617. [verse 3] 'And they were singing as it were a new song before the throne and before the four animals and before the elders' signifies a celebration and glorification of the Lord in His presence and in the presence of the angels of the higher heavens. That by 'they were singing a new song' is signified the acknowledgment and glorification of the Lord, that He Only is the Judge, Redeemer and Saviour, thus the God of heaven and earth, may be seen above (n. 279). 'Before the throne' is in the presence of the Lord because He Only sits upon the throne. 'Before the four animals and before the elders' is in the presence of the higher angels (n. 369). By 'as it were a new song' is signified the celebration and glorification of the Lord in the Christian New Heaven, here specifically that He has been acknowledged as the God of heaven and earth, just as He is acknowledged in the ancient heavens. This is involved in the phrase 'as it were' for 'as it were a new song' is equivalent to as if it were new, when nevertheless it is not new. That the New Heaven, treated of in the Apocalypse (chap. xxi 1), is the New Heaven [formed] out of Christians, and that the former heavens are of the Ancients and the Most Ancients, also that the Lord in these heavens is acknowledged as the God of heaven and earth, has been stated before.