broken hallelujah

The song by Leonard Cohen with this phrase in it, moves hearts and souls of people with all kinds of perspective on God.  I have done research on the writing of the song, read analysis of what the 16 verses are referring to and still can't understand the picture that he was trying to create as he wrote the words through bouts of insomnia.  But, what I can say is true of me is that the broken hallelujah is the kind I give.  At my best, my tokens of praise and thanksgiving are fractured with all that I fail to reflect of His image.

I was told the story of Rich Mullins and his love for going to small country churches.  He loved to hear the people singing out of tune.  He loved the vocal and musical form of the broken hallelujah.  I understand why. The sound of a broken hallelujah from a heart more true and sure of what it sings is worth a hundred cathedral choirs singing in perfect pitch and harmony with no truth of soul.

How is it that I can bring acceptable worship to the God of the Universe when every thought and motive of my heart is known to Him. Laid bare before His face.  He knows and yet He receives my broken hallelujah.  In the midst of worship He beckons me to the day when the Hallelujah will no longer be broken. When all the wrong of my heart will be set right, when in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye, I will be changed like unto Him.

But isn't it true that the unbroken praise of heaven will be all the more beautiful because of what was so broken in this life? Were I, or any of His children redeemed from unbroken lives, could the praise of heaven and the hallelujahs of eternity ring with the same clarity and perfection?  If we were able to live a day in perfection would the endless days of eternal bliss be as perfect?

Reflecting and praying with a friend last night, we spoke of the broken people dear to her heart.  We spoke of just how terribly broken some must become before they can be brought to the arms of the One whose hallelujahs never missed a chord but whose heart could never cast away the most shattered one who but takes one small step toward Him.

We know that Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples at least once.  What the praise of the perfect Son of God must have sounded like as it mixed with the broken hallelujahs of the disciples who had not even come close to grasping what He had come to do... I do not know... but I marvel at the thought that He sang His perfect hallelujah and allowed it to blend with the broken ones that fell so short of what the Son of God deserved to hear echoing in His perfect ears.