Hallelujah Chorus

This Christmas season I have had the privilege of enjoying several performances of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah. Every time I hear the song, I get caught up in the elation and feel momentarily transported to another realm. People who have actually performed it tell me that at times they couldn't sing and just had to cry. I believe it!

God loves to hear beautiful music; in heaven He has surrounded himself with angels singing "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come." On earth He has commanded us to praise Him with all kinds of instruments: strings, winds, percussion, brass, and the human voice singing a new song. In heaven, I believe there will be choral music more beautiful than anything heard on earth, but on earth, when a gifted musician reaches the height of his God-given creative potential, I think it gives us a little glimpse of what heaven is going to be like.

I think the Hallelujah chorus is such a case. Even the lyrics were taken from heaven. In Revelation 19:6 John gives this account of the wedding feast of Christ: "Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.'" In chapter eleven, verse five John includes this description of his vision, "Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.'"

Amen! Merry Christmas.