14 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.
These 144,000 correspond to the like number in chapter 7. There is this difference, however – there, these saints were still on earth, being called out by the gospel, and surrounded by the pressures and tensions and persecutions of an evil world; here, they are in heaven, with all their distress behind them, and saved to sin no more. In 4, a number of things is said about these saints. They are 'the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb'. This is a picture from Old Testament usage; the first-fruits of the harvest were offered to God as representing the whole harvest, and as indicating that all of it belonged to Him. Thus, these saints here are not an elite, a specially chosen few as compared with other believers, but representative of the whole company of the redeemed, as indeed the same group in chapter 7 were (In James 1:18, this phrase is used of the Church). That they were 'virgins' means that they were faithful to Christ, and undefiled amid all their temptations and trials (cf 2 Corinthians 11:2); being 'without fault' means that by grace they were justified in the sight of God. To compare the two references to this symbolic number of saints in chapter 7 and here provides a whole message of comfort and strength and encouragement in itself. How wonderful to realise that those sealed on earth by the Spirit of God through the gospel are really kept safe for glory by His power, and are never lost. Those whom God protects are safe for evermore. Well might they sing the new song!