Revelation 19:7; Let Us Be Glad and Rejoice

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Revelation 19:7 (KJV)  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.  

The divine command to destroy Babylon is followed by a divine call to saints to delight over her destruction. “Rejoice over her” is used in the opposite sense to the rejoicing company of Revelation 11:10, where we had the joy of the godless over the death of the two witnesses.

Revelation 11:10 (KJV)  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. 

At last, God has approved the case in heaven. Rejoicing over such terrible ruin may not appear to be very heavenly, but the execution of righteous justice always elicits the approval of God’s own people.Heaven rejoices over just vengeance upon the great whore and the beast. It is here that we can understand many of the imprecatory psalms, full of the sighs of the righteous for judgment to overtake the wicked.

Revelation 19:1-6 (KJV)  And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 

In Revelation 18:24, we have “the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” When it falls all the persecuted are avenged. When the notables of earth mourner, heaven rejoices over.

[Herbert Lockyer, Revelation – Drama of the Ages, 2012, 289-290]