1. Revelation 14:3 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why are only the 144,000 able to learn this song?

Revelation 14:3 (ESV)

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.

This portion of the human race is tuned in to heaven so as to be able to learn what heaven sings about; the remainder of the human race cannot tune in to heaven (Genesis 6:5; Romans 3:10–11). This of course is because the redeemed have been not only washed by Jesus’ blood but also renewed by his Holy Spirit. Though these persons are the objects of the dragon’s fury (and so of his attacks through the two beasts of Revelation 13:1–18), these redeemed persons have head space and heart space to focus beyond the battles and struggles of this broken life to delight in the redemption of which heaven already sings.