Hallelujah!

“He brought out His people with rejoicing,
His chosen ones with shouts of joy;
He gave them the lands of the nations,
and they fell heir to what others had toiled for –
that they might keep His precepts
and observe His laws.
Praise the LORD [Hallelu Yah].” — Psalm 105:43–45

Hallelujah is an amazing word. It spans continents, cultures, and languages. Hallelujah beautifully expresses our praise of the Lord. Yet, the only place that it actually appears in the Hebrew Bible is in the book of Psalms. Even then, it isn’t introduced until the last third of the book. It first appears in the last line of Psalm 104, or according to some, the first line of Psalm 105. And it is in Psalm 105, which concludes with “Hallelu Yah” that we can understand its full meaning.

What does hallelujah really mean?

SINGING TO THE LORD

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple…Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord. Psalm 27:4, 6

Brother Zhang, a young medical doctor and preacher in Zhejiang, China, refused to join the government Three Self Patriotic Church. He was arrested and spent eighteen years in prison eating poor food, being beaten and drowning in the stench of cellmates. He shares this testimony:

“The eighteen years were a tremendous spiritual challenge, which brought great blessings I never before thought possible in my life. Prison officials ordered me to empty the camp night-soil pit, the prison’s cesspool. While I had little experience of physical labor, its hardship and suffering did not frighten me. Although most of the other prisoners dreaded night-soil pit duty as the most difficult task in prison, I accepted this assignment without complaint.