"Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs."

Hymn: “He Lives” – Words and Music by Alfred Ackley (1887-1960)
Tune: ACKLEY

This final hymnline from this week-long delving into a standard gospel song echoes Paul’s admonition to the church at Philippi: “’Rejoice in the Lord always.’ Again I say, ‘Rejoice’.” (4:4) I’ve always appreciated the way that even Paul had to repeat himself to get people to delight in the Lord as they worshiped!

In this hymnline, we Christ-followers who have recently celebrated his resurrection are called upon to make some noise in response to this miraculous event by singing continuous hallelujahs.

There is something about our sung praise that seems to go on forever, ricocheting through time and space… never ending. A hearty hallelujah from our mouths to God’s ears is ceaseless as it reverberates.

The very word “hallelujah” (or some form of it) is common to every language. I’ve always thought that is so when we gather on heaven’s shore, we’ll all be language-linked by that one word if nothing else. THEN we will literally join those eternal hallelujahs.

“Rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King.” And again I say, “Rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King.”

A cappella Singing of This Hymn