The Most Beautiful Song in Heaven

By David Hobbs

I have only experienced the supernatural through my physical senses one time in my life. Many years ago, not long after being saved, I heard the voices of angels singing during a baptism down at the Yuba River (the full experience is described in my recent book, Walking in the Spirit, chapter 11, starting on page 104). Without a doubt it was the most beautiful song I have ever heard; literally, it was indescribable. Only two of us present at the baptism heard it, and it lasted just a short time before it was drowned out by a low-flying, “demon directed,” crop dusting airplane, out working on Sunday.

I’ve never heard it since, though I’ve begged God in prayer that He would let me hear it again, or better yet, let me see Him. And I know that day is coming.

But lately I have realized that as beautiful as that song was, even though more beautiful than any song on earth could possibly be, still it was not the most beautiful song in heaven. And though I might be willing to give my right arm to hear it again, there is another song that God is yearning to hear even more, one that caused Him to give up not His right arm, but His only Son. The Bible calls it the “Song of the Redeemed.” That’s what God is yearning to hear! The beauty of that song will vindicate all the sacrifice of the cross and the work of redemption that has stretched on for the last 6000 years.

Listen, can you hear it? It’s first mentioned in Isa. 35:9 (see also Isa. 51:11 and Rev. 14:4)

8 And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness….
9 … only the redeemed will walk there,
10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

What kind of song will these ransomed sing? These “ransomed” who are the only part of creation that has experienced the full gamut of being lost in sin, being “without hope and without God in the world;” to being saved yet still subject to sin and death, finally having hope but not yet the fullness of salvation, being sealed with the promise of deliverance but still suffering daily the weaknesses of being a vessel made of clay--to now at last entering the portals of heaven fully delivered: never again to suffer temptation or the weakness of human flesh; never again to wrestle with the carnal nature and its passions, lusts and fears; never again to groan “How long O Lord, how long?” Never again to suffer calamity after calamity. What kind of song will they be singing? To the ears of heaven that will be the most beautiful song ever. That’s what God has been waiting for all these years. That’s what is more beautiful than the songs of angels who have never known the agony of sin and the thrill of redemption.

Rev. 14 makes it plain that no one else can “learn” the song—not that they couldn’t learn notes or words—but they couldn’t duplicate the depth of expression the song called for (like white churches can’t “learn” negro spirituals).

Rev. 14:1--Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

Can you hear it? Are you ready? Are you ready to sing? Are you ready to sing for your Lord in the greatest command performance the universe will ever see? Are you ready to pour out the depths of your heart and soul to the One who gave His very life to snatch you out of the clutches of hell? Get ready. Get ready to sing church!