Hallelujah
Scripture Texts: Revelations 11:15; 19:1-6, 15-16
It starts with the with the violins — orderly, stately. The choir rises. The audience rises. And before you know it the room fills with the most triumphant sound of one of the most beloved musical works of all time: Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”
Over the next four and a half minutes the choir repeats the word hallelujah 48 times, but the audience and musicians never seem to tire of it. Have you ever thought about how there can be so much power and praise drawn out of the repetition of one word?
48 times. That is more times than hallelujah is in the Bible. It is found 24 times in the Psalms and 4 times in what is called the fourfold hallelujah in Revelation 19, the chapter from which the Hallelujah chorus is actually taken.
The repeated hallelujahs lead to the reason for the hallelujahs, “for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth,” then with trumpets and more hallelujahs from each of the voices/parts the joyful jubilation is heightened, only to soar even more with “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.” Then the deep basses “and He shall reign forever and ever.”
Forever and ever, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Then a final flurry of Hallelujahs, with basses and sopranos, He shall reign forever and ever. And then that last sustained, drawn out Hallelujah.
When Handel completed “Hallelujah,” he reportedly told his servant, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.”
It is almost three centuries old, yet it never gets old. It is a timeless masterpiece. Of Handel’s 25 oratorios, the Messiah is his most famous and, arguably, the most famous oratorio ever. Messiah remains the most frequently performed and highly regarded oratorio ever written. When it first came to the United States in 1818 it was associated with Christmas and the Hallelujah chorus is pulled from the end of the second part to be the finale of the Advent part of the Messiah.