Handel’s Messiah, Part II

For an introduction to Messiah, see “Handel’s Messiah, Part I“. There is also a page for Handel’s Messiah, Part III. This is Part II, which deals with Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for our sins, His resurrection, His triumph over death and His eventual return in power and justice.

What follows is the text or lyrics of Part II with references to where in the Bible the relevant scripture verses can be found, along with YouTube videos for each section. After that is a modern English translation of the same scriptures, along with some commentary and explanation of the meaning and significance of those scriptures.

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CHORUS
Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

AIR (Alto)
He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: He hid not His face from shame and spitting. (Isaiah 53:3; 50:6)

CHORUS
Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.  (Isaiah 53:4,5)

And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

CHORUS
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

All they that see [him] laugh [him] to scorn: they shoot out their lips, they shake their heads, saying: (Psalm 22:7)

He trusted [in God] that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, if he delight in him. (Psalm 22:8; Matthew 27:43)

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied – Tenor)
Thy rebuke hath broken His heart; He is full
of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort Him. (Psalm 69:20)

AIR. (Tenor)
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow. (Lamentations 1:12)

RECITATIVE. (Accompanied – Soprano)
He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of Thy people was He stricken. (Isaiah 53:8)

AIR (Soprano)
But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell; nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27)

CHORUS
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is the King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. (Psalm 24:7-10)

RECITATIVE. (Tenor)
Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? (Hebrews 1:5; Psalm 2:7)

CHORUS
Let all the angels of God worship Him. (Hebrews 1:6)

AIR. (Bass)
Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men, yea, even for Thine enemies, that the Lord God might dwell among them. (Psalm 68:18; Ephesians 4:8)

CHORUS
The Lord gave the word, great was the company of the preachers. (Psalm 68:11)

AIR. (Soprano)
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. (Romans 10:15; Isaiah 52:7)

CHORUS
Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world. (Romans 10:18; Psalm 19:4)

AIR (Bass)
Why do the nations so furiously rage together, 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. (Psalm 2:1,2; Acts 4:25-26)

CHORUS
Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us. (Psalm 2:3)

RECITATIVE (Tenor)
He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in derision. (Psalm 2:4)

AIR (Tenor)
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. (Psalm 2:9)

CHORUS
Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah! (Revelation 19:6; 11:15; 19:16)

On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

John the Baptist was the messenger prophesied about in Malachi who would prepare people for the coming of the Lord. At this time he was baptizing people in the Jordan River who wanted to repent of their sin and rededicate themselves to God. In the religious life of ancient Israel the sacrificial lamb had played a prominent role in depicting God’s saving of His people from death and the taking away of sin. The prophet Isaiah had referred to a suffering servant who God would send who would die for the sin of many people, someone who would be “led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7, NIV). John identifies Jesus as this one.

He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness… (Isaiah 53:3) I offered my back to those who attacked, my jaws to those who tore out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)

Jesus, in His earthly ministry and His self-sacrifice on the cross, bore an uncanny resemblance to the suffering servant prophesied about in Isaiah. He was rejected by those He came to save. Because He was rejected, He was sacrificed. And because He was sacrificed, we were saved. He went into all this with His eyes wide open; He knowingly, willingly and intentionally carried out the mission given to Him by His heavenly Father.

But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well… (Isaiah 53:4,5)

He was wounded because of our wrongdoing, not His. His mission was to die for the sins of the world — to take on Himself the punishment meant for you and me.

…because of his wounds we have been healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

We who have put our faith in Jesus have been saved. Saved from what? Saved from anything and everything we need to be saved from.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6, ESV)

God laid on His Son the wrongdoing of all of us. Jesus — a man without sin — endured having the sins of the world being laid on Him.

All who see me taunt me; they mock me and shake their heads. They say, “Commit yourself to the LORD! Let the LORD rescue him! Let the LORD deliver him, for he delights in him.” (Psalm 22:7,8)

King David expressed his discouragement over the things he was suffering at the hands of his enemies as he wrote Psalm 22 a thousand years before Christ. What he wrote had prophetic significance; it applied even more to the taunts and insults Jesus endured for our sake.

Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. (Psalm 69:20, ESV)

Like David, Jesus endured scorn and humiliation. And like David, He accepted it as a price to be paid in His service to God the Father.

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.” (Lamentations 1:12 ESV)

Here is a passage from the Old Testament referring to the plight of Jerusalem following its conquest by the Babylonians. In a way, it foreshadows what Jesus had to go through. Was there any suffering like His suffering?

He was led away after an unjust trial — but who even cared? Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the rebellion of his own people he was wounded. (Isaiah 53:8)

Jesus was given a sentence He did not deserve so that we could be spared from what we do deserve.

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. (Psalm 16:10, ESV)

Peter and Paul both referred to this passage in their preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ (see Acts 2 and 13), saying that David was not talking about himself but was speaking prophetically about Jesus. God the Father did not leave Him in the grave (“Sheol”) to decay, but instead raised Him from the dead!

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! (Psalm 24:7-10, ESV)

The words of this psalm by David may have been used in the ceremonies accompanying the bringing of the ark of the LORD into Jerusalem and, later, into the temple constructed by Solomon. They foreshadow the triumph and entry into heaven of Christ following His resurrection. And they have a significance for each of us today, alluded to by the Christian rock band Petra in a song they recorded years ago, “The King Of Glory Shall Come In”. The last verse of it says:

Now we are the temple, He dwells in our hearts
The priesthood of faith that His Spirit imparts
This King is the One who can save from sin
He stands at the door and He wants to come in

For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? (Hebrews 1:5, ESV)

In these last days God has spoken to us through Christ, who is the radiance of and the very image of God. Through Christ the universe was made, and He sustains all things by His powerful word. He Himself provided purification for sins and then sat down at the right hand of God. Therefore we should not think that we can pay lip service to God and ignore His Son, the Christ. We should not revere God, or revere angels, and not revere the Christ. The writer of Hebrews made it clear that Christ has “become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs” (Hebrews 1:4, ESV). He then quoted Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7 to prove his point.

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6, ESV)

The quotation is taken from Deuteronomy 32:43. The angels are to worship the Son; it cannot be otherwise since angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14).

You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there. (Psalm 68:18, ESV)

Psalm 68 emphasizes the greatness of God’s power and compassion and His worthiness to be praised. The apostle Paul, in Ephesians, quoted this scripture as he discussed the ascension of Christ and the bestowing of spiritual gifts on those who will believe.

The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host… (Psalm 68:11, ESV)

Great is the company of those who proclaim how the Lord has triumphed over His enemies and scattered His foes.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7, NIV)

Isaiah prophesied about how the Jews would someday be restored to their native land after being taken into captivity, and how wonderful that would be. Centuries later, Paul quoted this scripture to emphasize how amazing is salvation through Jesus Christ — and how beautiful are the feet of those who bear the message of that salvation.

Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world… (Psalm 19:4, ESV)

God’s glory has been revealed throughout the earth, and the good news — of His kingdom and of the forgiveness of sins through faith in His Son — has gone out and is going out to the ends of the world.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. (Psalm 2:1-2, NIV)

Why does this world tend to rebel against God? This was a question being asked in David’s time. The phrase “anointed one” (Hebrew masiah) probably originally referred to the Davidic king. As none of the kings of Judah (not even David) ever came close to meeting the description of this ‘anointed one’ found in Psalm 2, and especially after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians and the end of the Davidic monarchy, Psalm 2 and others like it came to be seen more and more as referring to the Messiah, the promised Savior. The early church in Jerusalem quoted this scripture as they prayed to God to sustain them through the persecution they were experiencing at the hands of the religious authorities (see Acts 4). They knew God was doing amazing things through them, which must have made the world’s hostility to the message of Jesus seem that much more incredible. Jesus, the Lord’s Anointed One, seems to usually bring about a strong reaction from people, whether positive or negative. He is a polarizing figure, and the world, generally speaking, tends to resist Him, to oppose Him. “He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:10-11) There is a foreshadowing here of something discussed in Revelation — how, when Jesus returns, He will not be welcomed by the world, its governments and its people as a liberator, but will rather be treated as an intruder to be resisted (see Revelation 19 and 20).

They say, “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! Let’s free ourselves from their ropes!” (Psalm 2:3)

This verse reflects the view prevalent in this world that living in obedience and submission to God is an intolerable imposition, and it expresses the desire we tend to have to be free of God and His Word. We are so unknowing — or self-deceived — as to think we can live without either.

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2:4, ESV)

Those who decide to oppose the kingdom of God have set for themselves a ridiculously hopeless task, and God scoffs at them.

“You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalm 2:9, ESV)

This is God speaking to His Annointed One. Resistance to the kingdom of God will be swept away, and Christ will ultimately be both the real and the universally acknowledged ruler of this world.

Then I heard what sounded like the voice of a vast throng, like the roar of many waters and like loud crashes of thunder. They were shouting: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the All-Powerful, reigns!” (Revelation 19:6) Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15) He has a name written on his clothing and on his thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Revelation 19:16)

These are things seen and heard by John in a vision revealed to him by God. This revelation shows — at the time of Jesus’ return to earth — heaven resounding with countless voices praising the Father and the Son and celebrating the fact that the triumph of good over evil is finally consummated and that the One who is Ruler over all is at last showing His full power and taking back the world that He made.

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