In July 1741, a devout Protestant bachelor named Charles Jennens (1700\u20131773) sent one of the greatest musicians of the day a libretto for another oratorio.[1]<\/a> Jennens had written texts for oratorios before, but this one would be different.[2]<\/a> In a day when Jennens saw Enlightenment thinking outside of the church and the influence of Deism within the church undermining the truth of Scripture and the necessity of a personal Savior, he wanted both to persuade the skeptic and to assure the believer about the truth and beauty of Christ.[3]<\/a> He hoped George Frideric Handel, who shared Jennens\u2019s faith and had already written some forty operas, would help.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jennens offered the libretto to Handel as gift and took no payment, hoping the finished musical work would direct people to the greatest Gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Handel\u2019s finest oratorio, the one that fills concert halls everywhere at Christmas, is every bit Jennens\u2019s Messiah<\/em> as Handel\u2019s, and even more so. Handel himself referred to the finished musical masterpiece about Christ\u2019s work as \u201cYour<\/em> (Jennens\u2019s) Messiah<\/em>.\u201d[5]<\/a> Together, they composed a masterpiece that made the truth about the Messiah beautiful so as to make him delightful. The loveliness of the music helps see the loveliness of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No section of Messiah<\/em> showcases the love of Christ in his suffering for sinners more clearly than Part II: I. Christ\u2019s Passion, Scourging, and Crucifixion (Scenes 22\u201330) and II. Christ\u2019s Death and Resurrection (Scenes 31\u201332).[6]<\/a> While most modern performances of Messiah take place during Christmastime, hearing Messiah<\/em> during Christmas would have been unfamiliar to Jennens and Handel. They wrote Messiah<\/em> for performances during Lent and Easter, that time of year when Christians round the world remember the vicarious death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in the place of sinners.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jennens opens Part II of Messiah <\/em>the same way he opened the entire oratorio, with a word from John the Baptist. The opening voice of Part I comes with John the Baptist\u2019s cry, voiced through a tenor aria, to comfort the Lord\u2019s people (Isa. 40:1\u20134). Handel had preceded the Baptist\u2019s cry with an opening French overture whose stately rhythm could announce the entrance of a king.[8]<\/a> The surprise as Messiah<\/em> unfolds is just what kind of king the Messiah would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Handel opens Part II of Messiah<\/em>, like Part I, with another French-styled piece, yet this time he employs a minor key and a chorus. [9]<\/a> Handel is matching Jennens\u2019s text, hinting at the kind of king to come. The music of Part II, as with Part I, also opens with a cry of John the Baptist. The fugal chorus takes up his words singing somberly, \u201cBehold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world\u201d (John 1:29 KJV). Following the call to \u201cBehold, the Lamb,\u201d one song after another holds up a picture of Christ\u2019s anguished suffering from Isaiah 53 (Scenes 22\u201331).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slashing strings sound like lashes<\/a> across the Savior\u2019s back. \u201cDotted rhythms in the opening chorus \u2018Behold the Lamb of God,\u2019 in the second section of the great alto aria \u2018He was despised\u2019 and in \u2018Surely He hath borne our griefs\u2019 evoke jagged extremes of pain and suffering.\u201d[10]<\/a> This is not the king we expected to behold, whose entrance Handel had announced with the opening royal overture<\/a> of Part I. Nor is it the outcome we expect of the babe lying in a manger at Christmas.[11]<\/a> But here we arrive at the heart of the Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em>, compositionally and thematically. We arrive at the heart of God\u2019s Messiah, too. His throne lies not on a bed of straw or in a palace, but on a tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the opening chorus \u201cBehold, the Lamb\u201d in Part II, Handel writes to make us behold Christ for over ten minutes. We see him \u201cdespised and rejected \u2026 [giving] his back to the smiters\u201d in the alto\u2019s aria<\/a> (Scene 23,Isa. 53:3; 50:6). Here Handel gives us the longest piece of music in the entire oratorio. He will not let us look away. Moreover, with every song after the choruses call to \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God,\u201d Handel moves farther away from the opening key of Part II (G minor). Adding flats to every successive song<\/a>, Handel musically descends deeper and deeper into the darkness of Christ\u2019s suffering, taking the listener all the way down with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After four songs<\/a> of beholding the Messiah from Isaiah 53 (\u201cHe was despised\u201d; \u201cSurely he hath borne our griefs\u201d; \u201cAnd with his stripes we are healed\u201d; \u201cAll we like sheep\u201d), we expect a textual response and resolution. But at this very moment, Jennens and Handel take an unexpected turn. Textually, Jennens suddenly transports us from Isaiah 53 to Psalm 22; musically, Handel adds more flats again<\/a> to another minor key taking us to the very bottom of the opening scene.[12]<\/a> Now, instead of reverence at scenes just witnessed, a tenor voice breaks in with an irreverent, unexpected response: \u201cAll they that see him, laugh him to scorn\u201d (Ps. 22:7). Musically and textually, we have come to a jarring and unexpected outcome. By placing Psalm 22 right after Isaiah 53, Jennens has made Isaiah\u2019s suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53) into the forsaken Davidic Messiah (Psalm 22). We expected resolution but are met with rejection. People are not embracing God\u2019s suffering Messiah; they are taunting him.[13]<\/a> Handel\u2019s music matches the mood<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Handel has followed Christ downward into the darkness of grief. He and Jennens have now taken us into darkest pit of the Bible, Psalm 22. We have arrived at hell on earth. \u201cMy God, my God,\u201d an orphaned cry erupts\u2014\u201cWhy hast thou forsaken me?\u201d (Ps. 22:1). The accent falls on that last word. It’s God Messiah King, screaming in the dark. Merry Christmas. It’s the carol of the King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as the opening scenes in Part II of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> about a suffering Messiah clash with the opening scenes in Part I about a sovereign Messiah, so the suffering King in Psalm 22 clashes with the sovereign King in Psalm 2. The Psalter opens with its own overture in Psalm 2 with a reprisal of the Davidic covenant from 2 Samuel 7: God has set his holy Messiah-King on high in Zion and given him the nations as his inheritance (Ps. 2:6, 8). All shall be well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet after the royal Davidic overture decrescendos to silence in Psalm 2, Book I of the Psalter (Pss. 3\u201341) generally shows, starting immediately with Psalm 3, God\u2019s Messiah-King harried, in deep distress. Right in the middle of Book I (Pss. 3\u201342), with nineteen psalms on either side (Pss. 3\u201321 and 23\u201342), sits Psalm 22. We have gone from Mt. Zion in Psalm 2 to Mt. Calvary in Psalm 22. The dissonance between the expected Messiah of Psalm 2 and the executed Messiah of Psalm 22 is deafening. \u201cSilent night, Holy night.\u201d The \u201cSon of God, Loves pure light,\u201d lies not in a cr\u00e8che but on a cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Psalm 22 is a Psalm of David, God\u2019s promised Messiah-King. But if Psalm 22 opens with God\u2019s King bereft of God, then what of God\u2019s people? If a song opens with God forsaking his King, it means that God must be forsaking his people as well. The bloodcurdling cry of God\u2019s King, \u201cMy God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?\u201d (Ps. 22:1) calls into the question the very love of God, as prophets throughout the Old Testament described God as \u201csteadfast\u201d (Exod. 34:6\u20137). An absent God means abandoned promises. And lost promises mean lost love. God has left the building and left no forwarding address. But it gets worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Psalm 22 is a \u201cPsalm of David,\u201d the superscription explains. The New Testament writers leave no doubt that this song of Psalm 22 is not about David at all, but about great David\u2019s greater Son. This is the carol of the King. A carol of Jesus, the King. Alec Motyer explains that \u201cthis Psalm goes beyond any experience of David\u2019s. While it could arise from sometime of suffering, it goes far beyond such to torture and death. We are listening to David the prophet (Acts 2:30) looking forward to the suffering Messiah.\u201d[14]<\/a> The New Testament writers quote Psalm 22 directly no fewer than four times, with twenty more possible allusions.[15]<\/a> The preacher of Hebrews puts the words of Psalm 22 directly into the mouth of Christ, boldly declaring that Psalm 22 is what \u201che [Jesus] says\u201d (Ps. 22:22 \/\/ Heb 2:12 NIV). [16]<\/a> Psalm 22 truly is a carol of the King.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Charles Jennens affixed a Latin phrase from Virgil at the top of Messiah<\/em>\u2019stitle page. The phrase read Majora Canamus<\/em>, meaning \u201cLet us sing of greater things.\u201d Jennens was calling all to sing of things greater than anything in this world and to see greater things in the Bible than we could ever imagine, Christ himself. \u201cDid not our hearts burn with us?\u201d Jennens hoped listeners would say (Luke 24:32). In the same way, Majora Canamus<\/em> sits across the top of Psalm 22, \u201cLet us sing of greater things (than David).\u201d The great British Baptist pastor, Charles Spurgeon explains<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Psalm 22] is the photograph of our Lord\u2019s saddest hours, the record of his dying words, the lachrymatory of his last tears, the memorial of his expiring joys. David and his afflictions may be here in a very modified sense, but, as the star is concealed by the light of the sun, he who sees Jesus will probably neither see nor care to see David<\/em> (italics added).[18]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In the voice of David, we see sufferings of Christ. The gospel writers apply Psalm 22 directly to the passion of Christ (\u039catt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; John 19:24). Indeed, as Bruce Waltke highlights, \u201cNo psalm is quoted more in the gospels than Psalm 22, . . . it shaped the Passion Narratives of the Synoptic[s].\u201d[19]<\/a> The gospel writers show us what Messiah was suffering, and when they quote Psalm 22, they also show us what he was thinking. As his body twisted in agony, his soul twisted, too. The little Lord Jesus may have been asleep on the hay, but his soul seared with pain, fastened to a tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the first half of Psalm 22, the Son of David stretches his arms across a wooden beam and sings an aria of searing separation (Ps. 22:1\u201321a). As the Lord \u201claid on him the iniquity of us all\u201d (Isa. 53:6), the cosmic horror set in on the Savior\u2019s soul \u201cMy God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,\u201d he screams into the night (Ps. 22:1 KJV). Matthew records the groan; it is Christ\u2019s fourth word from the cross (\u039catt. 27:46). What a way for the King\u2019s carol to sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The anguish of abandonment (Ps. 22:1\u20135) turns into the anguish of personal attack (Ps. 22:5\u201313). Abandon by God, he is now mocked by men, men more like savage beasts than noble human beings. It is here in Psalm 22, as Christ descends into the darkness of bearing the sins of the world, that Handel captures the drama. First, a tenor mockingly declares<\/a>, \u201cAll they that see him laugh him to scorn; they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads\u201d (Ps. 22:7 \/\/ Matt. 27:39). Handel elevates the word \u201claugh\u201d in the music, capturing the mocking tone of those around the cross and allowing the tenor soloist to sing the word sounding like derisive laughter. The \u201cscourging rhythm<\/a> [from the preceding pieces] of \u2018He gave his back to the smiters\u2019 and \u2018Surely he hath born our griefs\u2019\u201d returns.[20]<\/a> Handel\u2019s music paints a scene telling us that they shredded his soul with their words just as they had shredded his body with their whips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the tenor\u2019s angry recitative is but prologue for a second round of mockery. Imitating the mocking mood of Psalm 22:8, Handel summons a large fugal chorus<\/a> to heighten the anguish of Christ\u2019s personal attack and deepen the venomed mockery of the crowd. They gather at Christ\u2019s feet as he is suspended in the air. They hiss<\/a>, \u201cHe trusted in God that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, if he delights in him\u201d (Ps. 22:8 \/\/ Matt 27:43).[21]<\/a> Like drunken men in a pub, the choristers pass along their mocking chant, \u201cHe trusted in God. . . . Let him deliver him,\u201d from one voice part to the next. Handel sets the word \u201cdelight\u201d onto the lips of choristers in melismatic runs<\/a>, notes rapidly moving and up down, so that the word \u201cdelight\u201d sounds like derisive laughter. We are now far away from the \u201cGlories to the newborn King\u201d sung at his cradle. There is only jeering, searing laughter here. But more than merry mockery is happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roger Bullard points out that \u201cthis is a temptation scene, the third and last of the temptations of Jesus.\u201d[22]<\/a> Bullard explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first is immediately after his baptism, when Satan challenges him to turn stones into bread, and do other things which would gain him a large messianic following. But that is not to be the way of God\u2019s anointed one (Matt. 4:1\u201322; Luke 4:1\u201313). The second is midway through Jesus\u2019s ministry, when he withdraws from the country with his disciples and asks them who they think he is. Peter confesses him\u2014for the first time in Mark\u2019s gospel\u2014as the Messiah. It is at this point that Jesus first tells his disciples of impending suffering, and he does so plainly. Whereupon Peter rebukes Jesus: this cannot be\u2014the Messiah does not suffer. Jesus responds to Peter with the same words, which in Matthew he addresses to Satan: \u201cGet behind me, Satan!\u201d (Matt. 8:29\u201333). The way of Messiahship is to be a way of suffering. Now, on the cross taunted by those who believe that his dereliction is an obvious sign that he is no Messiah, no Son of God, Jesus keeps his silence.[23]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n But what dramatic irony. Jesus was not only \u201cLord at his birth\u201d as the words of \u201cSilent Night\u201d proclaim; he is also Lord at his death. This is the Lenten carol of the King reigning from the cross. For in his silent response to their demonic temptation, he proves himself to be the Lamb of God \u201cwho opened not his mouth,\u201d to \u201ctaketh away the sin of the world\u201d (Isa. 53:7; John 1:29).<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then the anguish of abandonment and personal attack land Christ in \u201cthe dust of death\u201d (Ps. 22:14\u201321). Centuries before crucifixion existed, we see a vivid view of Christ\u2019s crucifixion in real time. Christ groans from the cross as they bore holes into his hands and feet.[24]<\/a> He slides down the cross in exhaustion pulling bones out of joint, and his tongue shrivels like a prune and sticks to the side of his jaw. It is now a total eclipse. All is not calm, but all is dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14 All my bones are out of joint; 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, 16 For dogs encompass me; 17 I can count all my bones\u2014 18 They divide my garments among them, As Psalm 22:18 ends, the gospel writers apply Psalm 22 to Christ\u2019s crucifixion one final time (John 19:24). They have taken everything from Christ, his strength, his reputation, and now his clothing. He came into this world naked; he would depart the same way. This is the carol of the naked King, an aria of agony (Ps. 22:1\u201321a).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then in a eucatastrophic moment, the King changes his tune right in the middle of Psalm 22:21. He moves from searing suffering in Psalm 22:1\u201321a to sudden deliverance in Psalm 22:21b\u201331. The executed Christ becomes the exalted Christ. The aria of agony has modulated up to an aria of ascension. In a sudden turn, in the middle of a line, he changes his tune, \u201cYou have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you\u201d (Ps. 22:21b\u201331). The feasts of merry old Mr. Fezziwig in Dickens\u2019s A Christmas Carol<\/em> have nothing on the feasts of Christ, the ascended king of Psalm 22:21b\u201331. The risen Christ shall see to it that \u201cthe afflicted eat and are satisfied\u201d; \u201cthat all the families of the earth shall . . . turn to the Lord, and all . . . the nations shall worship,\u201d and \u201cthey shall . . . proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it\u201d (Ps. 22:26\u201327, 31). The carol of the King has become the carol of the redeemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Christ has saved one last surprise in his aria as the King. The cross looked like an inglorious defeat, but in his death Christ took up the final words of Psalm 22 and declared victory: \u201cIt is done (finished)\u201d (Ps. 22:31 \/\/ John 19:30). The carol of the anguished King has now become the carol of the ascended King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The anguished aria of searing separation in Psalm 22:1\u201321a modulates to one of sudden deliverance in Psalms 22:21b\u201331, not only for Christ, but for all, who like the shepherds and wise men at Christmas, adore this King. The writer of Hebrews, quoting Psalm 22:22, tells us that Christ identified with our humanity in his incarnation at Christmas, identified with our sin in his atoning death on Good Friday, and achieved our victory over sin and death in his resurrection at Easter. And now the carol of the King becomes the carol of redeemed. Having passed through the darkness of death and out the other side, he stands amid his people and sings praises so that his carol might become ours (Heb. 2:12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christmas is a time for caroling. In this carol of the King, Christ sings the loudest among his brothers, bringing great favor on those whom his favor rests (Heb. 2:12; Luke 2:14). The Messiah\u2019s suffering was for us. He changes our suffering from a fermata of death to a measure of rest in this life that modulates to eternal rest in the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, sing into the dark, even at Christmas. Christ not only sympathizes with our sorrows; he also transforms them. He suffered finally, so that we will not finally suffer. What the venomous voices of the crowds meant for evil\u2014Let him trust God to deliver him\u2014God was working for good. \u201cHallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth!\u201d Handel taught us to sing. The carol of the King has become the carol of redeemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sculptured monument adorns Handel\u2019s grave at Poets\u2019 Corner, Westminster Abbey. Handel had set aside 600 pounds to cover any funeral costs, which would have included his gravestone. At his tomb in Westminster, Handel\u2019s sculpture stands holding a music score opened to a page from Messiah<\/em>. The notes reveal a song that echoed Handel\u2019s own personal hope: \u201cI know that my redeemer liveth\u201d (Job 19:25 KJV). His life, like the motto adorning the title page of Messiah<\/em>\u2014Majora Canamus<\/em>\u2014had sung of greater things indeed. The Messiah of Psalm 22, far greater than Handel, invites us to take up his song and make it our own. \u201cYou who fear the Lord,\u201d he says in Psalm 22, \u201cPraise him!\u201d \u201cYou, your children, and generations to come.\u201d Merry Christmas. And Majora Canamus<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you hear that sound? It’s God’s Messiah King, screaming in the dark. Merry Christmas. It’s the carol of the King.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Do you hear that sound? It's God's Messiah King, screaming in the dark. Merry Christmas. It's the carol of the King.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[32,12,1814,38],"tags":[823,187,662,1460,714,1074,257,326,1515,1693],"scripture-reference":[],"post_folder":[],"ppma_author":[1962],"class_list":["post-17365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-concise","category-december-2024","category-theme","tag-christ","tag-christmas","tag-easter","tag-handels-messiah","tag-king-jesus","tag-kingdom","tag-messiah","tag-music","tag-sing","tag-suffering-servant"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/baugham-article-scaled-e1734558602258.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-01-13 11:52:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"authors":[{"term_id":1962,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"brad-baugham","display_name":"Brad Baugham","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Baugham-author-e1734561258907.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Baugham-author-e1734561258907.jpg"},"author_category":"","job_title":"","church_city_state":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","church_site":"","user_url":"","description":"Brad Baugham is the senior pastor of Emmanuel Bible Church, Mauldin, South Carolina, which he planted nineteen years ago. He received his DMin from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he wrote on the implications of the canonical shape of the Psalter for hermeneutics. Dr. Baugham has published articles in the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology<\/i>, and he also serves as a small group facilitator for Charles Simeon Trust Preaching workshops. In addition to pastoral and academic work, Dr. Baugham is a classically trained tenor who has enjoyed singing supporting roles in opera, solos in choral masterworks, and participating in numerous choirs. SDG.\r\n"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17365"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18065,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17365\/revisions\/18065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17365"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-reference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-reference?post=17365"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=17365"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=17365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. For background on the often overlooked philanthropist and polymath Charles Jennens, in particular his devout faith and \u201crole as a champion of Christianity,\u201d see Ruth Smith, \u201cThe Achievements of Charles Jennens (1700-1773),\u201d Music & Letters<\/em> 70.2 (1989): 161\u2013190; Ruth Smith, \u201cOnline Talk | Charles Jennens: The Man Behind Handel\u2019s Messiah,\u201d FoundlingMuseum<\/em>, 13 July 2022, https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/3zdb2jdm.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
2. \u201cJennens was the only Handel librettist to cast the defense of Christianity itself as an oratorio. He set out precisely those essentials of Christianity that were being attacked [in his day]: the Old Testament prophecies of Christ\u2019s birth, life and death; His chief miracles\u2014His incarnation, resurrection and ascension; His redemption of mankind; apostolic authority; and the primacy of Christianity among the world’s religions.\u201d Smith, \u201cThe Achievements of Charles Jennens (1700-1773),\u201d 182.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
3. Calvin Stapert\u2019s explanation of Deism helps demonstrate the apologetic and evangelistic reasons why Charles Jennens wrote the libretto for Messiah<\/em>: \u201cDeism was fundamentally at odds with Christian beliefs that humans are basically sinful, that they are incapable of saving themselves, and therefore that they need a savior. In other words, Deists did not believe in the need for a Messiah. Messiah<\/em> was born into this world of growing threat to the church.\u201d Calvin R. Stapert, Handel\u2019s Messiah: Comfort for God\u2019s People<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 75.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
4. Jonathan Keats, a Handel biographer, speaks of Handel\u2019s devout and storied Protestant faith, noting that \u201cthere is not the slightest evidence that Handel ever swerved from the Protestant Christianity in which he had been brought up. His forebears, who included Lutheran pastors [Handel\u2019s mother was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor], were noted as having suffered during the Thirty Years War for their adherence to \u2018the pure evangelical truth,\u2019 and he remained constant to the beliefs his family had instilled within him.\u201d Jonathan Keates, Messiah: The Composition and Afterlife of Handel\u2019s Masterpiece<\/em> (New York: Basic Books, 2017), 119.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
5. Donald Burrows, Handel: Messiah<\/em>, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 15.<\/h6>\n\n\n\nA Carol of The King: Psalm 22<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. This labeling follows Jennens\u2019s own authoritative layout given for the London performance in 1743. Burrows, Handel<\/em>, 57\u201358.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
7. At Handel\u2019s death bed, \u201cDr. Warren, who attended Handel in his last sickness, . . . remembers his dying . . . that he had most seriously and devoutly wished, for several days before his death, that he might breathe his last on Good-Friday<\/em>, \u2018in hopes,\u2019 he said, \u2018of meeting his Good God, his sweet Lord and Savior, on the day of his resurrection,\u2019 meaning the third day, or the Easter Sunday following\u201d (italics original).\u201d Charles Burney, An Account of the Musical Performances in Westminster-Abbey, and the Pantheon<\/em>. (London, 1785), 31. For an online edition see, https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/3spsrkar<\/a>.<\/h6>\n\n\n\nThe Context of Psalm 22 in Messiah<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. Stapert, Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em>, 88\u201389.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
9. Burrows, Handel<\/em>, 63.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
10. Keates, Messiah<\/em>, 80.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
11. The Baroque Spanish painter Bartolom\u00e9 Esteban Murillo combined evocative images of Christ\u2019s birth, crucifixion, and resurrection in a striking portrait called \u201cThe Infant Christ Asleep on the Cross\u201d (c. 1670). Charles Jennens had this painting in his personal art collection. It can be seen now at Sheffield Museums<\/a>.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n12. Handel opens Part II with the \u201cBehold, the Lamb of God\u201d chorus in G minor (Scene 22). By the time he arrives at the tenor recitative in \u201cAll they that see him\u201d (Ps. 22:7), he has moved to B-flat minor (Scene 27). In five scenes, Handel has \u201cdescended\u201d from two flats in G minor to five flats in B-flat minor. The complete movement from the opening of Part II, Scenes 22\u201427, runs G minor \u2014 E-flat major \u2014 F minor \u2014 F minor \u2014 F major (ending in F minor) \u2014 B-flat minor. Even the tryptic of choruses in the key of F (Scenes 24\u201326) provide a sustained meditation before a \u201cdownward\u201d key change to B-flat minor when a tenor solo breaks in<\/a>. Chris Enloe (MM in Composition from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and current DMA candidate) provided valuable input for this note. Any error in explanation remains the writers, however.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
13. As Tozer observed, \u201cSelf can live unrebuked at the very altar. It can watch the bleeding victim die and not be in the least affected by what it sees.\u201d A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God<\/em>, (2014), 46.<\/h6>\n\n\n\nThe Messiah of Psalm 22 in Messiah<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
14. Alec Motyer, Psalms by the Day: A New Devotional Translation<\/em> (Christian Focus, 2016), 57. Waltke sees Psalm 22 as \u201ctypico-prophetic, in which David\u2019s trials and triumphs typify Christ, yet David\u2019s exaggerated language rises above his own experiences and finds fulfillment in Jesus Christ.\u201d Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 895. J. Barton Payne argues that \u201cPsalm 22 is unique because it is the only psalm in which David was so completely overshadowed by the Holy Spirit that all of its words became in fact, the words of Christ.\u201d J. Barton Payne, The Theology of the Older Testament<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1962), 253.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
15. The Greek New Testament<\/em> editors indicate twenty-four references to Psalm 22: four direct quotations (\u039catt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; John 19:24; Heb. 2:12) and twenty allusions. Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, The Greek New Testament<\/em>, 4th<\/sup> rev. ed. (New York: United Bible Society, 1994) 887, 895.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
16. James Mays adds that when the gospel writers highlight that the first words of Psalm 22 are the words of Christ, they mean for readers to read all of Psalm 22 in light of Christ, as \u201cciting the first words of a text was \u2026 a way of identifying an entire passage.\u201d James L. Mays, \u201cPrayer and Christology: Psalm 22 as Perspective on the Passion,\u201d Theology Today<\/em> 42.3 (1985): 322.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
17. Waltke and Houston explain that \u201crarely have commentators been condemned for heresy on the basis of their interpretation of psalms,\u201d but that is what happened at the fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople: \u201cAs a test case of orthodoxy (i.e., that the Psalm refers to Christ), Theodore of Mopsuestia\u2019s exposition of Psalm 22 was used to condemn him of heresy. . . . [P]art of the case against Theodore of Mopsuestia at the fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 553 was his commentary on Psalm 22.\u201d Bruce K. Waltke and James M. Houston, The Psalms as Christian Worship: An Historical Commentary<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 383.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n\n
18. C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Volume 1: Psalms 1\u201357<\/em> (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988), 324.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
19. Waltke and Houston, The Psalms as Christian Worship<\/em>, 377.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
20. Stapert, Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em>, 116.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n21. See the See \u201cThe Text, Grammar and Participants of Ps 22:9<\/a>\u201d Psalms: Layer by Layer to see the textual difficulties with Psalm 22:8[9]. One might translate the verses as a mocking command to \u201cCommit your way to God,\u201d rather than as simple declaration: \u201cHe trusted in God.\u201d Either way, the point remains largely the same, though the temptation of Christ during this moment is stronger if one takes the verse as a command.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
22. Roger A. Bullard, Messiah: The Gospel According to Handel\u2019s Oratorio<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 83.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n\n
23. Bullard, Messiah<\/em>, 83.<\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
24. See \u201cExegetical Issues: The Text of Psalm 22:17b<\/a>\u201d Psalms: Layer by Layer.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\n
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
they stare and gloat over me;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and for my clothing they cast lots (Ps. 22:14\u201318 ESV).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nPostlude: Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> and The Messiah of Psalm 22<\/h2>\n\n\n\n