July 27, 2022 - Good Morning! It's Wednesday, July 27.
In 1984, the Canadian songwriter, Leonard Cohen, wrote a strange and haunting song. He titled it "Hallelujah." It featured a lovely chorus that featured that word of worship. Several of the verses alluded to characters from the Bible - but the lyrics, as a whole, were not appropriate for a church service. The song attracted little notice, until 10 years later, when it was recorded by a 27 year-old New York City musician named Jeff Buckley. That version got a lot of attention. Buckley died tragically in a drowning accident just a couple of years later, but his "Hallelujah" went on to become an iconic hit. It's been recorded by over 300 artists, and country singer K. D. Lang sang it to three billion listeners at the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.
A buddy and I re-wrote the verses a few years ago, to make them more worshipful, and we shared it in service a few times. But lately, I've just used that lovely chorus as a tag to other worship songs. This Sunday we'll sing it following the worship song, "Raise a Hallelujah". That word of worship, "hallelujah", occurs in only two books of the Bible - 24 times in the Psalms and 4 times in Revelation. We raise it again today as an expression of praise to our God.
Revelation 19:6 - Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns!".
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
