19 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for his judgements are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 Once more they cried out,
“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
“Praise our God,
all you his servants,
you who fear him,
small and great.”
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
The growing volume of praise in these verses arises from the call in 18:20 - 'Rejoice over her, thou heaven....' after the fall of Babylon. It is the celebration and jubilation of heaven over the victory of Christ, over the harlot that sought to seduce His holy bride, the Church. It is a passage full of happiness, but it is the happiness of victory (2), - not happiness in vacuo, but in relation to the triumph of righteousness over unrighteousness. In heaven this is such a glorious reality that music is the only medium that can worthily express it. And this is a passage for the musicians indeed! Look at the fourfold 'Alleluia' in 1, 3, 4, 6! Look at the growing volume of power and praise as glory succeeds glory! First 'much people', then 'the four and twenty living creatures', then 'the solo voice' (5), then the great chorus (6) with glorious diapason like the voice of many waters and the voice of mighty thunderings. What a libretto for an inspired musician: Handel, Bach and Beethoven together could scarcely do justice to such a theme. (This is the passage on which the great 'Hallelujah Chorus' from Handel's Messiah is based.) One thinks of the vastness of the sound and the greatness of the music at a specially augmented performance of some masterpiece, and imagines the physical vibration, and the emotional upsurge as the great orchestra is supplemented by the deep bass of the organ pedals thundering throughout the auditorium, making the very foundations shake and tremble - and yet, this would be but a faint shadow of this reality! In view of the overpowering rapture and ecstasy this would bring, unsupportable by our frail mortal frame, it is easy to understand how we shall need to be changed if we are ever to be able to stand such intense torrents of delight and joy!