And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire. — The wild beast rose out of the sea (Revelation 13:1); the evil-hearted woman sits upon many waters (Revelation 17:1); they draw strength from the wild, and ungoverned, and short-sighted impulses of human passion; in opposition to this near the throne of God is the calm and translucent sea of God’s counsels of righteousness and love, now clear as crystal, now ruddy with the fire of righteous indignation, the expression of His eternal will against sin. Such is the appearance of this glass-like sea now that the angels of the plagues are going forth.
But the seer saw more than this fire-flushed sea. He saw also those that are victorious over the wild beast. These he describes (such is the literal translation) as those who conquer out of the wild beast, &c.; they come off conquerors out of the struggle, and they escape from the temptation to worship his image and wear the badge of his service: they “escape victorious from” his image and from his mark. When he sees these, they are standing upon (i.e., on the shore of) the sea of glass, holding harps of God. We have had the harps mentioned previously (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 14:2); it is appropriate. The life which has been a discord to the world rises into true music before God; those who will make their life a melody must take it first as a conflict. The harps they hold are called harps of God, not merely because they are dedicated to Him. but because they are truly God’s. All the most glorious and noble things in nature were named God’s: the lofty trees were “trees of God “; the high-piled mountains were “mountains of God “; so also the harps which strike forth the richest music are “harps of God.” Nor is this a mere phrase to be considered as equivalent to very great or very glorious; great and glorious the trees, hills, and harps are, but only a prosaic or a profane mind can be satisfied with such a naked equivalent. The godly saw the hand of God in these things; and St. John knows that the noblest melody in the ears of God is the noble life of faith, suffering, and love. The power of such a life is in God, not in itself (John 15:5; Galatians 2:20), and the music of such a life is music which God makes (2 Corinthians 4:7-10), drawing the sweetest tones from the strings which are smitten with pain and sorrow; and as its life’s music is God-taught, so does its song of triumph sound from a harp not its own, but God’s. If our power to sing in trial here a song worthy of God is only found in God, so will the songs of heaven be sweet only in Him, for those who dwell there shall be all taught of Him.