Years ago when our children were little, I managed to find time to join our local choral society. Each Monday evening, I would thoroughly enjoy practising with the other choir members—and this was especially true when we began rehearsing to perform Handel’s Messiah. Prior to this, I had sung in various children’s and young adult choirs but had never had the opportunity to take part in singing The Messiah, so it was all wonderfully new and exciting to me.
Whenever I hear certain sections of this oratorio performed today, however, I still feel the same chills down my spine that I felt when I first heard them around fifty years ago. Yes, this is partly because of Handel’s beautiful, stirring music. And yes, it is partly because of the lovely voices of the soloists and choir members who sing. But it is the words, taken from various parts of the old King James version of the Bible, that also touch my heart deeply.
One of the most stirring choruses in the first part of Handel’s Messiah for me is ‘For unto us a Child is born’. I love the way the music crescendos up into those wonderful, thundering, strong words that emphasise the power and authority of Jesus:
… and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6b KJV
I always want to stand up and cheer when I hear those words ring out. But then there are other beautiful, quieter, moving sections too that touch my heart in a different way such as the gentle air, ‘He shall feed his flock’, which to me speaks of the tender, nurturing heart of Jesus for us all:
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Isaiah 40:11 KJV
Likewise, the brief, slow chorus, ‘Behold the Lamb of God’, highlighting John the Baptist’s declaration about Jesus (John 1:29, 36), always moves me too, as does the later air, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’, triumphantly declaring Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (Job 19:25). But, in between these comes the forceful, heartrending chorus, ‘Surely he hath borne our griefs’, that I always find so deeply moving. To me, it seems to express in both words and music that incredulous feeling I always have at Easter that Jesus, the Son of God, would indeed bear our sins on the cross and give his life for us:
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5 KJV
This Easter, may we take time to reflect deeply on these words in either the older version above or a more recent one. And may we all, on Easter Sunday and beyond, be moved to declare with heartfelt praise to God as the final chorus of The Messiah does:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Revelation 5:12 KJV
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