Revelation 5:13

In his vision John saw every creature giving praise to God and to the Lamb. The creatures in view must be intelligent beings who can appreciate God and the Lamb, not the stars, planets, and animals. This probably involved a forward (proleptic) look to the end of the history of planet earth when every creature will bow the knee to Jesus Christ (cf. Revelation 5:10; Philippians 2:8-11). There is much proleptic revelation in this book, as will become clear. God often gave John previews of things further ahead in the future than the future events that he was then considering.

"In these two chapters [4 and 5], the sequence of hymns shows that the first two are addressed to God, the next two to the Lamb, and the last one to both. There is also a gradual enlargement in the size of the choirs. The internal movement also builds as the last hymn is sung by ’every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth’ to ’him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb’ (Revelation 5:13)." [Note: Johnson, p. 464.]

". . . that blessing and that thanksgiving are the one gift that we who have nothing can give to Him who possesses all." [Note: Barclay, The Revelation . . ., 1:227.]

"In all three doxologies the repeated us of kai ["and"] heaps up the ascriptions like a great tower of praise." [Note: Lenski, p. 212.]