu ou ara, pono tonu, e te Kingi o nga whakatupuranga.

    Ko wai e kore e wehi i a koe, e te Ariki, e kore hoki e whakakororia i tou ingoa? ko koe anake hoki te tapu ana; ka haere mai hoki nga tauiwi katoa, ka koropiko ki tou aroaro; kua whakakitea hoki au tikanga tika.

~ Maori, spoken by about 160,000 people

Move from seeing to hearing... Hear the Word in many languages for free at Audio Treasure. Choose from Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Tamil, Tagalog, Urdu, Punjabi, Polish... 

Break out of your world, into God's. 

.