Psalm 22 is the prophetic insight into the crucifixion. “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” gives way to “praise” in verse 22. “Hallelujah”
shattered the gloom of grief and the darkness of despair. “Hallelujah” flowed
from the lips of Jesus as He praised His Father for the victory over torture
and death. “Hallelujah” is the believers’ anthem of praise for the resurrection
of Christ Jesus.
There Jesus is depicted sharing the reality of His victory
with His people. Hallelujah comes from ‘halal’
Jewish word for praise and ‘Jah’
means God. This word resonates throughout Scripture, and particularly in the Psalms.
In this collection of 150, the psalm 22 about the crucifixion and resurrection leads
the ‘Halal’ chorus. How fitting it is
that they would point to the words which would flow from the lips of Jesus.
In the next verse we are invited to agree with what Jesus
celebrated. ‘You who fear the Lord, praise Him; all you of the seed of Jacob,
glorify Him, and fear Him, all you of the seed of Israel.’ Then, in verse 26 it
says that those who seek the Lord shall praise Him and live forever.
Christians have countless reasons for echoing the many ‘Hallelujahs’
found in the psalms. Psalm 56:4a ‘In God, I will praise His word in God I have
put my trust…’. Do we honestly express a “Hallelujah” for the 66 books of the
Scriptures? Within this library of God and from Him to us, we can understand
Creation and Humanity and the chaos caused by Sin and Satan. More than that, we
read of the Lord of Heaven coming to redeem repentant sinners, overthrow sin
and death at the cross, offer a new start in life and journey with us to His
glory. Psalm 119 is the psalm of praise for God’s Word and its influence within
a life.
Those who have heard Handel’s majestic ‘Hallelujah Chorus’
from ‘The Messiah’ know the thrill it gives to the heart and mind. Handel
tapped into the very essence of the Psalmist’s heart and expressed it with
grace and power. It gives expression to how those with faith in and experience
with Christ Jesus feel about the Lord and Saviour. To quote the Psalmist again ‘I will praise
the name of God with song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving’ (Ps 69:30). Those
who know the transforming grace given by Jesus, His forgiveness, His peace and
His promises, cannot help but sing His praises. We may be tone deaf, flat or
melodic and exuberant but what the Lord hears is our heart. In turn I believe
it makes us sound awesome in the ears of God the Father when we sing praises to
God the Son.
The Psalms begins with the word ‘Blessed’ and closes with the
word praise. In between are the experiences of God’s people across time. They
are confronted with opposition, frustration, enemies, failure, catastrophes and
demonic assaults. These are intended by the Devil to shatter God’s promise of
being the ‘blessed’ person. What unfolds in the believer’s experience is the
faithfulness of God in and through all those moments of pain and confusion.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted
within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my
countenance, and my God.” Sure, we will wrestle with many issues throughout
life but we tie ourselves to His unchanging grace and eternal Word. That is why
we have hope. That is why we can sing “Hallelujah” even as tears flow, for God
will not forsake us. The Psalmist even asked Him to collect his tears in a
bottle and record them in Heaven’s book (Ps 56:8). I think it was so that later
God would vindicate the Psalmist. This
caused the writer, David, to exclaim “In God will I praise (Hallelujah) His
word” (verse 10).
The final five Psalms form a quintet of Hallelujahs. What a
crescendo we enter into as we read them as a testimony of God’s faithfulness,
the believer’s testimony and the declaration
Hallelujah!
Copyright Ray Hawkins Sept 17 2017.
Copyright Ray Hawkins Sept 17 2017.
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