What Is Hallelujah?
Hallelujah is a Hebrew call to praise, formed from 'hallelu' (praise!) and 'Yah', a short form of God's name; it means 'praise the LORD'. Its home in the Bible is above all the book of Psalms: many psalms open or close with this call, and the last five psalms form a summit of praise, each framed by Hallelujah. The final psalm widens the call to all creation: 'Let everything that has breath praise Yah!' Like 'Amen', the word passed untranslated into the world's languages and became the shared language of praise. In the New Testament it appears, in its Greek form 'Alleluia', only in chapter nineteen of Revelation: the great multitude in heaven celebrates God's just judgment and the wedding of the Lamb with a fourfold 'Hallelujah'. That final use sums up the word's direction: Hallelujah is the shout of joy spoken not where the story of salvation ends but where it is completed.