After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God." Revelation 19:1

Today's Scripture Reading (June 15, 2021): Revelation 19

Leonard Cohen argued that "there is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones[....] When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah. That's the way it is." Maybe that explains the third verse of Cohen's "Hallelujah."

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah.

I grew up in a church where the verbalization "Hallelujah" and "Praise the Lord" were frequent interjections into every church meeting. So, it might be surprising that the word "Hallelujah" is only used in the New Testament a total of four times, and every one of them is found in Revelation 19 (Revelation 19:1,3,4, and 6). The word "Hallelujah" means "Praise the Lord." But the difference in Revelation 19 is that John uses the Hebrew word, where the rest of the New Testament uses a Greek phrase.

Joseph Seiss, in "The Apocalypse (Lectures on Revelation)," remarks that "Anselm of Canterbury, considers [Hallelujah] an angelic word, which cannot be fully reproduced in any language of man, and concurs with Augustine that the feeling and saying of it embodies all the blessedness of heaven." Anselm was an 11^th-century Archbishop, and if he is correct, then maybe that explains Cohen's assertion that there are many "Hallelujahs." And because we are not citizens of heaven, we cannot quite pronounce the word, and, therefore, all of our "Hallelujahs" are broken.

As John listens to the multitude proclaiming their "Hallelujahs," maybe he hears it for the first time as it is supposed to be spoken. Sometimes, we are hesitant to say the word on earth. Still, maybe we should just get into the practice of speaking the word, because when we all get to heaven, when we arrive in the place where none of our "Hallelujahs" are broken, we will join with the multitude, proclaiming the holy "Hallelujah" as frequently as we can.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Revelation 20