The word Hallelujah is a word that is almost universal and needs no translation! Most languages do not translate this word. It simply means “praise Yah” or praise Yahweh (God)(Jehovah). It is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible and four times in the New Testament in the book of Revelation.

I woke up this morning singing it to the tune of Leonard Cohen’s song by that name. It has been popularized by many using different wording than Cohen’s except of course the chorus Hallelujah. I have heard several different versions that were absolutely wonderful!

Just a little history for those of you that might find it interesting – He wrote the song in 1984 and it was initially rejected by Columbia Records (for lack of commercial appeal) but later popularized by several artists and then achieved “modern ubiquity” after its inclusion in the animated movie Shrek (2001). By the time of Cohen’s death in 2016 it reached the Billboard charts.

My devotional reading this morning included the first three chapters of 1 John and I am reading from the Passion Translation. I was identifying with the apostle John as he tried to describe his thoughts concerning Jesus. I want to quote most of the words I read (and recommend that you read all five chapters in that translation) but I will just pull out some snippets that really spoke to me. If you are a King James (me — New King James) reader – just read this as a supplemental devotional so that you can hear what I am trying to communicate! John starts: (v.1-4) “We saw him with our very own eyes. We gazed upon him and heard him speak. Our hands actually touched him, the one who was from the beginning, the Living Expression of God.” (John states in his gospel account “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” to one of his doubting disciples). “The Life-Giver was made visible and we have seen him. We testify to this truth the eternal Life-Giver lived face-to-face with the Father and has now dawned upon us. So we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard about this Life-Giver so that we may share and enjoy this life together. For truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus the Anointed One. We are writing these things to you because we want to release to you our fullness of joy.”

Now I am skipping over to Chapter three: (v.1) “Look with wonder at the depth of the Father’s marvelous love that he has lavished on us! He has called us and made us his very own beloved children. The reason the world doesn’t recognize who we are is that they did not recognize him.” (what I just shared from chapter one). John is admonishing his readers to quit sinning because it is not a part of our new nature. He also admonishes us (them) to walking in self-sacrificing love toward one another (v.11) and to be willing to lay down our lives for one another (v.16). Verse 18 states: “Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds.”

We can sing of our love for God all day long – Hallelujah! But if we are not demonstrating that love towards others, Paul calls us “sounding brass and tinkling cymbals” – just noise! John is called the apostle of love because of his message and his life of sacrifice. He gives us amazing doxology throughout his writings, but equally challenging theology to live out that life in practical ways.

So much of the church has great ways to articulate the truths presented in the scriptures, but fewer actually live it out with their lives on a daily basis. I have heard some versions of Hallelujah that do not lift up the name of God in any of the verses they have written – an oxymoron of sorts to me.

Leonard Cohen’s original was not religious at all. But singers like Carrie Underwood wrote a beautiful Christmas version that does lift up the Lord. When I sing that word Hallelujah, it is to lift up the Lord God Jehovah!

John may not have sung this song but he understood the meaning and heard it being declared in heaven during his time of being “caught up” in the Spirit (Revelation 4). John lived with the God-man Jesus for three and a half years and loved Him in a way that none of the other disciples seemed to be able to do. His words in 1 John move me to worship and I want to sing Hallelujah to Him who is worthy of all of our praise. There is no way we can love God or our fellow man unless we encounter Him the way John did. He gives us an invitation to look (see1 John 3:1) to taste and see that He is good. When we do, we too will cry out with worship and devotion “Hallelujah.”

John lived the longest of any of Jesus’ original disciples. His main message was Jesus and his stories in his gospel highlight the God-man in a way the other gospel writers did not. He quotes most of what Jesus said and did His last night on this earth and declared at the end of his gospel that there were not enough books on this earth to fill with the stories of Jesus. Only John gives us a glimpse of heaven. The apostle Paul had some amazing experiences but he was not permitted to share what he experienced in the heavenly realms. John shares what he was permitted to see and experience with us and give us just a few little snapshots of the wonders that lie ahead. Worship is the main attraction and John describes just a little of what he saw and experienced while “caught up” in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.

As I have stated many times before – we must begin to see past this earthly realm and into the eternal realm which is from everlasting to everlasting. Our time here on this earth is short compared to all of what we will experience when time is no more. Most of us have not taken the time to meditate on the reality of heaven or eternity. Could we experience what Paul and John experienced while still here on this earth? Could we taste and see that realm where Hosanna and Hallelujah were the most appropriate responses to what we were experiencing? The realm of Glory is real. I personally live with an expectancy that today may be the day I can be “caught up” into the heavenly realms while still living out my earthly life. What a change of perspective those who have experienced just a foretaste of eternity while living here on earth! Yes, we await His second coming for all of us who are born-again, but why not taste of that realm now?