The Apostle draws aside yet more the curtain of futurity. He increases and confirms the comfort which "by the word of the Lord" he offers to believers, by revealing additional truth about the resurrection day. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout." There are three accompaniments of His coming. (1) A shout, an authoritative shout, one that indicates command. "Behold the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet Him." Here we have the very command which, once uttered, must be obeyed: the command which not only musters the retinue of angels and glorified saints, but also summons all men, of every age and race, to meet their God. (2) "The voice of the archangel." Angels have been ready and will be again. Christ's ministering spirits. In regard to the voiceof the archangel here, Scripture gives us no hint. It may be the shout of command caught up by him from the lips of the Lord Himself and repeated to the gathering hosts. (3) "The trump of God." Under the old dispensation there is special prominence assigned to the trumpet as an instrument consecrated to religious uses. The last trump will call together the rejoicing saints into the heavenly Sion. It will be a signal of weal or woe, according to the character of those who hear. It is worth while appending Bishop Alexander's note on 1 Thessalonians 4:16 : "Of all the solemn associations connected with the verse, few can surpass the following, recorded in many of the foreign papers of the day: At the earthquake of Manilla, the cathedral fell upon the clergy and congregation. The mass of ruin overhead and around the doomed assemblage was kept for a time from crushing down upon them by some peculiarity of construction. Those outside were able to hear what was going on in the church, without the slightest possibility of clearing away the ruins or of aiding those within, upon whom the building must evidently fall before long. A low, deep bass voice, doubtless that of the priest officiating, was heard uttering the words, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' As this sentence came forth the multitude burst into a passion of tears, which was soon choked. For some deep groans issued from within, apparently wrung from the speaker by intense pain, and then the same voice spoke again in a calm and even tone, as if addressing a congregation, and all heard the words, 'The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.'" An incident of this kind shows us how, in every age of the Church's history, and in circumstances of the most awful extremity, the comfort which the Apostle offers to the Thessalonians has in no way lost its power.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians,p. 176.
References: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. Homilist,3rd series, vol. iv., p. 260. 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxiii., No. 1374; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 345; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 364; Homilist,2nd series, vol. i., p. 94.