Isaiah 42:10-17

b. SING A SONG OF PRAISE

TEXT: Isaiah 42:10-17

10

Sing unto Jehovah a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

11

Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

12

Let them give glory unto Jehovah, and declare his praise in the islands.

13

Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man; he will stir up his zeal like a man of war: he will cry, yea, he will shout aloud; he will do mightily against his enemies.

14

I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together.

15

I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

16

And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; in paths that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them.

17

They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, that trust in graven images, that say unto molten images, Ye are our gods.

QUERIES

a.

Who is to sing to Jehovah?

b.

Why a new song?

PARAPHRASE

Sing to Jehovah a new song appropriate to the new thing He will do. Sing His praises all over the whole earth. Let all who travel over the world by sea and every creature in the sea sing to Jehovah. Let all the coastlands around the sea, the islands, and all who inhabit them sing to the Lord. Let the inhabitants of the desert cities and villages of Arabia and Edom shout loud praises from their mountain tops. Let all the Gentiles in the far off western islands praise and glorify Jehovah as God. The reason the whole earth should sing and shout the praises of Jehovah is that Jehovah is going forth as a mighty warrior to win a decisive and complete victory over His enemies and all who oppose His redemptive work for man. Jehovah says He has held Himself in restraint against His enemies long enough. Now, like the great inhalations and expirations of a woman gasping in child-delivery, that which I have so long concealed in Myself shall be accomplished. I will make the land of My enemies a waste land; its hills and mountains I will level; its vegetation I will kill with drought; I will dry up its rivers and pools until they are dry land. I am going to devastate My enemies. The ones My enemies have captured and made blind I will deliver by a deliverance known only to Me. I will lead them along a Way they can never discover. I will turn their darkness into light and all the rugged hindrances and crooked places will be straightened out by Me. These are the things I will do, says Jehovah, and I will not forsake all these blind ones. When I accomplish this great, magnificent victory, it will reveal the utter shame of idolatry and cause those who worship idols to recognize the impotence of idols.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 42:10-12 SING TO JEHOVAH: God's people are invited to sing. The motive for this is the promise of the coming Servant and the great victory He will win and the deliverance He will accomplish. The work of the Servant will be so unique (spiritual deliverance) that it will be a NEW song. The subject matter for the lyrics of this song has never been available before (the redemption of the Christ). God's people have always been able to sing praises for God's love, power, deliverance (cf. Psalms 40:3; Psalms 42:8; Psalms 96:1; Psalms 98:1; Psalms 149:1; Isaiah 30:29, etc.). But this new song will be one unknown to angels for it will be known only to the redeemed (cf. Revelation 14:3; Revelation 15:3-4). It will be a song to be sung by the universal kingdom of Godpeople from the western isles (Gentile regions) will sing it (Ephesians 5:18-20; Colossians 3:12-17). No area is to be excluded from the invitation to sing this new songnot even those who dwell in wilderness (sparsely inhabited) regions. Of course, one must believe and appropriate the Life the Servant provides before one may sing the songbut all are invited.

This passage, and the many others about songs of believers, would lead us to think that the lyrics of Christian music should be restricted primarily to the objective deeds of God and Christ in the great work of redemption and much less (than in the current fad) to the subjective experience of the song writers. The great redemptive acts of God do not vary and are not dependent upon the vascillating fickleness of human emotions and feelings for their apologetic or persuasive value. Human religious experiences are dependent upon feelings. Not everyone feels the same way all the time. But God's deeds are always true, no matter how anyone feels. Let them give glory unto Jehovah.

Isaiah 42:13-17 SONG OF JUSTICE: The song will be about God's long awaited defeat of His enemies having finally been completed. God has, for good reasons of his own, held back in sending the Servant to defeat His enemies once and for all. It has not even been easy for Jehovah to refrain from doing battle and winning the victory. Many prophets and godly men have questioned and will continue (e.g., Habakkuk; the apostles, Acts 1:6) to question God's time-table of kingdom establishment. But God will do things when the time is right (cf. Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 1:1, etc.). And so the time came for God to disarm the principalities and powers and make a public example of them, triumphing over them in him (Colossians 2:15). That was when He destroyed the power of the devil (Hebrews 2:14-18). All this will cost God pain and travail. The great Creator will agonize and hurt because in accomplishing the work of redemption He will make Himself vulnerable by loving through the Incarnate Son as He has never loved before. The agony and pain of God will be manifested physically in the Son and His blood-stained cross.

All the things men have depended upon before will be dried up and the blind will be delivered from the enemies of Jehovah by the Servant's leading in a way no one knows. It was very apparent when Jesus began to teach concerning the Kingdom of God that no one knew God's way. Men had to have it revealed to them. So Jesus revealed itin the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sermon on Parables. Only the humble and penitent were able to recognize the Way (cf. Harold Fowler's comments, Matthew, Vol. I & II, College Press, on the above sermons). The blind in the passage before us refers to the spiritually blind (cf. Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 61:1-2; Matthew 4:12-17; Luke 4:16-30; John 9:35-41; Revelation 3:15 f).

But while the blind will be led to the light, those who think they see through idolatry (vain philosophies of worldly-minded) will be turned back and utterly put to shame. As a matter of fact, what becomes deliverance for the true Israel of God (the redemptive work of the Servantdeath and resurrection), becomes a complete defeat for God's enemies (idolatry and all other human ideologies). If idolatry and human philosophy's attempts to deal with the human predicament (sin) are ever to be put to shame it is through the historically accomplished and historically eyewitnessed bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the light of what God did through this great event, it is the shame of all shames to worship gods of human originbe they of stone and wood or philosopher's minds.

QUIZ

1.

What is the motive for the song that is to be sung by believers?

2.

Why is it a new song?

3.

Who can know this song?

4.

What should be the lyrics of Christian songs?

5.

When did God finally stop refraining from His long awaited defeat of His enemies?

6.

Who are the blind?

7.

What is the shame of all shames?