Shout an Advent Hallelujah!
Maybe you know of the Hallelujah Chorus. It is a part of Handel’s Messiah. You probably have heard it. (If not, you can google it when you get home and get it stuck in your head.)
It was the final number of the Christmas concert from my freshman year to senior year in high school. One of my less mature friends would comment, “When in doubt, just sing ‘hallelujah’ and you will be fine.” (He was not far off. It comes up once or twice in the piece.) That is not the worst advice before Christmas. When in Advent, shout “Hallelujah.”
It is a word that is on loan to us from Hebrew. We simply take the sounds from that language and put them into letters in English. You are familiar with it because you have heard it and used it often—whether in worship or even in conversation. Hallelujah.
But it is more than just a matter of bringing it into our vocabulary to impress others like if we greeted one another tonight with the Hawaiian aloha. (Then we might as well stick with the Hebrew shalom.) It is beneficial to define it. Hallelujah means “praise the LORD.”
Two times in two verses that is what the psalmist has us say—the first words and the last ones: “Praise the LORD … Praise the LORD” (Ps 117:1,2). It must be important. It is.
Add to that two bits of trivia.
It is the shortest chapter in the Bible.
But this is better than a 30-second commercial to satisfy our short attention span quickly—nothing more than a quick plug and we can get back to regular programming. “Praise the LORD” (Ps 117:1). Now let’s resume with what is necessary.
And it is not just something to get out of the way like a child who could gladly skip the next 20 days of December to unwrap some presents. “Praise the LORD” (Ps 117:1). Now let’s return to what is needed.
It is the middle chapter of the Bible. I have highlighted before that the middle, at least in Hebrew, is the most important. Think of a meal. The appetizer is wonderful and dessert is delightful. But the main course. Well, it is the main course. And so the psalmist leads us: Hallelujah.
This little psalm is in a collection of praise psalms (Ps 111-118). It was used at the Passover, Israel’s national celebration of when God spared the first-born. We use it for a special occasion too—our midweek Advent service. “Praise the LORD” (Ps 117:1).
What does “to praise signify? Someone once put it this way: “being sincerely and deeply thankful for and/or satisfied in lauding a superior quality or great act of the object.” That is a mouthful. But in a sense, Thanksgiving continues as we contemplate Advent. Jesus is coming. We eagerly await the announcement of the angels: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you” (Lk 2:11). Hallelujah because of his greatness and excellence.
We praise the LORD. He is the gracious and compassionate One (Ex 34:6,7). The heavenly messengers also mentioned that: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). True God becoming true man, taking on our flesh. True God becoming true man, taking away our sin. Hallelujah because of who he is—the LORD.
Who is to do this praising of the Lord? It is not a specific group or a geographic space.
“Praise the LORD, all you nations” (Ps 117:1). No one is excluded.
“Extol him, all you peoples” (Ps 117:1). “Extol” carries a similar thought as “praise”—to glorify the quality of someone. Everyone is included.
It might be easy to be casual about Christmas. For most of us, all of us, this is not new. Jesus is born. Do we really need 4 weeks to get us ready for that observance? I would suggest “yes.” We need Jesus, who rescues people from their sins (Mt 1:21). Us. So those sent by God to publicize the entrance of the One who would be in a manger, later to be on a cross to be out of his grave declared: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Lk 2:11). We are part of the “all.” Shout an Advent Hallelujah because Jesus came for you. For me.
Why are we to praise the Lord? Two reasons:
“For great is his love toward us” (Ps 117:2). His mercy is great. It towers over us. In another psalm, David described it this way: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him” (Ps 103:11). He didn’t leave us in our sin, but loved us and sent his Son—for the world and for us (Jn 3:16).
“And the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever” (Ps 117:2). The Lord is trustworthy because what he states is always true. He is dependable and reliable. It is during Advent that we often review the many prophecies of the coming Savior. As we go to the little town of Bethlehem, we spot the Righteous One whom God promised to crush the devil’s head (Mi 5:2; Je 33:16; Ge 3:15). And if he kept the guarantee of Jesus’ first coming on Christmas Day, we can be sure and certain about his second one on the Last Day.
Shout an Advent Hallelujah because of the Lord’s love and faithfulness for right now and for all time.
It may not be our custom or even our culture to call out “Hallelujah”—“praise the Lord” (unless you went to the same institution as I did growing up and it was tradition for the annual performance). But we can in this case—with our mouth or just in our heart. Not just to amaze someone with our knowledge of Hebrew. But to call attention to God’s grace to us in giving us Jesus. Shout an Advent Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. Yes, praise the Lord. Happy Advent.
We read from Psalm 117:1,2:
1 Praise the LORD, all you nations;
Extol him, all you peoples.
2 For great is his love toward us,
And the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD.
December 5, 2015
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