They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God....

Revelation 7:11b-12 (NLT)

They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen!
Praise and glory 
and wisdom and thanks and honor
 and power and strength
 be to our God for ever and ever.
  Amen!”

Have you ever been in a state of mind and emotion where you “fell down on your face” and worshipped God?  Have you ever worshiped God like this where you spoke and/or sang His praise, glory, wisdom, honor, power and strength plus gave Him all your thanks?

Who are “they” who fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God?  Rev 7:9 says that there was a “great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues”.  Rev 7:14 then says, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation……..”.   The great tribulation was predicted by Jesus in Matt 24:21.  It is a time where God’s wrath will be expressed upon the whole earth.  The word “tribulation” in the Greek is “thlipsis” that can be translated as “affliction”, “oppression”,  or “distress”.  Chapters 6 through 19 of Revelation describe what happens during the great tribulation.  Basically, the great tribulation will be a time of terrible suffering. For example, you can read Rev 6:8 where Death and Hades will be given power to kill one-quarter of the earth’s population by the sword, famine, plague and wild beasts.  So many Christians want to believe in the rapture of the church (I Thess 4:13-18) so that they are not part of the great suffering to occur in the great tribulation.      

John Walvoord wrote a classic study on the book of Revelation (http://bible.org/series/revelation-jesus-christ).  The “they” of Rev 7:11-12 are martyrs who died for their faith during the tribulation.  The antichrist, described in Rev 13, will kill anyone who does not worship him.  The result will be multiplied thousands of martyrs. Those who died martyrs during the tribulation will praise God in the manner described in Rev 7:11-12.

Look at the seven words that described the worship of God by those who have been raised from the dead after their being killed in the great tribulation:

§ Praise—“eulogia”—an invocation of blessing, to celebrate with praises

§ Glory—“doxa”—majesty, exaltation, kingly majesty of God and the Messiah

§ Wisdom—“sophia”—supreme intelligence

§ Thanks—“eucharistia”—the giving of thanks

§ Honor—“time”—deference, reverence

§ Power—“dynamis”---power to perform miracles

§ Strength—“ischys”—ability, force, might

You do not need to be a martyr to express your praise to almighty God like this.  There exist some beautiful contemporary Christian songs that express these words with music that will make you cry with joy.  I recommend that you find the song “To Him Who Sits on the Throne” (words and music by Debbye Graafsma) that will uplift your heart as you imagine hundreds of thousands of believers singing to almighty God. 

“To Him Who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb.  Be blessing and glory and honor and power Forever”…….Amen.