October 15: "Man of Sorrows," What a Name

Ira Sankey, a good friend of Philip Bliss, the author of this hymn, wrote this about Bliss’ text: “It is said that the word ‘Hallelujah’ is the same in all languages . It seems as though God had prepared it for the great jubilee of heaven, when all His children shall have been gathered home to sing ‘Hallelujah to the Lamb!’"(Sankey, My Life and Sacred Songs). Laura de Jong reflects on this general idea with her own experience at Taizé, an ecumenical community in France:

“During one evening prayer service, we had turned around to face the center for the Gospel reading, after which we sang the Taizé song, “Christus Resurexit.” Right in front of me was a young woman with Down Syndrome. She hadn’t turned around, and so we were facing each other as we sang. She couldn’t figure out the unfamiliar Latin words, so simply hummed until we reached the final word of each repeated verse: “Alleluia!” at which point she sang loud and clear. At the beginning of that service, we had been given small candles, and at this point in the service, children were passing the light of Christ from the center Christ Candle throughout the church to the thousands of people gathered from around the world. Watching this woman, so often shunned by our competitive, “perfect” society, pass the light of Christ while singing “Alleluia” was a powerful reminder that we serve a God who came to stand in the place of all of us, for we are all beautiful, but marred, children of God. It is for this that we praise the Lamb of God, our Savior.”

-Hymnary.org

View this Featured Hymn at Hymnary.org.