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Third Sunday of Easter
As mentioned previously, on Sundays during these Eastertide Song Reflections, we will be doing something a little different: we’ll be featuring songs of pure celebration, entering into the truth that Easter is more than a day. It is a 50-day season of jubilation and worship. After the song, we will feature a passage of Scripture that focuses on praise and worship. There won’t be questions for reflection, just an invitation to read the text prayerfully and pay attention to the movement of our souls as we ask ourselves, “How does this text stir me to worship God?”
Last Sunday we featured a song that was pretty much brand new. Today we feature a song that has been around for more than 250 years. The famous composer George Frideric Handel composed the music for his oratorio Messiah in only 24 days, often skipping sleep and meals while working. When his servants would attend to him, they would often find him weeping as he wrote, overcome by a sense that he was writing something beyond himself. In fact, when he finished writing the Hallelujah Chorus, he said to one of his servants, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.”
There is no doubt that Handel’s Messiah has inspired countless people through the centuries to reflect on the person of Jesus, his prophesied birth, his life, and his Passion. Interestingly enough, since the oratorio is often performed at Christmastime, the Hallelujah Chorus is most often associated with that holiday. But its place in the story of the oratorio is after the Christ’s resurrection and ascension, anticipating his reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In that regard, it is a wonderful piece to sit with during the Easter season.
Following yesterday’s reflection on the word Hallelujah this seemed an appropriate selection for this Sunday. May it lead us all into joyful acclaim that “He shall reign forever and ever!”
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
(For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth)
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth
(Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah)
Hallelujah
The kingdom of this world;
is become the kingdom of our Lord,
and of His Christ
and of His Christ
And He shall reign forever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever
King of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
and Lord of lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
King of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
and Lord of lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
King of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah
and Lord of lords
King of kings and Lord of lords
And he shall reign
And he shall reign
And he shall reign
He shall reign
And he shall reign forever and ever
King of kings forever and ever
And Lord of lords hallelujah hallelujah
And he shall reign forever and ever
King of kings and Lord of lords
King of kings and Lord of lords
And he shall reign forever and ever
Forever and ever and ever and ever
(King of kings and Lord of lords)
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah
Scripture for Reflection and Worship
Clap your hands, all you peoples;
shout to God with a jubilant cry.
For the Lord, the Most High, is awe-inspiring,
a great King over the whole earth.
He subdues peoples under us
and nations under our feet.
He chooses for us our inheritance—
the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. Selah
God ascends among shouts of joy,
the Lord, with the sound of a ram’s horn.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our King, sing praise!
Sing a song of wisdom,
for God is King of the whole earth.
God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on his holy throne.
The nobles of the peoples have assembled
with the people of the God of Abraham.
For the leaders of the earth belong to God;
he is greatly exalted.—Psalm 47 (CSB)