In 24 days

George Frederic Handel composed the Messiah in twenty-four days.

By the time he wrote the Messiah, his once illustrious career composing opera and secular music in the mid 1700 England had screeched to a halt. Tastes were changing and opera audiences were dwindling. No one wanted to listen to the kind of music Handel wrote anymore. No one wanted Handel anymore. By 1741 he was swimming in debt. It seemed certain he would land in debtor’s prison. On April 8 of that year, he gave what he considered his farewell concert. Miserably discouraged, he felt forced to retire from public activities at the age of fifty-six.

Then two events converged to change his life. A wealthy friend, Charles Jensen, gave Handel a libretto based on the life of Christ, taken entirely from the Bible. He also received a request from a Dublin charity to compose a work for a benefit performance.

Handel set to work composing on August 22 in his little house on Brook Street in London. He grew so absorbed in the work that he did not leave his house once in the course of the writing. Not once. A friend who visited him as he composed found him sobbing with intense emotions as he worked. Later, as Handel groped for words to describe what he had experienced, he quoted St. Paul saying, “Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it I know not." Finally emerging after penning the final musical movement that would take its place in history as the Hallelujah Chorus, the composer, tears streaming down his face, cried to his servants, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!” ” Handel’s title for the commissioned work was simply, Messiah. It was completed in September 14, in 1741.

Twenty four days.

The Messiah is now firmly established in the standard repertoire. Its influence on the other composers would be extraordinary. When Haydn later heard the Hallelujah Chorus he wept like a child, and exclaimed, "He is the master of us all!" Beethoven once said: "Handel was the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head, and kneel before his tomb." King George III called Handel "the Shakespeare of Music." George Bernard Shaw commented that "Handel is not a mere composer in England: he is an institution. What is more, he is a sacred institution." Newman Flower observed, "Considering the immensity of the work, and the short time involved in putting it to paper, it will remain, perhaps forever, the greatest feat in the whole history of musical composition."

This work has had an uncanny spiritual impact on the lives of its listeners. One writer aptly declared that Messiah's music and message has probably done more to convince thousands of mankind that there is a God about us than all the theological works ever written.


I sang Handel's Messiah today. As part of a 60-voice choir with full orchestration, we gave two concerts to our community - morning and afternoon. More than 1000 people attended to hear this beloved sacred music emanate from humble voices, hearts, and nimble fingers on musical instruments.

The Messiah utterly broke me this morning. As we sang the Hallelujah Chorus, I was so moved that tears sprang and I was unable to continue for the remainder of the movement. Thankfully, I managed to get myself composed and finished the chorus with the rest of the choir. But after the last notes resonated, I broke down again. It took a prayerful hug from my dear mother-in-law (who sang alongside me in the choir) to cause the tears to subside. This music took ahold of my heart and infused it with the TRUTH of the LORD.

I stood there with newfound understanding of the truth I have always "known": that in God, all things are possible. My humble voice can be combined with others to produce a joyful noise and change hearts forever. Including my own. And that in a mere twenty-four days, a miraculous musical composition can be written which holds within its movements the capacity to impact the souls of human beings more than 250 years after it was created.

God is timeless. His mercy and love and never ending. I stand in awe of the artistry and music that Handel wrote in the Messiah, which succeeds in illustrating that truth, in beautiful longevity.

May we never forget to be thankful or underestimate the power of God to work through those who are willing. AMEN.

And it makes me ponder exactly what the heck I have done with the last twenty-four days in my life.

...but that is an update for a later blog...