Thousands of Harps and Voices

According to the Bible, all the heavenly hosts are intensely interested in the great drama of sin and salvation which is being enacted in our little world. This is the only rebellious province in the entire realm of creation. The angels wondered at Satan's rebellion, and that he was not at once destroyed. They wondered further when Satan tempted father Adam and they saw him become a sinner. They have wondered since at the reign of sin and death as it has progressed for over six thousand years. No intelligent being, in heart sympathy with God, could feel uninterested in respect to so gigantic a rebellion, or fail to wonder how the matter would be treated by the Almighty.

St. Peter tells us that the angels sought to look into the meaning of the Old Testament prohecies (1 Peter 1:12), which foretold the coming of Messiah and his work of rescuing the world from the curse. We may be sure that they stood all astonished with wonder as they beheld the outworking of the divine plan. (1) God's proposition to the glorious Logos, that if he would become the savior of man he should have the divine blessing and an exaltation to a position next to Jehovah. (2) The Logos divesting himself of his glory, becoming a man. (3) The death of Jesus to redeem mankind.

Surely it seemed strange to them that the Heavenly Father should permit his loyal son to be thus demeaned! They wondered expectantly until the resurrection morning, when they beheld that he who had humbled himself had been exalted again by the Father's power, not only to the spirit plane "where he was before" (John 6:62), but to the highest plane-the divine nature! What a rapturous shout of exultation doubtless ascended in the heavenly courts as Jesus arose from the dead - a glorious life-giving spirit!

A little later, by the divine decree, the angelic hosts acclaimed him lord of all, and bowed to him as the Father's representative. Ever since, they have been watching the further development of God's plan in the finding of the saintly few from every nation and denomination worthy to be his true church. These are called to make a similar covenant, to walk in their master's footsteps, to suffer with him that they may reign with him - as his bride and joint-heir in his glorious kingdom. - 1 Peter 2:21; 2 Timothy 2:11,12

It is at this point that this beautiful hymn takes up the thread and notes the angelic shout when Messiah's kingdom begins its reign for the blessing of all the families of the earth. Next to the crucifixion of our Lord as the basis of all reconciliation for sinners the kingdom of Messiah is prominent in the Bible. By it the blessing God purposes shall be offered to every member of Adam's race.- Revelation 19:1-7