After the judgement and fall of the great Babylon, the entire heaven cry out in a loud booming voice of rejoicing and exhilaration! The great multitude in heaven, which includes the twenty four elders and the four living creatures were rejoicing and singing praises unto God and they started their worship with Hallelujah.

Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which found its way into the religious vocabulary even in the New Testament times where they spoke in Greek. Where Hallelujah occurs in the Old Testament it literally means to “Praise God”, but even as the New Testament is written in Greek, the original Hebrew form is retained. Hallelujah It is a compound word formed by two separate word “halal” which means to praise and “yah” or YAHWEH, which is the holy name of God.

This word Hallelujah is frequently used in the Psalms, in a translated form. Each of the Psalms from Ps.106; Ps.111-113; Ps.117; Ps.135; Ps.146-150 begins with Hallelujah. Psalms 150 has to be the climax of the psalmist’s praise unto God because in the short six verses, the word appeared 13 times. It starts with Hallelujah in the first five verses and ends off as the final proclamation of God with the word Hallelujah! The word is associated with great rejoicing and exuberant worship unto God.

God is praised because of salvation, glory and power belong to Him and each of these three great attributes of God should awaken response from man in their hearts. Barclay says that the salvation of God should awaken the gratitude of man; the glory of God should awaken the reverence of man; the power of God is always exercised in the love of God and should, therefore, awaken the trust of man. Gratitude, reverence, trust--these are the constituent elements of real praise. When we are in the presence of a great and mighty God, our natural posture will be in worship and praise.

Hallelujah comes with joy, beaming with pride in God and ready to show off His glory to the world so that they too may know. It is an unceasing praise and worship, manifested in different forms of expression, regardless of who you are and your status. Remember King David and his song and dance of praise? When the ark of the Lord finally returned back to his city of David, King David leaped and dance before the Lord selflessly, losing his expected decorum as a king. However, in face of the great God, he said, “Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!” (2 Sam. 6:22)

Dear brothers and sisters, as we sing Hallelujah in our worship of our great and mighty God, may we lift our hands and our hearts to our great God, beaming with gratitude, reverence and trust, because He is worthy, worthy of the praise of all creation!