Someday in the not too distant future, each of us who are born-again by the Spirit, saved from God’s wrath, justified freely by His grace, and forgiven forever: are going to join the ultimate, Heavenly Hallelujah chorus. The words for that chorus have been given to us already, written down in Revelation.
The term in English: Hallelujah Chorus, has become totally associated with an oratorio written 271 years ago in London.
It was in April, 1741 the German composer Handel was bankrupt, imperiled by paralyzing pain, betrayed by friends, and depressed. It looked like his composing career was over.
In this devastating time of Handel’s life, a friend presented him with 52 Scripture passages, and from a season of prayerfully reading those passages, Handel’s soul became enraptured with the beauty of the God Almighty who Reigns.
In the summer of 1741, his servants were quoted as saying that for those three-plus weeks of writing: “He was praying, or he was weeping, or he was staring into eternity”.
Then came: Handel’s Messiah
When he booked a concert hall for his “farewell” composition, the word on the street was, that he was no longer thought able to produce anything worthy of London’s audiences.
That changed after he emerged with the 250 pages of oratorio we now know as Handel’s Messiah. In those famed, three solid weeks of round-the-clock work, the most well know and performed choral composition of the Western world: Handel’s Messiah was produced, based on 52 passages from God’s Word.
Three of the passages have become the best known of them all. Please stand as we read these verses in unison, and ask God to unleash the truths of His Word into our lives with the same, heart-stirring worship that the Hallelujah chorus has prompted:
Revelation 11: 15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 19:6, 16 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 16 And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS.
The Ultimate Hallelujah
Chorus is in Heaven
We are going to be part of the real choir, singing the real Hallelujahs, in the very real place around the Throne of God in Heaven. Professional singers have been invited to sing those words on Earth, over the last two hundred plus years. But only saints are invited to come before His Throne to sing the words of that closing Hallelujah Chorus.