Ira Sankey, a good friend of Philip Bliss, the author of this hymn, wrote this about Bliss’ text: “It is said that the word ‘Hallelujah’ is the same in all languages . It seems as though God had prepared it for the great jubilee of heaven, when all His children shall have been gathered home to sing ‘Hallelujah to the Lamb!’"(Sankey, My Life and Sacred Songs). Laura de Jong reflects on this general idea with her own experience at Taizé, an ecumenical community in France: