Isaiah’s message was not that the ransomed of the LORD were to be whisked off to heaven. They were going to return to Zion with everlasting joy. Jesus’ first ministry on earth was a foretaste of the kind of restoration and revival proclaimed here. God will come in vengeance, visiting his recompense (4), then the highway will be there, and the ransomed will return, with singing. We will see this event.
LORD, come and restore.
Lammdeni – Teach me. The psalmist repeats that plea eleven times in this psalm – seven times in this section. He is convinced that there is a purpose for life, but that he will not learn that purpose by accident. The secret to life lies in the words of God. He has made his choice. He has chosen to center his life around the revealed truth of the holy scriptures. Those who make such a choice will not be disappointed.
LORD, teach us!
God has a plan for Assyria and Edom. It is destruction and then emptiness. The image of an unquenched fire, with smoke going up forever – leads to the resulting image of confusion and emptiness (34:10-11). The New Testament used the same images to refer to Gehenna, the final destruction of the wicked (Revelation 14:11; 19:3). The point of both references is that the destruction will continue until there is nothing left to destroy. Assyria and Edom are no more. Some day all of God’s enemies will be no more. The words “confusion” and “emptiness” are the words Moses used to describe the earth before God filled it with created things (Genesis 1:2). Hell will render the earth without form, and void, so that God can recreate it.
LORD, we trust in the righteousness of your judgment.
What day should we be rejoicing over? The popular chorus has us rejoicing merely because it is today. To me, that is just taking words out of their context. The text appears to give us two other options. Either we should rejoice in the day of rescue, or rejoice in the festival day when the rescue is remembered. Either way, the rejoicing is not just a party looking for a place to happen. It is a call to celebrate grace. The day of grace is the day that the LORD has made. Jesus entering Jerusalem as its king was such a day. His atoning death on the cross is another. His soon return will be yet another. Those were rescues to celebrate.
LORD, we thank you for your past rescues, and your future return. We will celebrate that rescue.
The prophet’s words to his people predict a disaster that will befall the land, destroying the power of Assyria, and showing that Egypt cannot be relied on for help either. After the disaster comes, peace will once again come to the land when the Messiah, a teacher brings it. The prophet reminds us to look for God’s solution, not man’s. Human political power will not accomplish God’s will for us. Only the Messiah will bring restoration and peace.
LORD, we trust you, and look for your solution.
We live in a world where everything changes, so drastically and quickly that our visions of the future cannot keep up. Is there anything that is constant? Yes, says the psalmist. The steadfast love of the LORD toward us. That faithfulness is our foundation, an oasis of consistency in an ever changing world.
The people would not inquire of the LORD nor listen to his prophet. Their worldview was upside down. They were God’s creation, yet they regarded him as the thing created. Listen, secular humanists and Marxists! They were made by God’s wisdom, yet they thought they could outwit him. Listen, New Age practitioners and Animists!
LORD, help us, your people — to keep our orientation correct — to always submit to you as our creator.
The psalmist reflects on his past difficulties – how he prayed for God to rescue him from death, and God responded and did just that. He concludes that to the LORD, the death of his saints is precious. He meant the same thing as if he had said their lives are precious. God knows that we all die, but he will not allow those deaths to happen for no reason. He values us, and so he takes seriously our pleas for life and rescue. Perhaps you have had some near misses, where you have escaped what appeared to be certain death. That was the providence of your LORD. Give him glory.
LORD, thank you for being over our lives, and deaths.
The prophet predicted that the LORD was going to do a strange deed. “For (says Wesley) this work of bringing total destruction upon Israel, was contrary to the benignity of his own nature, and the usual way of dealing with his people.” The prophet likened it to plowing a field. He then assured the people that one does not plow a field continually. Eventually it will be sown, and a new harvest expected.
LORD, help us to trust you during the times when strange things happen. We know that they, too, will work together for our good.
God is there, and he is not silent, even though Israel’s enemies see him as non-existent because he is not represented by an idol. By making some noise — blessing and praising the LORD we can show that he is the sovereign of the heavens. This psalm encourages Israel to stop acting like dead people — who are asleep in silence awaiting resurrection day (17). Idol worshippers create gods who (like the dead) can make no noise (5, 7) and the idolaters eventually die and become silent like their idols (8).
LORD, today we resolve to make some noise — to show that we serve a God who is not silent, and cannot be silenced.
Isaiah 35
Psalm 119:1-88
Isaiah 33-34
Psalm 118
Isaiah 30:18-32:20
Psalm 117
Isaiah 29:1-30:17
Psalm 116
Isaiah 28
