CBN recently had an interesting story on the development of Handel’s Christmas masterpiece, Messiah, composed in 1741 that included the infamous Hallelujah chorus.

The words were written by Charles Jennens who had gathered together several scriptures, including many from the Old Testament (about 60% of the composition), that spoke of the coming Messiah.

Jennens, a committed Christian, had written it to counter deism that was growing in popularity at that time. Though Deism acknowledges a God who created the universe, it does not believe this God is personally involved in the affairs of humans and certainly did not believe Jesus was divine.

When he handed these words to George Frideric Handel, a German composer living in London, Jenner hoped Handel would create a masterpiece that would counter this growing movement.

Many believe that the great German composer was in a slump, because opera, which was Handel’s specialty, was becoming less popular.

But Mark Martin explains what happened next:

“It’s said that Handel never left his house during those three weeks, and a friend who visited discovered him sobbing with intense emotion,” Martin writes.

There was even a hint that Handel had an encounter with God as he composed the music.

“After he wrote the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus, Handel was quoted as saying, ‘I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself,’” Martin continued.

Martin adds this intriguing tidbit that Handel and Jenner even took the unusual approach of initially not performing the piece in churches but rather in theaters. The duo even used secular singers, including one renowned for her adulterous past, to reach the masses.

In a twist of irony, Jennens was at least initially not as enamored by Handel’s music as the rest of the world was and actually complained to a friend about Handel’s composition:

“I shall show you a collection I gave Handel, called Messiah, which I value highly. He has made a fine entertainment of it, though not near so good as he might and ought to have done. I have with great difficulty made him correct some of the grossest faults in the composition; but he retained his overture obstinately, in which there are some passages far unworthy of Handel, but much more unworthy of the Messiah.” — from Handel’s Messiah, by John Tobin/Wikipedia

Despite Jenner’s misgivings, the masterpiece swept London and the world, and still does today, as demonstrated by this flash mob presentation of the Hallelujah chorus with over 56 million views.