Revelation Worship: Hallelujah!
Revelation Worship: Hallelujah!
“The revelation of Jesus Christ…” (Rev. 1:1). John the Divine left no doubt about the purpose of his Book of Revelation. His very first words in his prologue were that his vision was an unveiling of Jesus. His baffling and otherworldly writings in this book were not primarily about future events, or the destiny of human life on planet earth, or all those mysterious activities in the heavenly sphere. John was writing first and foremost about the Person of Christ, and he intended everything in the book to point back to Him. Revelation was a lifting of the veil on the full identity and activity of Christ. It is a revelation of Jesus, from God, concerning Christ Himself. The Godhead is both the primary source of John’s vision and its main subject. Everything in this extended vision that came to John straight from heaven is to be understood through the prism of Christ. Regardless of how dramatic, puzzling or profound its contents, everything in John’s vision is intended to help us discover more of Christ and deepen our knowledge of and love for Him. All these events in Revelation that seem to pique the reader’s curiosity are nonetheless streams that are meant to lead us back to the River of Life. Perhaps it would do us all well if we continue to remind ourselves of Paul’s declaration as we read John’s vision… “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2). So then, we can’t let ourselves get too sidetracked, too stuck in the weeds, with these fancy special effects in John’s vision… the beasts and the dragons and the angels, the numbers and colors and gemstones, the symbols and metaphors and poetic imagery… After all is said and done in Revelation, St. John has composed an essentially Christ-centered book.
Gold Mine: Another way of looking at the book of Revelation is to strap on your miner’s helmet and search for Biblical gold. In John’s vision are many gold mines that have Jesus Christ as the source… Mines like His appearance in His glorified presence, the Logos of God, the seven titles of Christ, the words to the seven churches, the seven Beatitudes, and the many songs of worship that come straight to us from heaven! And there is more! Mining all the gold in Revelation will make us wealthy with His treasure for all of eternal life. But all those fancy special effects in John’s vision are only fool’s gold if they distract us from Jesus.
Joshua Aaron – HalleluYah הללויה on the Sea of Galilee ים כנרת – Mar de Galilea (youtube.com)
“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just!’… ‘Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up from forever and ever!’ … ‘Amen! Hallelujah!’ And from the throne came a voice shouting, ‘Praise our God, (Hallelujah!), all you His servants, you small and great who are reverently devoted to Him!’… ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns! Lt us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory!” (Revelation 19:1, 3, 4-6).
RTÉ Radio 1 Flash Mob Hallelujah Chorus in Dundrum Town Centre. (youtube.com)
Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means “Praise the Lord Yahweh.” When this important biblical term is broken down, we see “hallel,” meaning Let us praise, and “Jah,” the shortened version of Yahweh. Hallelujah is used 24 times in the Psalms and only these four times in the New Testament, all in the book of Revelation.
The Hebrew word Halal, or Hallel, contains the idea of exuberant praise, an expression of praise that raves about God. Hallel literally means someone with raised arms exclaiming something wonderful towards another; Halal was used 165 times in the Hebrew Bible, and means exuberant and mighty praise; to celebrate wildly; to sing loudly with jubilation; to laud and praise almost to the point of foolishness; to use full expression in worship; exclaiming wonderful words about God with raised arms. One scholar claimed that halal was an invitation to a more uninhibited style of worship, such as dancing, jumping and twirling. It is the root word for Hallelujah: Praise the Lord! which was reserved for those moments in worship in which worshippers experienced a high level of excitement about God, and so was used rather sparingly. Hallelujah tended to be a spontaneous outburst of extreme exultation in praise of God.
“The area of ancient Israel’s greatest creativity, and so what they did best, was the praise of God.” (Dr. Ellen Davis).
Praise Described. Scripture doesn’t define the word “praise,” but it offers plenty of descriptions and numerous praise-words. Praise can be described as an outward expression of gratitude for all that God has done for oneself, for the community, for the world. Praise is a recounting of the many blessings that God has provided in His grace and mercy. Praise is a grateful appreciation of God’s mighty works. Praise is an expression of thanksgiving to the Lord, an acknowledgement of God’s righteous deeds. To praise God is to thank God and celebrate His presence in the world. Praise is what we were created to do, it is the chief of our ultimate satisfactions, and we won’t find personal fulfillment unless we develop the habit of forgetting ourselves and praising God. Most of us Christian believers are not following in the footsteps of our Jewish brethren and praising God with an inspired creativity.
“The beginning of prayer is praise. The power of worship is song. First we sing, then we understand. First we praise, then we believe. To praise is to call forth the promise and presence of the Divine. There is no knowledge without love, no truth without praise. The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song.” (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel).
With the Hebrews, Praise was an Art Form. There are about sixteen different Hebrew words for praise in the Old Testament, and each word offers a distinctive aspect of how they praised the Lord: exuberant with raised arms; exultation accompanied by holy dance; spontaneous songs sung during worship; combining a petition with a praise in the same breath; making a joyful noise with a loud shout of celebration; praise with hands lifted up high in the air and arms extended; bowing low in adoration; lifting up one’s whole being to God in praise, including heart, hands, voice, eyes, soul; spin around in joy and praise; jump for joy; to declare praise very loudly like a roaring lion; bless God on bended knee, praising Him humbly while kneeling; to allow silence itself to praise God, blessing Him in reverence without exclamations but with soft murmuring; magnify and glorify God in praise by raving about His greatness and spiritual weight; to invite all of nature to join you in praise and worship; praise with music, celebrating in song with voice and/or stringed instruments; to enjoy a circle dance with other worshipers, as well as the more spontaneous whirling and twirling in the spirit.
“Every word in the book of Revelation takes place in an act of worship, and is designed to pull us into the act of worship. That is why Revelation is the most comprehensive rendering of worship that we have in Scripture. For worship is the primary and most accessible means we are given for orienting ourselves in God.” (Eugene Peterson, Subversive Spirituality).
Hallelujah in Revelation. And what is the context for these Hallelujah moments in John’s vision, these outbursts of worship that occur in heaven, the only examples of this worship term being used in the entire New Testament? Believe it or not, hallelujah was the one word that seemed adequate to express their high praise of the Lord. It was the only word in heaven’s vocabulary that was up to the challenge of fully expressing what they felt about God. And what were the multitudes celebrating in this unique way? God’s justice! “His judgments are true and just!” These multitudes of heavenly citizens were rejoicing to the extreme out of gratitude to God for being the Lord of justice, for creating a moral universe in which evil would be held accountable, and faithfulness would be rewarded.
Divine Punishment for the Great Prostitute. God’s guilty verdict was evidently placed on a unified world system, a false religious system that was widely supported politically. Somewhat vaguely, John quoted the heavenly voices as being a powerful influence in the world that was a false religion that led people astray through idolatry, or what is often called by God spiritual adultery. This powerful world entity somehow lured people into spiritual unfaithfulness to the true God. But that’s not all that this Great Whore accomplished. This system also persecuted believers, those innocent people who followed the Lamb Jesus, and so this evil enterprise had blood on their hands, the blood of God’s people! The heavenly multitudes were celebrating that God had their back, that those who hurt them would themselves be judged. The Great Prostitute was also referred to as Babylon the Great, and could have been a symbol for Babylon back in the day, or their present-day Rome, or for a unified world order of evil that comes at some point in the future before the Messianic era. Who knows, there’s a good chance that all three meanings make sense.
The Divine Wedding. The multitudes were celebrating the permanent demise of evil, but also, the way was now cleared to enjoy the wedding that everyone was wildly anticipating… the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The Eternal Union between Christ the Bridegroom and the Bride-Church. The moment has come! The enemies have been overthrown once and for all! The Gospel is victorious! It’s time to celebrate God’s justice and God’s mercy for all eternity!