Beautiful broken Hallelujah’s

 

 

 

 

What a gorgeous Easter Sunday.  This day has been so precious and beautiful.  I have soaked up every minute with my precious family. I have felt the sunshine on my face and listened to birds sing their song of Spring.  I have loved the laughter and the hugs and the tears.  We sang a song at church this morning reciting “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.”  I have pondered those words all day.  I can sing praises all morning, I can have thanks on my lips each day….but hallelujah…those words made me teary this morning. 

I came home this evening and began digging into that word that has nudged me all day.  The research stated that hallelujah was in Psalms 24 times.  I pulled out my bibles and could not find it…. I checked the NIV and the ESV and ended up on Bible Gateway trying to find this word that I so desperately needed to understand.  In most versions of the Bible it has been replaced for words like praises and thanks in the book of Psalm. 

The only other place in the bible that hallelujah appears is in Revelation 19.  It states “The roar of a great multitude in heaven were shouting… “Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!”  It repeats…they were shouting!  They weren't trying to muster the word…it was in full belief and rejoicing.

I am not a great theologian and I do not understand all the different translations and how they came to be, but I do feel that the original text must have been different in Psalm than that in Revelation.  In every bible, the Hallelujah is not translated into thanks or praise in the Revelation 19 text.

I felt like I had to study this tonight, after a long weekend and I am tired…but I am desperately searching for why the tears fall so easily these days.  I know that God is good and I trust him and I can sing praises and give thanks…but deep down my hallelujah feels broken.  Sorrow and fear and weakness seem to flood in and stifle my hallelujah. 

I keep flipping through Bibles and I hear His sweet voice…”What if being broken is ok?”  What if we accept that we have to stop and see our beautiful hallelujah for the brokenness that they are.  The past weeks, I have heard all the lies. I have felt that I can barely choke out my hallelujah and felt that somehow that made my praises through the tears and my thanks through the sorrows obsolete.  I have felt that I have nothing to offer, until I can shout my hallelujah. 

Sweet friends, I think that King David must have struggled with Hallelujah too.  I look forward to the days of Revelation when we will hear the heaven’s shouting Hallelujah.  Until then, let us join our hearts and arms together and live out our beautiful broken hallelujahs.  Every season will bring broken hallelujahs.  When those winters come, let us stand together. When my hallelujahs are weak, let me gain strength through your praises and in time I know my Hallelujah will return and I can in turn comfort you.  And I pray that your precious heart knows….that until our sweet Savior comes and we hear those powerful heavenly Hallelujah’s that is ok that we need to lean on each other when our own Hallelujahs are just a whisper.

 

This is a sweet song to worship !

Find you on my knees - Kari Jobe