Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!

Tonight, I thought I’d continue my little series of investigating song lyrics by taking a look at an old classic – the Hallelujah chorus. The term “Hallelujah” is a combination of two Hebrew words to mean “Praise ye the Lord!”, and, per the internet, it only appears in two books of the bible – it occurs 24 times in the book of Psalms, in almost every case at the opening or closing of the Psalm, and the other place is in (you’ll never guess) the book of Revelation.

And that, it turns out, is where Handel gets his text, almost word for word from the King James Version. In Revelation chapter 19, the 24 elders (who I’ve talked about before) proclaim, “Hallelujah, Amen,” followed by a multitude of voices in heaven rejoicing, “Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” We also see the Heavenly Warrior, wearing an insignia that reads “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” And back in Chapter 11, a seventh angel sounds a trumpet, and the voices cry out, “The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Now it may seem a bit odd to be singing text from Revelation for Christmas, but remember – Messiah is a pretty comprehensive work that covers way more than just the birth of Jesus. And besides, the story of the manger is also the story of the old prophets, and the story of the cross, and the story that is still ongoing – Jesus’ birth was the fulfillment of prophesy, but his real triumph was still to come. Hallelujah! Praise Ye the Lord!


Now, I do have to take a quick moment and state something clearly – I have no ulterior motive to read the book of Revelation for choir openings. It’s a pretty scary book, and I am not “John the Revelator”. But three times I’ve asked questions that I feel could have led me anywhere in the bible: What are the 7 stars? Who are the 24 elders? Where does the Hallelujah text come from? And three times I’ve been brought directly to Revelation. What does it all mean? I really can’t say, but you might want to be on your best behavior the rest of this choir year, just to be safe. :)

Let’s bow our heads. King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we praise you tonight. We thank you for the timeless Hallelujah chorus, and all the works we get to prepare and sing in this choir. Be with us tonight as we rehearse, Father. Amen.