What Should We Do About Singing “Alleluia” During Lent?
The hymn, "Hallelujah! What a Savior" (United Methodist Hymnal, 165), is an excellent example of this tempering of the Lenten penitential spirit with joyful expectation of resurrection. The first four stanzas explore some aspect of Christ's passion, ending with "Hallelujah! What a Savior!" Hymnal editor Carlton Young recommends "each statement about Christ's passion may be sung slowly with deep devotion, followed ad lib with a rousing 'Hallelujah! What a Savior!'"
Some may be tempted to omit stanza five and its theme of Christ's second coming at the final resurrection, but I recommend against it. It may have been the presence of "Hallelujah!" in this hymn that caused the hymnal committee to include it in the "In Praise of Christ" section of the hymnal rather than the "Passion and Death" section where we find most of our Lenten hymns.
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