Hallelujah!

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Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.” (Rev. 19:6)

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, 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 shall reign forever and ever.” (11:15)

Reflect

When George Frideric Handel wrote the “Hallelujah” section to close out Part II of Messiah, he could hardly have foreseen how iconic the song would become. Nor could he have envisioned it’d inspire the most viral flash mob YouTube video of all time (not that he’d have fathomed words like “viral,” “flash mob,” and “YouTube”).

You may have seen the video. Published in November 2010, it was recorded in Ontario’s Seaway Mall food court by a local photography company. Eighty singers from the Chorus Niagara wore nondescript clothing, blending into their holiday shopping surroundings. Then one soprano, pretending to be on a phone call, daringly bursts into the first notes of the “Hallelujah” chorus. She’s soon followed by fellow chorus members, standing as they join the song.

Onlookers—munching on their Arby’s Beef ’N Cheddars and A&W Cheese Curds—appear stunned as their Christmas shopping excursion is momentarily infused with a goosebump-inducing encounter with the glory God is due. About a minute into the video, as the choir sings Revelation 19:6 (“For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth”), the look on one young boy’s face is especially priceless. Wearing a Gap sweatshirt—behind him a sign for a $5 pizza special—the boy has a wide-eyed expression that sums up the transcendent power of the heavenly scene it pictures. The song stops us in our tracks and fixes our gaze on the stunning glory of Christ, the “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”

Handel seemed jolted by Messiah as he composed it. He often wept as he wrote, and on finishing the “Hallelujah” section he purportedly told an assistant, “I did think I saw heaven open, and saw the very face of God.”

It shows in the music. The heralding trumpets (the angel’s instrument in Rev. 11:15), the thunderous timpani, the ascending sopranos as they take the “King of kings” refrain to stratospheric heights . . . It all adds up to a sublime work of musical art nearly unrivaled in its power to move people to tears and up off their seats.

The song stops us in our tracks and fixes our gaze on the stunning glory of Christ, the ‘King of kings, and Lord of lords.’

Standing during the “Hallelujah” chorus is a tradition dating back to King George II, who (legend has it) was so moved during the London premiere that he stood in rapture, prompting the entire audience to follow suit. We stand as we sing it three centuries later—not because of any earthly king’s example but because of the King of kings’s boundless glory and white-hot holiness. And to think—this glorious King of the universe was once a frail baby in a Bethlehem manger and then an object of scorn on a Roman cross.

As we sing of this humble King to the rousing harmonies of Handel’s masterpiece, we can’t help but stand, close our eyes, lift our hands, and for a moment imagine ourselves as we’ll one day be: among a multitude, “like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder,” crying out a mighty chorus infinitely louder and grander than the greatest food court flash mob: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns” (19:6).

Respond

Watch the video of the “Christmas food court flash mob” embedded above. Let the performance arrest you and lead you to joyful worship of Christ. As you go about your Christmas Day festivities, consider how you could carve out dedicated moments of singing worship. Individually or (even better) with others, join your voices with the “heavenly host” that was there at Christ’s birth (Luke 2:13–14) and with the “great multitude” in John’s vision (Rev. 19:6).