PODCAST
Hallelujah Chorus
December 3rd, 2017
Psalm 146:1-10
Over the last 25 years, the late Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” has become a standard performed when a somber tone is needed in a “spiritual, but not religious” sort of way. The words convey the dust of a fractured and forlorn faith swept up with shards of scattered Scripture and wrapped in a plaintive hopeless refrain. How different it is from George F. Handel’s powerful “Hallelujah Chorus” from The Messiah (1741). Yet both draw inspiration from the Hebrew exclamation of praise most often translated, “Praise the LORD!”
Psalm 146 is filled with hallelujahs. “I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live” (v. 2). Such praise draws on a deep understanding of God, “the maker of heaven and earth.” He is faithful, upholds the oppressed, feeds the hungry, sets prisoners free, gives sight to the blind, watches over the foreigner, sustains the fatherless and the widow, and frustrates the ways of the wicked; His reign is everlasting (vv. 4-10).
Author: Duane Brush
