In previous columns we have examined arguments for the use of musical instruments in public worship from the book of Psalms and have found those arguments unfounded. Now we look at the book of Revelation. The saints in heaven use musical instruments. Following this example, should we too use instrumental music in our public worship?

Before looking at the three texts in Revelation referring to harps, note something important about the book itself. Revelation is a series of visions. These visions are a portrayal of reality and not the reality itself. For example, Revelation portrays Jesus Christ as a “Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth” (5:6). Slain lambs do not stand. Neither do lambs have seven horns and seven eyes. Further, Jesus Christ is not actually a strange-looking lamb having seven horns and seven eyes. This is a portrayal of reality, not the reality itself.

Revelation 14:2-3 reads, “I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth” (NASB).

Verse 3 shows us 144,000 who represent the saints of God. They form a great choir singing before the throne of God. Verse 2 describes the sound of the choir. The voice of the choir “was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps.” Notice that there are not actually harps in use in the vision. Rather, the choir sounds like a huge number of harps. It should therefore be plain that this text does not support the use of musical instruments in the public worship of God. Revelation 15:2-3 says, “I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”

We again see a great choir of saints giving praise to God. These saints are holding harps designated as the harps of God. Again, this is a vision, a portrayal of reality and not the reality itself. This means the harps are symbolic. Compare this with Revelation 5:8: “The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” Here the elders around the throne have harps and bowls of incense. The sacred text tells us the incense represents the prayers of the saints.

Since the bowls of incense held by the elders represent the prayers of the saints, the harps cannot be literal harps. What do they represent? Revelation 14:2 quoted above gives us the answer. There the choir sounds like harps. In other words, in both Revelation 5:8 and 15:3, the harps represent sacred praise to God. These harps are not literal but symbolic.

For these reasons, the mention of harps in connection with worship in the book of Revelation is not an argument for the use of musical instruments in public worship today.