These angelic princes and generals and the ‘four living beings/creatures’ who worship around the throne1 now join in the praise in Heaven and on earth. Salvation, glory and power and dominion belong to our God. The great ‘whore’s mischief, sorceries, occult magic and moral corruption have not triumphed. The ‘celestial beings’ rejoice in this fact, and join in with the people in the world to praise the Lord. The order of the praise is reversed, compared to that in chapter 5. They are now going from outside to inside, as it were. The judgements have gone out from the throne and now the ‘echoes’ are returning to the throne in the form of praise of God’s Glory and righteousness. The ‘Hallelujah’ is strengthened by the ‘Amen’. With the ‘amen’ of the great multitude’s praise, the angels and their princes take over and cry in turn: “Praise the Lord”. Psalm 103 states “The LORD has established His throne in Heaven, and His Kingdom rules over all. Praise the LORD, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His Word (the Word that later became flesh). Praise the LORD, all His Heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will. Praise the LORD, all His works everywhere in His dominion. Praise the LORD, my soul”.2
This is how man’s own soul can start to culminate in praise. Your whole inner being can be taken over by God’s Spirit, so that you start to praise and worship Him in the languages of men, and sometimes in the languages of angels.3 Man reaches his highest peak when he praises and worships! Praising the Lord for what He is and for whom He is. Not in the first place for what He has done, for His blessings, His salvation and His miracles, but for His being, His eternity, His omnipotence, His love, His righteousness, His holiness, His creative power and infinite intelligence, His continual care for, and maintenance of, His Creation. He is to be praised for His grace and His mercy, which is stronger that sin and sickness and devil and death, His faithfulness to Himself and to the promises in His Word, His revelation of His love in the Son, the Word of God made flesh, His design of the world and the Universe in the categories of space and time, and the beauty thereof, which is visible in each blade of grass, each flower, each person, however deformed by a thousand sins.
It is visible in the brightness of the eye, in the possibility of language, of true love and of communication and of fellowship. The macro- and micro-cosmos declare God’s Glory. LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!4 This is about earth, and also about man. We are not created for Heaven, but for earth, but with an open Heaven, in an undisturbed relationship with God. We were made almost divine, to carry out the work of God’s hands and to ‘rule’5 over the earth, to manage it, to take care of it, to develop it as a form of praise. Soli Deo Gloria, all to the Glory of God.
How far away from this we are today, but one day it will once again be the case that we will be living in God’s Creation, which then will be perfect. Who knows how many dimensions the ‘New Heavens’ and the ‘New Earth’ will encompass? Who knows all the things the Lord God still has ‘up His sleeve’, hidden in His innermost being? One day we will see and know it all, in His presence: ”For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.“6 Then we will be transformed into the image of His Son.7 Who wants to miss all this by rejecting Him now and choosing for this disappearing world?8
• There is still plenty to do in the ‘Kingdom on earth’ for the angels and their princes and Heavenly hosts, as the nations still walk by the name of their own ‘god’.9 These are the ‘gods’ that rule over the nations and escort the nations from their Heavenly realms.
• Only Israel is directly under the rule of the ‘God of gods’.
• The Psalmist says in Psalm 138:1 that he will sing psalms and praise God before the ‘gods’ who themselves also have to bow down before God.10 Psalm 82:1 and 6-8 NKJV record that “God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the ‘gods’… Angels are in charge of nations. Fallen angels apparently as well, compare with Daniel 10:13-21, 12:1 and Revelation 12:7-9.
• Michael is apparently the Heavenly ‘god/angel’ that protects IsraeI.
• It is said of the fallen angels “You are ‘gods’, and all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.” Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all nations.”
Bible References:
1.Revelation 4:6-11; 5:8-14 2.Psalm 103:19-22 3.1 Corinthians 13:1 4.Psalm 8:1,9 5.Psalm 8:4-9; Genesis 1:28 6.1 Corinthians 13:12 7.Romans 8:29; Philippians 3:21 8.1 Corinthians 7:31 9.Micah 4:1-5 10.Psalm 97:7-9; Deuteronomy 4:7
