Leonard Cohen's iconic haunting masterpiece "Hallelujah" is easily in my pantheon of greatest songs of all-time. "Hallelujah" takes us on an emotional journey of love, despair, joy, suffering, regret, mourning, penance, and finding beauty and truth in brokenness. Both religious and secular, the lyrics are filled with references to The Old Testament. In Hebrew Hallelujah means "glory to the Lord" or to rejoice in praising God.
It's been said that the lyrics perhaps reflect Cohen's own struggle with faith. It's vague enough to be a lamentation on religion, a love song, a funeral dirge, and a celebration of God all at once. "Hallelujah" becomes a secular hymnal of love lost.
Cohen explained, “this world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can… reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah’.
The song explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”
I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
The song begins with mention of David, whose harp playing wards off evil from his predecessor to the throne King Saul- the first king of Israel and Judah.
In 1 Samuel 16:14-23 David comes to Saul's service:
"The Spirit of the Lord has left Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord was terrifying him. “It’s an evil spirit from God that’s frightening you,” Saul’s officials told him. “Your Majesty, let us go and look for someone who is good at playing the harp. He can play for you whenever the evil spirit from God bothers you, and you’ll feel better."
King David composed the Psalms which 'pleased the Lord'. Our narrator sings 'but you don't really care for music, do ya?' Alluding to his love interest not being impressed even by something that pleased the Lord.
“The minor fall, and the major lift” Is actually the chord progression in “Hallelujah”. So literally the minor chords fall, and the major chords lift. But this line is also a Biblical reference. The ‘minor fall’ references the fall of Adam and Eve. The ‘major lift’ references the crucifixion of Jesus.
Well, your faith was strong, but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to the kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
King David gives in to temptation when he spots the beautiful Bathsheba bathing from his balcony.
"One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her." - 2 Samuel 11
David commits adultery, and impregnates Bathsheba. King David tries to trick her husband Uriah- a soldier at war, into returning to give report, hoping he will sleep with his wife to cover up her pregnancy. Uriah refuses to leave as he is needed by his fellow soldiers. King David then has him moved to the front lines so he will be killed.
Bathsheba's child breaks King David's lineage on the throne. As their son Solomon takes the throne after David's passing.
This verse also references Delilah, Samson's tragic love who betrayed him by cutting his long hair- the source of his strength.
"Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” - Judges 16:4
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
"And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol." - Judges 13:25
This verse can be viewed as God the Father lamenting on how he and the Holy Spirit moved in David, but now David has shut him out from what is “going on below" as in on Earth, or shut out of his heart- what is going on below the surface. David is a man of God, but committing adultery with Bathsheba was a grave moral sin against God. David's strained relationship with God acts as a metaphor for the narrator's troubled relationship with his love interest.
Excerpt from Psalm 51- A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who has seen the Light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
All he's learned from love is being quicker at the draw- learning to shoot first. Too often in life we revert to building walls to protect ourselves, or to hurt others in retaliation for the hurt they caused us. A primitive concept, but all too human. He is aware that revenge or "shooting" first is not the answer, it's not morally right. It's a cold and broken Hallelujah...