With Our Rulers tyrannizing and terrorizing us, exploiting tragedy they’ve caused while sexually assaulting us in airports and at roadside, it’s tough to maintain the ol’ Christmas spirit, isn’t it?
I had help with that last night from some of the most glorious music ever composed, Handel’s Messiah. No doubt the heavenly choirs praise the Almighty with anthems far superior to anything mere mortals could write; still, each time I rejoice to the point of tears in the “Hallelujah Chorus,” I wonder if we won’t serenade our Savior with it through all eternity!
I also wonder if Handel wasn’t an anarcho-capitalist. OK, I’m too optimistic, but we can still laud him as a Christian with his priorities in the proper order. Notice his juxtaposition of the Biblical texts in his masterpiece, with Psalm 2 and its contempt for wicked, presumptuous, arrogant human government preceding the passages from Revelation presenting the only true King — the One the State has tried so vigorously and blasphemously to usurp:
[The recitatives, etc, from Psalm 2:]
Why do the heathen rage, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed,
Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us.
He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
[The chorus from Revelation immediately follows:]
Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth…the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign for ever and ever. … KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS.
Amen, and amen!
12:00 pm on December 21, 2012
