He shall reign for ever and ever
In 1741, George Frideric Handel
completed arguably his best known work, The Messiah. Parts of that work, particularly the Hallelujah Chorus, will ring out throughout churches and concert halls this Christmas season like every other for years before it.
The work allows the singing of the beautiful messianic prophecy from Isaiah 9:6 (KJV):
“For unto us a child
is born, unto us a sonisgiven...and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
It ends with the repeated refrain from Revelation 11:15: “and He shall reign for ever and ever.“
Throughout this Christmas season,
may we be constantly reminded of, and focused on, the glorious truth that the Mighty God who is the King of Glory condescended to earth to become a child to sacrifice himself for our redemption. And that King will reign forever and is worthy of all honor and praise. Like Handel, who ended his manuscript “SDG,” for soli deo Gloria, to God alone the
