13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!
16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.
17Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.
13 Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains, for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.
KJVKing James Version
13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.
15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
17 Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
13 Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains; for the LORD hath comforted His people, and hath compassion upon His afflicted.
14 But Zion said: 'The LORD hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.'
15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee.
16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me.
17 Thy children make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth from thee.
Psalms 103:13(v15)Like a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him.
Isaiah 44:21(v15)Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten…
Matthew 7:11(v15)If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to…
Jeremiah 31:20(v15)Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart…
Hosea 11:1(v15)“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Show all 57 cross-references
Haggai 2:23(v16)In that day, says Yahweh of Armies, I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says Yahweh, ‘and will make you as a…
Isaiah 62:6(v16)I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be silent day nor night. You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
Isaiah 60:18(v16)Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor desolation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls Salvation,…
Malachi 3:17(v15)They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son…
Isaiah 44:23(v13)Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of…
Song of Solomon 8:6(v16)Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes…
Lamentations 4:10(v15)The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
1 Kings 3:26-27(v15)Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the…
Isaiah 51:3(v13)For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden…
Exodus 13:9(v16)It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong…
2 Kings 6:28-29(v15)The king said to her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will…
Psalms 96:11-13(v13)Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all…
Isaiah 26:1(v16)In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks.
Isaiah 40:1-2(v13)“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that…
Isaiah 52:9(v13)Break out into joy! Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem.
Isaiah 54:12(v16)I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.
Luke 2:13-14(v13)Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace,…
2 Kings 11:1-2(v15)Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring. But Jehosheba, the…
Psalms 48:12-13(v16)Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers. Notice her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next…
Isaiah 51:13(v17)Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually…
Isaiah 62:5(v17)For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over…
Jeremiah 22:24(v16)“As I live,” says Yahweh, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, I would still pluck you from…
Psalms 98:4-9(v13)Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth! Burst out and sing for joy, yes, sing praises! Sing praises to Yahweh with the harp, with the…
Isaiah 12:1(v13)In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort…
Isaiah 40:27(v14)Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”
Isaiah 42:10-11(v13)Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and…
Isaiah 51:22-23(v17)Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the…
Isaiah 55:12(v13)For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the…
Isaiah 66:13-14(v13)As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem.” You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice,…
Ezekiel 28:24(v17)“ ‘ “There will be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them that scorned them. Then…
Romans 11:1-5(v14)I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God…
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17(v13)Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your…
Revelation 21:10-21(v16)He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,…
Ezra 1:5(v17)Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up rose…
Nehemiah 2:4-9(v17)Then the king said to me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if…
Psalms 22:1(v14)My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
Psalms 31:22(v14)As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
Psalms 89:38-46(v14)But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed. You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have…
Isaiah 10:6(v17)I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the…
Isaiah 49:19(v17)“For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now that land will be too small for the…
Isaiah 51:18-20(v17)There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the…
Isaiah 61:2-3(v13)to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in…
Jeremiah 23:39(v14)therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my…
Jeremiah 31:13(v13)Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort…
Lamentations 5:20(v14)Why do you forget us forever, and forsake us for so long a time?
Luke 15:10(v13)Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”
Romans 11:28-29(v15)Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the…
2 Corinthians 7:6(v13)Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
Nehemiah 2:17(v17)Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let’s…
Psalms 13:1(v14)How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
Psalms 77:6-9(v14)I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; my spirit diligently inquires: “Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be…
Revelation 7:9-12(v13)After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv13, 14, 16, 17Read Isa. 44:23.
Read Isa. 44:23.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv13–17Isa 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O…
Isa 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
Ver. 13. Sing, O heavens.] {a} The prophet having thus foretold the saints’ happiness in and by Christ, cannot hold, but breaketh forth into God’s praises, calling into concert all creatures which since the fall have lain bedridden, as it were, looking with outstretched neck for their full deliverance. {Rom 8:23}
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For the Lord hath comforted his people.] This is just matter of general joy.
{a} Enthusiastico iubilo, &c. - Oecolamp.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv13–17The Lord hath comforted his people; God hath now…
The Lord hath comforted his people; God hath now sent that long-desired consolation of Israel.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v13The scope of these verses is to show that…
The scope of these verses is to show that the return of the people of God out of their captivity, and the eternal redemption to be wrought out by Christ (of which that was a type), would be great occasions of joy to the church and great proofs of the tender care God has of the church.
I. Nothing can furnish us with better matter for songs of praise and thanksgiving, Isa 49:13. Let the whole creation join with us in songs of joy, for it shares with us in the benefits of the redemption, and all they can contribute to this sacred melody is little enough in return for such inestimable favours, Psa 96:11. Let there be joy in heaven, and let the angels of God celebrate the praises of the great Redeemer; let the earth and the mountains, particularly the great ones of the earth, be joyful, and break forth into singing, for the earnest expectation of the creature that waits for the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:19, Rom 8:21) shall now be abundantly answered. God's people are the blessings and ornaments of the world, and therefore let there be universal joy, for God has comforted his people that were in sorrow and he will have mercy upon the afflicted because of his compassion, upon his afflicted because of his covenant.
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II. Nothing can furnish us with more convincing arguments to prove the most tender and affectionate concern God has for his church, and her interests and comforts.
1. The troubles of the church have given some occasion to question God's care and concern for it, Isa 49:14. Zion, in distress, said, The Lord has forsaken me, and looks after me no more; my Lord has forgotten me, and will look after me no more. See how deplorable the case of God's people may be sometimes, such that they may seem to be forsaken and forgotten of their God; and at such a time their temptations may be alarmingly violent. Infidels, in their presumption, say God has forsaken the earth (Eze 8:12), and has forgotten their sins, Psa 10:11. Weak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, "God has forsaken his church and forgotten the sorrows of his people." But we have no more reason to question his promise and grace than we have to question his providence and justice. He is as sure a rewarder as he is a revenger. Away therefore with these distrusts and jealousies, which are the bane of friendship.
2. The triumphs of the church, after her troubles, will in due time put the matter out of question.
(1.) What God will do for Zion we are told, Isa 49:17. [1.] Her friends, who had deserted her, shall be gathered to her, and shall contribute their utmost to her assistance and comfort: Thy children shall make haste. Converts to the faith of Christ are the children of the church; they shall join themselves to her with great readiness and cheerfulness, and flock into the communion of saints, as doves to their windows. "Thy builders shall make haste" (so some read it), "who shall build up thy houses, thy walls, especially thy temple; they shall do it with expedition." Church work is usually slow work; but, when God's time shall come, it shall be done suddenly. [2.] Her enemies, who had threatened and assaulted her, shall be forced to withdraw from her: Thy destroyers, and those who made thee waste, who had made themselves masters of the country and ravaged it, shall go forth of thee. By Christ the prince of this world, the great destroyer, is cast out, is dispossessed, has his power broken and his attempts quite baffled.
(2.) Now by this it will appear that Zion's suggestions were altogether groundless, that God has not forsaken her, nor forgotten her, nor ever will. Be assured, [1.] That God has a tender affection for his church and people, Isa 49:15. In answer to Zion's fears, God speaks as one concerned for his own glory (he takes himself to be reflected upon if Zion say, The Lord has forsaken me, and he will clear himself), as one concerned also for his people's comfort; he would not have them droop, and be discouraged, and give way to any uneasy thoughts. "You think that I have forgotten you. Can a woman forget her sucking child?" First, It is not likely that she should. A woman, whose honour it is to be of the tender sex as well as the fair one, cannot but have compassion for a child, which, being both harmless and helpless, is a proper object of compassion. A mother, especially, cannot but be concerned for her own child; for it is her own, a piece of herself, and very lately one with her. A nursing mother, most of all, cannot but be tender of her sucking child; her own breasts will soon put her in mind of it if she should forget it. But, Secondly, It is possible that she may forget. A woman may perhaps be so unhappy as not to be able to remember her sucking child (she may be sick, and dying, and going to the land of forgetfulness), or she may be so unnatural as not to have compassion on the son of her womb, as those who, to conceal their shame, are the death of their children as soon as they are their life, Lam 4:10; Deu 28:57. But, says God, I will not forget thee. Note, God's compassions to his people infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents towards their children. What are the affections of nature to those of the God of nature! [2.] That he has a constant care of his church and people (Isa 49:16): I have engraven thee upon the palms of my hands. This does not allude to the foolish art of palmistry, which imagines every man's fate to be engraved in the palms of his hands and to be legible in the lines there, but to the custom of those who tie a string upon their hands or fingers to put them in mind of things which they are afraid they shall forget, or to the wearing of signet or locket-rings in remembrance of some dear friend. His setting them thus as a seal upon his arm denotes his setting them as a seal upon his heart, and his being ever mindful of them and their interests, Sol 8:6. If we bind God's law as a sign upon our hand (Deu 6:8, Deu 6:11, Deu 6:18), he will engrave our interests as a sign on his hand, and will look upon that and remember the covenant. He adds, "Thy walls shall be continually before me; thy ruined walls, though no pleasing spectacle, shall be in my thoughts of compassion." Do Zions' friends favour her dust? Psa 102:14. So does her God. Or, "The plan and model of thy walls, that are to be rebuilt, is before me, and they shall certainly be built according to it." Or, "Thy walls (that is, thy safety) are my continual care; so are the watchmen on thy walls." Some apply his engraving his church on the palms of his hands to the wounds in Christ's hands when he was crucified; he will look on the marks of them, and remember those for whom he suffered and died.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv13–17Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth,.... Which…
Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth,.... Which may be understood of the heavens, and the earth by a personification, a figure usual in Scripture, to express the greatness of the benefit received, and to raise thankfulness and admiration in the hearts of God's people; see Psa 90:11 or by the heavens may be meant the angels in heaven, who, as they rejoice at the conversion of a single sinner, will much more rejoice at such numerous conversions among Jews and Gentiles, here prophesied of, Luk 15:10 and, by the "earth", the saints on earth, the excellent in it, who have a more immediate concern in, and must be affected with, the case here represented:
and break forth into singing, O mountains; such as are in high office either in the state, as Christian kings and princes, Isa 49:23 or in the church, as prophets and apostles, Rev 18:20. The reason of all this is,
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for the Lord hath comforted his people; with the discoveries of his love and grace; by his gracious presence among them; by the coming of Christ unto them in a spiritual way; by sending his Spirit, and renewing the face of things, and reviving his work in the midst of them; by the pure and powerful preaching of the Gospel, and comfortable administration of Gospel ordinances; and by large additions of converts made unto them:
and will have mercy upon his afflicted, or "poor", or "meek" and "humble" ones, as the words (l) may be rendered: the Lord's people is a poor and afflicted people, poor in a temporal and spiritual sense; the church and interest of Christ is in a poor and low condition: the Lord's people are afflicted outwardly and inwardly, and so become meek, and are kept humble; these the Lord, in the latter day, will raise from a low and distressed condition to a more exalted and comfortable one; which will be an instance of his mercy and compassion, and be matter of joy unto them.
(l) "pauperum suorum", V. L. "pauperes suos", Forerius; "inopes suos", Vitringa; "humiles", Sept. "mansuetorum", Targum.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv14, 16But - This is an objection. How can these…
But - This is an objection. How can these things be true, when the condition of God's church is now so desperate?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv13, 14, 16, 17Verse 13. Break forth into singing, O mountains -…
Verse 13. Break forth into singing, O mountains - "Ye mountains, burst forth into song"] Three ancient MSS. are without the י yod or the conjunction vau before the verb: and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv14, 15, 17Isa 49:14. But Zion said, &c. — This is…
Isa 49:14. But Zion said, &c. — This is an objection against all these glorious predictions and promises. How can these things be true when the condition of God’s church is now so sad and desperate? Most commentators understand by Zion here, the Jewish Church, and suppose that the complaint which she is here represented as uttering, refers either to her desolate state when in Babylon, or to the time of her long dispersion and desolation in the days of the Messiah. But Vitringa is of opinion that the Christian Church is rather intended, and that the time referred to is that of her cruel persecution under the Romans. Be it which it may, God here declares that he will show her mercy, and destroy her mighty oppressors, Isa 49:24-26.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv13–17Sing, O heavens - In view of the glorious…
Sing, O heavens - In view of the glorious truths stated in the previous verses, that kings should rise up, and princes worship; that the Messiah would be for a light to the Gentiles, and that the true religion would be extended to each of the four quarters of the globe. The idea in this verse is, that it was an occasion on which the heavens and the earth would have cause to exult together. It is common in Isaiah thus to interpose a song of praise on the announcement of any great and glorious truth, and to call on the heavens and the earth to rejoice together (see the notes at Isa 12:1-6; Isa 42:10-11; Isa 44:23).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv14, 16, 17Sion, the Jews, who will at last be converted…
Sion, the Jews, who will at last be converted in great numbers. (Houbigant)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv13–17So Rev 12:12. God will have mercy on the…
So Rev 12:12. God will have mercy on the afflicted, because of His compassion; on His afflicted, because of His covenant.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv13–1713. On this coming of disciples to Messiah from…
13. On this coming of disciples to Messiah from every quarter, the whole creation is poetically summoned to shout a paean of triumph. The subject of the song is, Comfort. The past and the future are joined in the promise, and those to be comforted are tenderly called his people. The blessings of the Messianic ages are summed up in the promise from first to last.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv13–1713. The lyrical conclusion of the passage on the…
13. The lyrical conclusion of the passage on the Servant, partly resembling ch. Isa_44:23.
his afflicted] See on Isa_41:17.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv13–17(13) Sing, O heavens.—As in Isa_44:23, all nature is…
(13) Sing, O heavens.—As in Isa_44:23, all nature is invited to join in the chorus of praise for the deliverance of Israel.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv13–17Vers. 13-26. ZION COMFORTED IN HER DESPONDENCY. While the…
Vers. 13-26. ZION COMFORTED IN HER DESPONDENCY. While the future is thus glorious, both for the "Servant of the Lord" and for his people Israel, the present is gloom and misery. Zion not here the city, but the people of God desponds and says, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me" (ver. 14). This burst of grief, though arising from weakness of faith, is forgiven by the compassion of God, and "afflicted" Israel is "comforted" and consoled through the remainder of the chapter (vers. 15-26).
Ver. 13. Sing, O heavens. (comp. Isa_44:23) Heaven and earth are called upon to rejoice and "break forth into singing
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(1) because of the glory that awaits the Redeemer (vers. 5-12); and
(2) because of the gracious intentions of God with respect to Israel (vers. 16-26).
O mountains The majesty of mountains seems to have deeply impressed Isaiah. Throughout his writings they are continually introduced as the grandest of the works of God. (comp. Isa_2:2, 14 5:25 13:4 14:25 22:5 30:25 34:3 37:24 40:4, 9, 12 41:15 42:11, 15, etc.) He expects them to be especially ready to sympathize with man. Such a feeling would be natural to one accustomed to the hill-country of Palestine and the lofty heights of Hermon and Lebanon, but could scarcely have been developed in an exile of the time of Cyrus, born and brought up in the dead level of Babylonia. Hath comforted... will have mercy. Both verbs designate the same action, which is really future, but in God"s counsels is already accomplished. The perfect is thus, once more, that of prophetic certitude.
Vers. 13-16. The love of God for his Church.
The love of God for his Church is no doubt something mysterious, inscrutable, as are all the Divine attributes; but it is so pointedly set before us in many places, both of the Old and the New Testaments, that it must certainly be intended we should meditate upon it. We may with reverence consider it
(1) in its origin;
(2) in its action;
(3) in its results.
I IN ITS ORIGIN. God"s love for his Church would seem to originate in the fondness with which all intelligent beings regard the work of their own hands; that on which they have spent toil, time, labour, thought, care. God in creating the world had, primarily, his Church in view; he made all material things for the sake of man; and he made mankind with a view to his Church. He was moved to the creation of the world by a desire to have for all eternity a body of pure, good, happy, intelligent worshippers dwelling with him in heaven. He began by making man "in his own image", (Gen_1:27) with a moral nature, free-will, consciousness, personality, memory. He knew that, with these gifts, man would fall; but he determined from the first that out of fallen humanity he would raise up a certain number as many as would allow him save them, purify them, make them his "peculiar people", (Deu_14:2) his Church. In idea, we may say that God loved his Church before he had created it; for, knowing what it would be, he loved it by anticipation, recognizing in it the best, and so the dearest to him, of all his works. Such was his love for his Church in its origin. We have now to consider it
II IN ITS ACTION. As a means of obtaining that Church triumphant in heaven which he desired, God saw good to create a Church militant on earth, which should be its shadow and representative, and to make that Church the peculiar object of his care. For this Church he showed his love by unwearied, ceaseless watchfulness, by supernatural interpositions from time to time, by patient endurance of provocations, by occasional chastisements, by warnings, by providential guidance, by direct teaching from Sinai, by indirect instruction through a long series of inspired prophets and seers. Never forgetting, never forsaking Israel, he delivered them out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, gave them Canaan, subdued the nations before them, saved them from the power of Assyria, brought them forth out of Babylon, sustained and supported them, until, in the fulness of time, he gave the strongest possible evidence of his love by sending forth his Son to die for his Church, and by his death to infuse into it fresh life, and transform it from a national into a world-wide society, from the Church of the Jews into the "holy Catholic Church the Church of all nations. And this Church he has built upon a rock; he has promised to be with it always; he has declared that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This Church he "nourisheth and cherisheth", (Eph_5:29) guiding it with his Spirit, sanctifying and cleansing it, (Eph_5:26) protecting it from its secret foes, delivering it from its avowed enemies. The Church of Christ for nearly nineteen hundred years has triumphed over all attempts to crush it and destroy it, not by its own strength, but through the love and care of the Almighty. The action of God"s love for his Church is thus, in the first place, to keep it in being; in the second, to purify and perfect it. It only remains to consider this precious love
III IN ITS RESULTS. The present results are:
1. That there is a witness for God in almost every land a witness which testifies unceasingly to the existence, power, and goodness of the Almighty; to the free offer of redemption through his Son, and to the free gift of sanctification through his Spirit.
2. There is a body which preaches holiness of life, even if it very imperfectly practises it.
3. There is a community which witnesses to the spirituality of man, to free-will, moral responsibility, the absolute and eternal difference of right from wrong, a future life, and judgment to come.
4. There is a body which hands on religion from age to age as a real living thing; a power seen in its fruits; a transforming, energizing power; not a philosophy, but a life. In the future the great result will be that which the Revelation of St. John indicates the eternal existence in heaven of a Church triumphant; "a multitude which no man can number," consisting "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," who will "stand before the throne of God, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands," praising him and ready to do his pleasure for. (Rev_7:9, Rev_7:10)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv14–16But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me
Isa_49:14-16
But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me
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The more than parental love of God
I.
ZIONS BUILDING. Zion here signifies the true Church. Elsewhere she is called Jerusalem; and very frequently is she spoken of as a city or building.
1. If we inquire who is her builder, we find that there is but one who can properly be called by this name. The founder of the true Church is He by whom God made the worlds; therefore she is called The city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel (Isa_60:14). The plan of Zionsbuilding is older than the world itself. The Lord buildeth up Zion, and He alone. Whenever He uses any of us as His under-builders, He first makes us sensible of our own weakness; the excellency of the power is of Him, and not of us.
2. If we inquire concerning the foundation of the true Church, an apostle meets us with an answer: Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
3. If we consider the building itself, it consists of lively stones.
4. The operations of the great Master-builder are not uniform, but marked by diversity. Some stones are separated from their quarry, and brought off by a preparatory process, in a gradual and gentle manner. Others again, are shivered from their worldly holds, as by the explosion of rocks. If we closely inspect the building, we find the lively stones admirable for their unity, evenness, and mutual conformity.
II. ZIONS COMPLAINT. We have heard of Zion, the city and dwelling-place of our God: and that the Lord loveth the gates of Zion (Psa_87:2). But how faithfully and ardently He loves her, she herself does not always consider. Why else that complaint which now comes under our notice? It is acknowledged that circumstances may arise, under which nothing may appear more just than this complaint of Zion.
III. GODS PROMISE. Can a woman forget, &c. (F. W.Krummacher, D. D.)
The complainings of Zion silenced
I. WHAT THERE IS IN OURSELVES TO MAKE US FEAR LEST GOD SHOULD FORSAKE US. Our very fears have often a great show of reason in them; though they may be excessive, they are not wholly unfounded. As--
1. When we recollect how often we have forgotten and forsaken Him.
2. When the aspect of providence is dark and mysterious.
3. When the mind appears to be bereft of its ordinary supports and consolations.
4. When a great and prevailing doubt obtains as to the safety of our state after all.
II. WHAT THERE IS IN GOD TO CONVINCE HIS CHURCH THAT HE NEVER WILL FORSAKE HER.
1. It is contrary to His nature--as contrary to His nature to forget and forsake His Church as it is contrary to the nature of a kind and tender mother to forget and forsake her child. Our Lord teaches us to reason from the less to the greater. If ye, being evil, know how to give, how shall not your Father, &c.
2. It is contrary to His promise. Yet will I not forget thee.
3. It is contrary to the character of His dispensations, for He never has forsaken His Church.
4. It is contrary to His peoples own sober expectations. For Zion does not in her heart believe her own prophetic forebodings. She still speaks of Him, not only as the Lord in one part of the verse, but as my Lord in the other--which she would never do, as a reasonable person, had she finally forgotten or forsaken God, or believed that God had finally forgotten and forsaken her. (S. Thodey.)
The saints final perseverance secured by the love of God
I. THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT OFTEN CONDUCE TO SUSPICIONS ON THE PART OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD CONCERNING THE LORDS GOODNESS.
1. Times of deep affliction; of dark and mysterious providences; days in which there is no light.
2. These are seasons oftentimes, in which, through our frailty, imperfection, sin, and sinfulness, the weakness of our faith and the strength of unbelief, the believer may be led to form some suspicions concerning the goodness of God.
3. Besides this, there may be periods of deep spiritual temptation.
4. Some laxity in the walk will oftentimes briny strength to a mans suspicions here.
5. He may be in a state of spiritual captivity.
II. THE GREAT SECURITY THAT IS HERE PLACED BEFORE US. Can a woman forget her sucking child, &c. There cannot be a figure more tender, more comprehensive. It is the figure of a helpless babe: there is the tenderness of the tie; there is the helplessness of the child; and there is the very posture of the child; and they are all full of great and important truth; and yet according to those last words--they may forget; yet will I not forget thee--this is not enough. As though the Lord would say, If My love were not more than this, it would not be enough to secure thee.
III. GOD DOES GIVE PROOF THAT THIS TENDER LOVE DOES NOT FORGET. They may forget; yet will I not forget thee. He does not forget their persons. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands. They are borne upon the heart of the great High Priest. He forgets not the work of grace that is in them. He forgetteth not the trials of His saints. He forgetteth not the returns of His people He forgetteth not the walk of His saints. He forgetteth them not in death. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
A mournful complaint and satisfactory answer
What a difference is there between the judgment of God, and the judgment of men! We have a very striking instance of this in the passage before us.
I. A MOURNFUL COMPLAINT. Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, He exercises no care over me; and my Lord hath forgotten me, He feels towards me no affection. Let us look into this. The wicked think too much of the goodness of God; they mistake the evidences of His general bounty for the evidences of His peculiar friendship. While they live regardless of His praise, they yet hope in His mercy, and persuade themselves that He will not be rigorous to mark what they have done. The very reverse of this is the disposition of all the subjects of Divine grace. They know that self-deception is tremendous; and therefore they are afraid of self-deception; and they often carry their solicitudes here beyond the point of duty, and in reading and in hearing they will apply to themselves what was intended only for others; for, as an old divine says, There is no beating the dogs out without making the children cry. Let us try to trace up this complaint to its source; and to see the wretchedness that conclusion must produce in the minds of all Gods people. There is a philosophical notion, which is of a semi-infidel character, which supposes that the providence of God is general, and not particular. He regards the whole, and therefore must regard the parts; for the whole is always made up of parts; and He does regard the most minute parts. It is a religious despondency that affects Christians. It is not the influence of infidelity, but it is the influence, first, of unbelief, or weakness of faith. It arises also from ignorance. It springs sometimes from the suspension of Divine manifestation We may also mention conflicting with the troubles of life. We remark once more, the delay of God in the accomplishment of prayer. But who can find language properly to describe the wretchedness that such a conclusion as this, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me, must ever produce in the minds of the godly? The misery that the child of God feels from such a conclusion, may be accounted for by three things.
1. That he loves God.
2. He entirely relies upon Him.
3. He has enjoyed Him already. He has tasted that the Lord is gracious, and therefore prays, Evermore give us this bread.
II. THE SATISFACTORY ANSWER.
1. The improbability of the fear. This is metaphorically expressed: Can a woman forget her sucking child, &c. There are two supposable cases here. She may be bereft of reason, or not survive, and so not be able to remember it. She may be criminally, unnaturally, led to hide herself from her own flesh.
2. The certainty of the assurance, Yet will I not forget thee.
3. The all-sufficiency of the truth established, i.e the perpetual regard of God towards us.
Conclusion--
1. Distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion.
2. How concerned God is, not only for His peoples safety, but for their comfort also.
3. Let His people fall in with His designs. Let them be humbled, and mourn over their ignorance, perverseness, impatience, and unbelief; that they have entertained such hard thoughts of God; that they have so often charged Him foolishly, and unrighteously, and unkindly.
4. Do not take the comfort belonging to a gracious state, unless you are the subjects of a gracious character. (W. Jay.)
Unworthy doubts of God
How common is this weakness of unbelief in man; how natural are these unworthy doubts of God to us. Nor is it difficult to perceive the sources from which this inability to trust in Gods goodness springs.
1. There is the guilt of which we are conscious in our own hearts; the sense of evil desert m ourselves.
2. Then there comes in the undeniable fact of suffering in himself and all around him, which apparently, at first sight, justifies this attitude of mind, and certainly confirms it.
3. We thus discover a third source from which distrust in God springs; the perversions which have been substituted for the pure Gospel by different branches of the Christian Church (J. N. Bennie, LL. B.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v13Isa_49:13-17. Sing, O heavens, &c.
GOD’S CARE FOR HIS CHURCH
Isa_49:13-17. Sing, O heavens, &c.
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I. Nothing can furnish us with better matter for songs of praise and thanksgiving than the tender care God has of the Church (Isa_49:13). Let the whole creation join with us in songs of joy, for it shares with us in the benefits of the redemption (Rom_8:19; Rom_8:21).
II. The care which God has for His Church is never to be doubted by us. True, the troubles of the Church have given some occasion to question His concern for it (Isa_49:14). The case of His people may sometimes be so deplorable that they seem to be forsaken and forgotten by Him; and at such a time their temptation may be alarmingly violent. Weak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, “God has forsaken us,” &c. But we have no more reason to question His promise and grace, than we have to question His providence and justice. He is as sure a Rewarder as He is a Revenger. Away, therefore, with those distrusts and jealousies which are the bane of friendship. The triumphs of the Church, after her troubles, will in due time put the matter out of question (Isa_49:17).
III. Be assured that God has a tender affection for His Church and people (Isa_49:15). In answer to Zion’s fears, He speaks as one concerned for His own glory; He takes Himself to be reflected upon if Zion say, “The Lord hath forsaken me;” and He will clear Himself. As one concerned also for His people’s comfort, He would not have them droop and be discouraged, and give way to uneasy thoughts. You think that I have forgotten you; “can a woman forget her sucking child?”
1. It is not likely that she should. A woman, whose honour it is to be of the tender sex as well as the fair one, cannot but have compassion for a child, which, being both harmless and helpless, is a proper object of compassion. A mother, especially, cannot, but be concerned for her own child. for it is her own, a piece of herself, and very lately one with her. A nursing mother, most of all, cannot but be tender of her sucking child. But
2. it is possible she may forget. A woman may be so unhappy as not to be able to remember her sucking child; she may be sick, dying, and going to the land of forgetfulness; or she may be so unnatural as not to have compassion on it (Lam_4:10; Deu_28:57). But, says God, “I will not forget thee.” His compassions to His people infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents toward their children (P. D. 1499).
IV. Be assured that God has a constant care of His Church and people (Isa_49:16-17). “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands,” alludes to the custom of wearing signet or locket rings in remembrance of some dear friend. If we bind God’s law as a sign upon our hand (Deu_6:8-11), He will engrave our interests as a sign on His hand, and will look upon that and remember the covenant, “Thy walls shall continually be before Me;” “thy ruined walls, though no pleasing spectacle, shall be in my thoughts of compassion.” Or, “The plan and model of thy walls, that are to be rebuilt, is before Me, and they shall certainly be built according to it.”—Matthew Henry. Commentary: in loco.
A GLORIOUS IMPOSSIBILITY
Isa_49:14-15. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, &c.
I. The believer, like Zion of old, is sometimes led to form suspicions concerning the Lord’s goodness. Such suspicions are apt to arise—
1. In periods of deep spiritual temptation: times of dark and mysterious providences; days in which God’s people “walk in darkness and have no light.” Such times are apt to come upon us through neglect of prayer, through neglect of some known duty; and then, instead of blaming ourselves, we are apt to distrust God.
2. In times of deep temporal trial.
II. The love of God for His people renders all such suspicions utterly unreasonable. A mother’s love for her child is tender and strong; many mothers have contentedly laid down their lives for their children; but history is full of proofs that a mother’s love for her child may utterly pass away. But God’s love for His people will never fail. “Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget; yet will not I forget thee.” How tender, comprehensive, and touching is this figure! There is much to be considered in it: the tenderness of the tie, the helplessness of the child, the very posture of the child.
1. The tenderness of the tie. [1513] The tie between God’s children and Himself is infinitely closer than that between a child and its mother. True, the child derives its life from the mother, as the medium by which the Lord doth communicate it; but God is the life of His saints. They live and move and have their being in Him, and He lives in them.
[1513] The young of all creatures are lovely and attractive always: but let us survey the image here. Here is a child, a harmless object, a helpless object, an endeared object, and towards which any one may feel compassion and tenderness. But you will observe that the child here is the mother’s own—“the son of her womb;” lately a part of herself, and endeared by the anxieties of bearing it, and the pain and peril of bringing it forth. Nor is this all; for the mother is a nursing mother. Isaiah scorned to take an image of exquisite tenderness from those wretches who, when they have it in their power, devolve this pleasing and (ask all the physicians) this salutary duty upon others, upon strangers, and upon hirelings; no, it is a nursing mother, and the child is a “sucking child,” looking up with ineffable satisfaction to his benefactor, and with his little hands stroking the cheeks of her who feeds him.—Jay.
2. The helplessness of the child. The helplessness and dependence of the believer is still greater. In a few months it will be able to walk alone; in a few years we shall find it not only walking and running, but labouring independently of its mother. But look at the believer—at those most advanced in the life of God, most filled with heavenly wisdom; look at “Paul the aged.” He is as feeble, as dependent, as helpless in himself as at the first moment (1Co_15:10).
3. The posture of the child: that is more touching still. There are few sights more endearing, as every mother will acknowledge, than that of a child hanging on her bosom, deriving the support of its physical life from herself. It is one of the most touching pictures that can be presented to our eye. And yet, compared with that of a believer, it is as nothing. His is not an unconscious hanging upon the author and sustainer of His being; His is a conscious, glad dependence upon God for those supplies that come from His Father’s heart, and minister to His spiritual life—that life which is the commencement of life eternal. Who can compare the one with the other? It is a closer tie, a tenderer tie, a more dependent object, and a posture infinitely more endearing. No wonder God gives the strong assurance which our text contains.
III. God’s love for His people manifests itself in a constant remembrance of their condition and needs. “Yet will I not forget thee,” is only another way of saying, “I will always remember thee.”
1. He does not forget their persons (Isa_49:16).
2. Nor the work of grace that is in them. It is described as His poem: “we are His workmanship”—His poem (Eph_2:10). A man takes care of his book; but if he has his own poem, will he be likely to forget that?
3. Nor their trials (Isa_43:2).
4. Nor their returns to Him (Jer_31:18).
5. Nor their obedience (Isa_64:5; Heb_6:10).
6. Nor their needs in death (Psa_116:15). Blessed truth, it is full of unutterable sweetness.
The subject is full of instruction.
1. It should lead to self-examination. Are we of the number of those whom God knows, in the sense of reproving and acknowledging as His? If He does not thus know us, how can we expect Him to remember us?
2. A sight of the helpless child hanging upon its mother’s breast should show us our own dependency, and take away every thought of self-sufficiency.
3. The fickleness of the tenderest of human affections brings out more clearly into view the glory of God’s love for His people.
4. The constancy of the Divine love should make us ashamed of our despondency and distrust in times of trial.
5. If God never forgets us, we should never forget Him.—J. H. Evans, M.A., Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 305–316.
I. A MOURNFUL COMPLAINT (Isa_49:14). The wicked think too much of the goodness of God, in reference to themselves; they mistake the effects of His general bounty for evidences of His peculiar friendship (H. E. I. 3977–3980). The very reverse of this is the disposition of all subjects of Divine grace; they know that self-deception is tremendous, probable, common, and are therefore afraid of it; they often carry their solicitude beyond the point of duty; they apply to themselves what was intended for others, and sometimes think themselves forsaken of God.
1. This arises sometimes
(1.) from the weakness of their faith ([1516]. H. E. I. 2014–2017).
(2.) From ignorance; they have a knowledge of God, but it is very imperfect, and therefore they form mistaken apprehensions as to the manner in which He is likely to deal with them.
(3.) From a suspension of divine manifestation. The sun is always in the sky, but it is not always visible. God hides Himself from the house of Jacob; and if you are part of the house of Jacob, you will be affected thereby (Psa_30:7). When He does this, it is not in the mere exercise of Divine sovereignty, but either as a prevention of sin, or as correction for it (Isa_59:2; Hos_5:15; Job_15:11; H. E. I. 1644–1659).
(4.) From conflict with the troubles of life. It is forgotten that these are really proofs that God has not forsaken us (Pro_13:24; Heb_12:6; H. E. I. 189–196, 3692–3695).
(5.) Sometimes from God’s delay in the accomplishment of prayer. Distinguish between the acceptance and the answer of prayer; God always immediately hears, but does not always immediately answer the prayer of faith (2Pe_3:9; Lam_3:26; H. E. I. 3884–3899).
[1516] Our comfort must always be according to our faith. “In whom,” Bays Peter, “believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” There is always consolation in God’s riches of glory by Christ Jesus; but these can only be perceived and apprehended by faith. There is always fruit enough upon the tree of life, but faith in the hand by which alone we gather it. There is water enough always in the wells of salvation, but by faith we must draw it.—Jay, H. E. I. 1252–1285.
2. Who can find language to express the wretchedness such a false conclusion causes? The misery produced by it in a child of God is due to three causes:—
(1.) He loves God, not perfectly, but supremely; and love can never be reconciled to the absence of its object.
(2.) He entirely relies upon Him, and therefore feels that if God has withdrawn from him, all must be darkness, dreariness, desolation, and death.
(3.) He has enjoyed Him already, and therefore nothing can satisfy him but God (H. E. I. 1018, 2378–2387).
II. A SATISFACTORY ANSWER (Isa_49:15). Notice,
1. The improbability of the fear. This is metaphorically expressed. The case supposed is not likely, but it is possible. But the tenderest feelings of nature are as nothing when compared with the kindness of God.
2. The certainty of the assurance. “Yet will not I forget thee.” With God there is no fickleness (Num_23:19).—H. E. I. 2324, P. D. 815.
3. The all-sufficiency of the truth established; that is, the perpetual regard of God for us. If His favour is set upon us, it secures everything else (Psa_84:11-12).
Concluding remarks.—
1. Distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion (H. E. I. 339–346, 2907).
2. See how concerned God is, not only for His people’s safety, but for their comfort also. Let His people fall in with this design (Psa_42:11).
4. Do not take the comfort belonging to a gracious state, unless you are the subjects of a gracious character.—W. Jay: “The British Pulpit,” vol. v. pp. 221–230.
We have here two assertions; Zion’s and God’s.
I. ZION’S ASSERTION. “The Lord hath forsaken me,” &c. Observe four things which may cause this complaint:—
1. The mysteriousness of Divine providence.
2. The long duration of Zion’s troubles.
3. Lack of success.
4. Zion’s own sinfulness and weakness.
II. GOD’S ASSERTION. “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” &c. “Yet will I never forget thee.” Why?
1. He is too nearly related to Zion.
2. He bestows too much thought upon Zion.
3. He has done too much on behalf of Zion.
4. He has given too many promises—great and precious—to Zion.
5. He expects too much from Zion.
6. He hath ordained that Zion shall for ever dwell in His immediate presence. “For ever with the Lord.” God, then, cannot forget His people.
Improvement.
1. Zion should at once withdraw her complaint.
2. As God will never forget Zion, Zion should never forget her God.
3. Zion should never despond in the presence of any untoward event which may overtake her.—W. Roberts, Penybontfawr, “Pregethau.”
1. God’s love is like a mother’s love. There is no love in this world like a mother’s love. It is free, unbought, unselfish (P. D. 2357). God’s love to a soul in Christ is stronger (Psa_103:13-14; Mal_3:17; Isa_66:13; H. E. I. 2322–2333; P. D. 1499). Be not cast down in affliction (H. E. I. 189–196). Deserted souls, God’s love cannot change unless His true nature change. Not till God cease to be holy, just, and true, will He cease to love the soul that hides under the wings of Jesus (H. E. I. 2324).
2. His love is full love. A mother’s love is the fullest love which we have on earth. She loves with all her heart. But there is no love full but that of God toward His Son; God loves Jesus fully—the whole heart of the Father is as it were continually poured down in love upon the Lord Jesus. But when a soul comes to Christ, the same love rests on that soul (Joh_17:26). True, a creature cannot receive the love of God as Jesus can; but it is the same love that shines on us and Him—full, satisfying, unbounded love. How can God forget what He fully loves? A creature’s love may fail; for what is a creature?—a clay vessel, a breath of wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But the Creator’s love cannot fail—it is full love toward an object infinitely worthy of His love—in which thou sharest.
3. It is an unchanging love. A mother’s love is, of all creature-love, the most unchangeable. But far more unchanging is the love of God to Christ, and to a soul in Christ: “I am the Lord; I change not.” The Father that loves has no variableness. Jesus who is loved, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How can that love change? It flowed before the world was; it will flow when the world has passed away. If you are in Christ, that love shines on you (Jer_31:3; Rom_8:38-39).—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sketches of Sermons.
These words apply, first of all, to God’s ancient people, the Jews, but they are equally true of all believers.
I. There are times when believers are apt to think themselves forsaken.
1. In time of sore affliction. So it was with Naomi, Hezekiah, Job. It is a sad thing when the soul faints under the rebukes of God. They were intended to lead you deeper into Christ—into a fuller enjoyment of God (H. E. I. 66–70).
2. When they have fallen into sin. As long as a believer walks humbly with his God, his soul is at peace. But the moment that unbelief creeps in, he is led away into sin—like David he falls very low. A believer generally falls lower than the world; and now he falls into darkness. When Adam fell, he was afraid; and he hid himself from God among the trees of the garden, and he made a covering of leaves. When a believer falls, he also is afraid—he hides from God.
3. In time of desertion. Desertion is God withdrawing from the soul of a believer; so that His absence is felt. Sometimes it pleases God to withdraw from the soul, chiefly, I believe, to humble us in the dust; or to discover some corruption unmortified; or to lead us to hunger more after Him. Such was the state of David when he wrote Psalms 42 (Job_6:4; Job_29:1-2; H. E. I. 1644–1659).
II. God cannot forget a soul in Christ: “Can a woman,” &c.
TO THE PREACHER.
1. Comfort downcast believers. Your afflictions and desertions only prove that you are under the Father’s hand. There is no time when the patient is an object of such tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is under his knife; so, you may be sure, if you are suffering from the hand of God, His eye is all the more bent on you (Deu_33:27).
2. Invite poor sinners to come and taste of this love. It is a sweet thing to be loved. I suppose the most of you have tasted a mother’s love; but this is nothing to the love of your God.
Oh! it is sweet to pass from wrath to love—from death to life. That poor murderess would leap in her cell, when the news came that she was not to die the murderer’s death; but, ah! ten thousand times sweeter would it be to you, if God were, this day, to persuade you to embrace Christ freely offered in the gospel.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 99–105.
GRAVEN UPON JEHOVAH’S HANDS
Isa_49:16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.
The prophets were more than half poets. The language here is highly figurative. It is a bold anthropomorphism. The words are used of Zion, the Church of God. That glorious building, complete in the Divine idea, is regarded as graven upon God’s hands. Each individual member of the spiritual Zion has his own place therein marked out by Jehovah. It is to the individual reference implied in the text that attention is invited.
I. Amid temptations to regard ourselves forgotten of the Lord, how consoling is the reflection that the life of the true believer in God is linked with the life of the Eternal! “Where there is no eye to see reality,” it has been said, “there is ever an eye-brow waiting to rise in scornful wonder at the name of it.” And again, “Where the substantial hand to grasp things worthy is wanting, there is always some thin shadow-hand to wave them off with mocking gestures.” But spiritual discernment embraces the fact, that man, and especially the Christ-like man, lives in God. The being of the godly is bound up with the being of God; they are specially dear to God, shall never be lost sight of by Him, have their life hid with Christ in God, and go forward to the fulness of life, to the pleasures, which, according to another use of the same figure, are said to be at God’s right hand for evermore. To speak after this manner is no doubt mysticism to the unspiritual. But the obscurity is in them. Not always is this momentous truth quite clear even to the spiritual; but it is peculiarly dark and unintelligible to those whose understanding has not been enlightened from above: for it is one of those things which “are spiritually discerned.”
II. Why it is often hard for even the believer in God to realise this union. Many reasons might be suggested. Consider one. The world is but a small part of the universe, and man’s life on earth bears but a small proportion to his God-given immortality. Hence the obscurity resting upon the purpose to which all things tend, and also upon the tendency itself as residing in the means to the end. Chance and accident seem to rule widely in this world. The goal is reached by much of seeming waste, sacrifice, and sorrow (H. E. I. 4033, 4034). As for the world, so for the individual, there is a divine idea, but it is a mosaic, beautiful as a whole, we may believe, yet tesselated with innumerable fragments. Why trouble ourselves unnecessarily, complaining till ourselves are hoarse, and others miserable?—why not just fall in to our little work patient, and believing that the Divine purpose is good, and will yet sparkle forth like a bright jewel from the short period of confusion? (H. E. I. 4047).
III. Consider some part of the proof that our union with God endures and is indissoluble.
1. The believer in God should find it easy to convince himself that there is much undeveloped power in the Church which shall yet be made manifest. And so with the individual. The feeling of undeveloped power within us, this feeling that there is life within us down below our present life, is identical with being graven on Jehovah’s hands. We do not know the possibility of our being, but we feel within us depths that no man knows, and which we ourselves, can appreciate with no distinctness.
2. Do not suppose, because you have been appointed a humble place in the world’s work, because your luxuries are few, and your hands never idle, and sickness like a lion ever crouching at the door of your house, that God has forgotten you, and not graven out your place on the palms of His hands. Poverty, weakness, suffering, shame, are not these just so many powers plying to bring up into play the deep, Divine life? (H. E. I. 91–98). In ways we cannot fathom, God is showing us that He remembers us, is present, ordaining for the best, in every circumstance of life. For the bringing of order out of seeming confusion, it is necessary to believe that He is present in the most trivial circumstances, and, as Christ says, numbers the very hairs of your head.—J. M. Simcock.
The text belongs primarily to the seed of Israel; next, to the whole Church as a body; and then to every individual member.
I. Consider our text verbally. Every single word deserves to be emphasised.
1. “Behold.” It is a word of wonder; intended to excite admiration. Wherever you see it hung out in Scripture, it is like an ancient sign-board, signifying that there are rich wares within, drawing attention to something particularly worthy of observation. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that God should grave upon His hands the names of sinners. Speak of the seven wonders of the world, why this is a wonder in the seventh heavens! No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word “Behold,” is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. How the Divine mind seems to be amazed at this wicked unbelief of man! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God’s favoured people? He seems to say, “How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven,” &c. Here follows the great marvel, that God should be faithful to such a faithless people, and that when He is provoked with their doubting, He nevertheless abideth true. Behold! and be ashamed and confounded for all your cruel doubts of your indulgent Lord.
2. Behold, “I have,” &c. The Divine Artist, who has been pleased to engrave His people for a memorial, is none other than God Himself. Here we learn the lesson which Christ afterwards taught His disciples—“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” No one can write upon the hand of God but God Himself. Neither our merits, prayers, repentance, nor faith, can write our names there, for these in their goodness extend not unto God so as to write upon His hands. Then, again, if the Lord hath done it, there is no mistake about it. If some human hand had cut the memorial, the hieroglyphs might be at fault; but since perfect wisdom has combined with perfect love to make a memorial of the saints, then no error by any possibility can have occurred; there can be no erasures, no crossing out of what God has written, no blotting out of what the Eternal hath decreed.
3. “Behold, I have graven thee.” Not, “I will,” nor yet, “I am doing it;” it is a thing of the past, and how far back in the past! Oh! the antiquity of this inscription! Do not these deep things comfort you? Does not eternal love delight you?
4. “Graven.” I have not merely printed thee, stamped thee on the surface, but I have permanently cut thee into my hand with marks which never can be removed. That word “graven” sets forth the perpetuity of the inscription.
5. “I have graven thee,” &c. “My Lord, dost thou mean me? Yes, even me, if I by faith cling to Thy cross.” “I have graven thee.” It does not say, “Thy name.” The name is there, but this is not all; “I have graven thee.” See the fulness of this! I have graven everything about thee, all that concerns thee; it is a full picture, as though the man himself were there.
6. We are engraven, where? Upon His hands, not upon the works of His hands. They shall perish; yea, they shall all wax old as doth a garment, but His hands shall endure for ever. Notice, it does not say, “I have graven thee upon the palm of one hand,” but “I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” There are two memorials. His saints shall never be forgotten, for the inscription is put there upon the palm of this hand, the right hand of blessing, and upon the palm of that hand, the left hand of justice.
Now let us proceed to the second part of the subject—
II. Consider the text as a whole. God’s remembrance of His people is—
1. Constant.
2. Practical. He will work and show Himself strong for His people; He brings His omnipotent hands to effect our redemption.
3. Eternal. You cannot suppose it possible that any person can erase what is written on God’s hand.
4. Tender.
5. Most surprising. Child of God, let your cheerful eyes and your joyful heart testify how great a wonder it is that you, once so far estranged from God, are this day written on the palms of His hands.
6. Most consolatory. There is no sorrow to which our text is not an antidote.
III. Be heedful of the duty which such a text suggests.
1. If you be partakers of this precious text, is it not your duty to leave your cares behind you to-day? Should not the fact that God always graciously and tenderly recollects you, compel you once for all to leave your burden with Him who careth for you?
2. If this text is not yours, how your mouths ought to water after it! Is there a soul here who says, “O that I had a part and lot in this matter!” Thou mayest have His pardoning love shed abroad in thy heart even now.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 512.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v16
Isaiah
THE WRITING ON GOD’S HANDS
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Isa 49:16.
In the preceding context we have the infinitely tender and beautiful words: ‘Zion hath said, The Lord hath forsaken me. Can a woman forget her sucking child? . . . yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.’ There is more than a mother’s love in the Father’s heart. But wonderful in their revelation of God, and mighty to strengthen, calm, and comfort, as these transcendent words are, those of my text, which follow them, do not fall beneath their loftiness. They are a singularly bold metaphor, drawn from the strange and half-savage custom, which lingers still among sailors and others, of having beloved names or other tokens of affection and remembrance indelibly inscribed on parts of the body. Sometimes worshippers had the marks of the god thus set on their flesh; here God writes on His hands the name of the city of His worshippers. And it is not its name only, but its very likeness that He stamps there, that He may ever look on it, as those who love bear with them a picture of one dear face. The prophecy goes on: ‘Thy walls are continually before Me,’ but in the prophet’s time the walls were in ruins, and yet they are present to the divine mind.
I. Now, the first thought suggested by these great words is that here we have set forth for our strength and peace a divine remembrance, tender as-yea, more tender than-a mother’s.
When Israel came out of Egypt, the Passover was instituted as ‘a memorial unto all generations,’ or, as the same idea is otherwise expressed, ‘it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand.’ Here God represents Himself as doing for Israel what He had bid Israel do for Him. They were, as it were, to write the supreme act of deliverance in the Exodus upon their hands, that it might never be forgotten. He writes Zion on His hands for the same purpose.
Now, of course, the text does not primarily refer to individuals, but to the community, whether Zion is understood, as the prophet understood the name, to be ancient Israel, or as the Christian Church. But the recognition of that fact should not be allowed to rob us of the preciousness of this text in its bearing on the individual. For God remembers the community, not as an abstraction or a generalised expression, but as the aggregate of all the individuals composing it. We lose sight of the particulars when we generalise. We cannot see the trees for the wood. We think of ‘the Church,’ and do not think of the thousands of men and women who make it up. We cannot discern the separate stars in the galaxy. But God’s eye resolves what to us is a nebula, and to Him every single glittering point of light hangs rounded and separate in the heaven. Therefore this assurance of our text is to be taken by every single soul that loves God, and trusts Him through Jesus Christ, as belonging to it, as though there were not another creature on earth but itself.
‘The sun whose beams most glorious are,
Disdaineth no beholder.’
Its light floods the world, yet seems to go straight into the eyeball of every man that looks at it. And such is the divine love and remembrance. There is no jostling nor confusion in the wide space of the heart of God. They that go before shall not hinder them that come after. The hungry crowd sat down in companies on the green grass, and the first fifty, no doubt, were envied by the last of the hundred fifties that made up the five thousand, and wondered whether the five loaves and the two small fishes could go round, but the last fed full as did the first. The great promise of our text belongs to me and thee, and therefore belongs to us all.
That remembrance which each man may take for himself-and we are poor Christians if we do not live in its light-is infinitely tender. The echo of the music of the previous words still haunts the verse, and the remembrance promised in it is touched with more than a mother’s love. ‘I am poor and needy,’ says the Psalmist, ‘yet the Lord thinketh upon me.’ He might have said, ‘I am poor and needy, therefore the Lord thinketh upon me.’ That remembrance is in full activity when things are darkest with us. Israel said, ‘My Lord hath forgotten me,’ because at the point of view taken in the second half of Isaiah, it was captive in a far-off land. You and I sometimes are brought into circumstances in which we are ready to think ‘God has, somehow or other, left me, has forgotten me.’ Never! never! However mirk the night, however apparently solitary the way, however mysterious and insoluble the difficulties of our position, let us fall back on this, that the captive Israel was remembered by God, and let us be sure that no circumstances of our lives are so dark or mysterious as to warrant the faintest shadow of suspicion creeping over the brightness of our confidence in this great promise. His divine remembrance of each of His servants is certain.
But do not let us forget that it was a very sinful Zion that God thus remembered. It was because the nation had transgressed that they were captives, but their very captivity was a proof that they were not forgotten. The loving divine remembrance had to smite in order to prove that it was active. Let us neither be puzzled by our sorrows nor made less confident when we think of our sins. For there is no sin that is strong enough to chill the divine love, or to erase us from the divine remembrance. ‘Captive Israel! captive because sinful, I have graven thee on the palms of My hands.’
II. A second thought here is that the divine remembrance guides the divine action.
The palm of the hand is the seat of strength, the instrument of work; and so, if Zion’s name is written there, that means not only remembrance, but remembrance which is at the helm, as it were, which is moulding and directing all the work that is done by the hand that bears the name inscribed upon it. The thought is identical with the one which is suggested by part of the High Priest’s official dress, although there the thought has a different application. He bore the names of the twelve tribes graven upon his shoulder, the seat of power, and upon his breastplate that lay above the heart, the home of love. God holds out the mighty Hand which works all things, and says to His children: ‘Look, you are graven there’-at the very fountain-head, as it were, of the divine activity. Which, being turned into plain English, is just this, that for His Church as a whole, He does move amidst the affairs of nations. You remember the grand words of one of the Psalms,-’He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.’ It is no fanatical reading of the history of earthly politics and kingdoms, if we recognise that one of the most prominent reasons for the divine activities in moulding the kingdoms, setting up and casting down, is the advancement of the kingdom of heaven and the building of the City of God. ‘I have graven thee on the palms of My hands’-and when the hands go to work, it is for the Zion whose likeness they bear.
But the same truth applies to us individually. ‘All things work together’; they would not do so, unless there was one dominant Will which turned the chaos into a cosmos. ‘All things work,’ that is very plain. The tremendous activities round us both in Nature and in history are clear to us all. But if all things and events are co-operant, working into each other, and for one end, like the wheels of a well-constructed engine, then there must be an Engineer, and they work together because He is directing them. Thus, because my name is graven on the palms of the mighty Hand that doeth all things, therefore ‘all things work together for my good.’ If we could but carry that quiet conviction into all the mysteries, as they sometimes seem to be, of our daily lives, and interpret everything in the light of that great thought, how different all our days would be! How far above the petty anxieties and cares and troubles that gnaw away so much of our strength and joy; how serene, peaceful, lofty, submissive, would be our lives, and how in the darkest darkness there would be a great light, not only of hope for a distant future, but of confident assurance for the present. ‘I have graven thee on the palms of My hands ‘-do Thou, then, as Thou wilt with me.
III. A last thought here is that the divine remembrance works all things, to realise a great ideal end, as yet unreached.
‘Thy walls are continually before Me.’ When this prophecy was uttered the Israelites were in captivity, and the city was a wilderness, ‘the holy and beautiful House’-as this very book says-’where the fathers praised Thee was burned with fire,’ the walls were broken down, rubbish and solitude were there. Yet on the palms of God’s hands were inscribed the walls which were nowhere else! They were ‘before Him,’ though Jerusalem was a ruin. What does that mean? It means that that divine remembrance sees ‘things that are not, as though they were.’ In the midst of the imperfect reality of the present condition of the Church as a whole, and of us, its actual components, it sees the ideal, the perfect vision of the perfect future, and ‘all the wonder that shall be.’ Zion may be desolate, but ‘before Him’ stands what will one day stand on the earth before all men, ‘the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven,’ having walls great and high, and its foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones. ‘Thy walls are before Me,’ though the ruins are there before men.
So, brethren, the most radiant optimism is the only fitting attitude for Christian people in looking into the future, either of the Church as a whole, or of themselves as individual members of it. God’s hand is working for Zion and for me. It is guided by love that does not lose the individual in the mass, nor ever forgets any of its children, and it works towards the attainment of unattained perfection. ‘This Man’ does not ‘begin to build and’ prove ‘not able to finish.’
So let us be sure that, if only we keep ourselves in the love, and continue in the grace of God, He will not slack nor stay His hand on which Zion is graven, until it has ‘perfected that which concerneth us,’ and fulfilled to each of us that ‘which He has spoken to us of.’
I said at the beginning of these remarks that God did what He bids us do. God bids us do what He does. His name should be on our hands; that is to say, memory of Him, love of Him, regard to Him, confidence in Him should mould and guide all our activity, and the aim that we shall be builded up for a habitation of God through the Spirit should be the conscious aim of our lives, as it is the aim which He has in view in all His dealings with us. Our names on His hand; His name on our hands; so shall we be blessed.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v14The Glorification of Zion by Jehovah’s Servant
The Glorification of Zion by Jehovah’s Servant
v. 14. But Zion, the capital of the chosen people as type of the Church of God, said, The Lord hath forsaken me, the God of the covenant having apparently turned against her, and my Lord hath forgotten me, her Bridegroom and Husband was utterly estranged from her. It is an expression of the deepest affliction of the soul, which is obsessed by the fear and terror of hell. Upon this the Lord Himself answers with words of glorious consolation,
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v. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, the tiny infant in her arms; that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? It is the strongest comparison which the Lord can find for human understanding. But His love and mercy surpass even the intense love of the fondest mother. Yea, they may forget, it may so happen that a human mother will so far forget herself and deny the call of natural affection, yet will I not forget thee, the heavenly Father’s love is so inexpressibly great and burning that He actually finds it impossible not to feel the compassion of love toward those that are His
v. 16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands, as a token that the picture of the Lord’s pity is indelibly impressed upon His heart and mind, that He has it before the eyes of His mind always; thy walls are continually before Me, He has them before Him in their proper and correct reconstruction; He sees His Church as a beautiful and perfect building, a habitation of His Holy Spirit.
v. 17. Thy children shall make haste, hurrying to the side of their mother as though they could not come fast enough to save and to glorify her; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee, leaving Zion in undisturbed possession of her city.
v. 18. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold, so the Lord’s consoling admonition proclaims, all these, the people gained for the Lord by the proclamation of the Gospel, gather themselves together and come to thee, to join the Church. As I live, saith the Lord, with a solemn oath of reassurance, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, like a bride putting on her rich garments, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth, as she girds her robes about her. The Church is pictured with a host of her children about her, their great number serving as her choicest ornament.
v. 19. For thy waste and thy desolate places and the land of thy destruction, the land of Judah with its many sacked cities and ruined farms being a type of the Church’s desolation in consequence of the Babylonian captivity, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away, the destroyers of the land being crowded out of the land by the increasing number of Jerusalem’s children, by the growing number of believers in the Messianic era.
v. 20. The children which thou shalt have, the spiritual offspring of Zion, after thou hast lost the other, those that were born to her during the time of the exile, shall say again in thine ears, this would surely come to pass once more that they would clamor, The place is too strait for me, too narrow for their increasing number; give place to me that I may dwell, providing enough room for those who would be born anew by the Spirit of God in the Word.
v. 21. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, in joyful surprise, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, before and during the Babylonian captivity, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? Zion was childless and unfruitful, rejected of her Lord and left by the wayside; she thought she had been utterly forsaken. And who hath brought up these? the children which now come with the demand that they be given sufficient room to spread out in the land. And once more her surprised question is sounded, Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? The Church cannot grasp the mercy of the Lord as it is revealed in this rich blessing. The Lord now gives a most solemn answer:
v. 22. Thus saith the Lord God, the all-powerful Ruler and Sovereign of the universe, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, in a signal which bids them come, and set up My standard to the people, a guide directing them in the right way; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, the spiritual children of Israel born in the midst of heathenism, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, in eager submission to the rule of the King of Peace.
v. 23. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, protecting and nurturing the Church, and their queens thy nursing mothers, fostering the cause of the believers in every conceivable manner; they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, in the attitude of submission and worship, and lick up the dust of thy feet, giving due homage to the Church on account of the obvious protection which the Lord gives to those that trust in Him; and thou shalt know, by the powerful proof thus given, that I am the Lord, the evidence to that effect being continuous and overwhelming; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me, this being a promise which applies to the believers of all times. Moreover, the Lord now answers an objection which might be made in view of the fact that the children of Zion were still in the power of the enemies:
v. 24. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the lawful captive, the entire band of captives, delivered? this being the somewhat dubious question put by the more timid, who see nothing of the promised deliverance.
v. 25. But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty, those whom the enemies thought they were holding most securely, shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, overcoming those who made war on His chosen people, and I will save thy children, therefore the future is so secure.
v. 26. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, in revenging the wrongs done to His people; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine, in a slaughter brought upon them by Jehovah; and all flesh, all people of the world, shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob, invincible in His power. Thus the Lord promises to bring Zion to the knowledge of His grace and love by imparting His salvation, while His judgment upon the enemies of His Church causes them to acknowledge His sovereign power and covenant faithfulness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv14, 16But Zion said
But Zion said
The word "Zion" is another name for Jerusalem. Isaiah speaks of the city as if it were a woman who complains that Yahweh has forgotten her. (See: Personification)
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Can a woman forget her baby, nursing at her breast, so she does not have compassion on the son she has borne?
Yahweh uses a question to help his people understand that he will never forget about them or stop caring for them. AT: "A woman would not forget her nursing baby or stop caring for the son she bore." (See: Rhetorical Question)
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16, 17 Read Isa. 44:23.
Read Isa. 44:23.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–17 Isa 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O…
Isa 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
Ver. 13. Sing, O heavens.] {a} The prophet having thus foretold the saints’ happiness in and by Christ, cannot hold, but breaketh forth into God’s praises, calling into concert all creatures which since the fall have lain bedridden, as it were, looking with outstretched neck for their full deliverance. {Rom 8:23}
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For the Lord hath comforted his people.] This is just matter of general joy.
{a} Enthusiastico iubilo, &c. - Oecolamp.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv13–17 The Lord hath comforted his people; God hath now…
The Lord hath comforted his people; God hath now sent that long-desired consolation of Israel.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v13 The scope of these verses is to show that…
The scope of these verses is to show that the return of the people of God out of their captivity, and the eternal redemption to be wrought out by Christ (of which that was a type), would be great occasions of joy to the church and great proofs of the tender care God has of the church.
I. Nothing can furnish us with better matter for songs of praise and thanksgiving, Isa 49:13. Let the whole creation join with us in songs of joy, for it shares with us in the benefits of the redemption, and all they can contribute to this sacred melody is little enough in return for such inestimable favours, Psa 96:11. Let there be joy in heaven, and let the angels of God celebrate the praises of the great Redeemer; let the earth and the mountains, particularly the great ones of the earth, be joyful, and break forth into singing, for the earnest expectation of the creature that waits for the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:19, Rom 8:21) shall now be abundantly answered. God's people are the blessings and ornaments of the world, and therefore let there be universal joy, for God has comforted his people that were in sorrow and he will have mercy upon the afflicted because of his compassion, upon his afflicted because of his covenant.
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II. Nothing can furnish us with more convincing arguments to prove the most tender and affectionate concern God has for his church, and her interests and comforts.
1. The troubles of the church have given some occasion to question God's care and concern for it, Isa 49:14. Zion, in distress, said, The Lord has forsaken me, and looks after me no more; my Lord has forgotten me, and will look after me no more. See how deplorable the case of God's people may be sometimes, such that they may seem to be forsaken and forgotten of their God; and at such a time their temptations may be alarmingly violent. Infidels, in their presumption, say God has forsaken the earth (Eze 8:12), and has forgotten their sins, Psa 10:11. Weak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, "God has forsaken his church and forgotten the sorrows of his people." But we have no more reason to question his promise and grace than we have to question his providence and justice. He is as sure a rewarder as he is a revenger. Away therefore with these distrusts and jealousies, which are the bane of friendship.
2. The triumphs of the church, after her troubles, will in due time put the matter out of question.
(1.) What God will do for Zion we are told, Isa 49:17. [1.] Her friends, who had deserted her, shall be gathered to her, and shall contribute their utmost to her assistance and comfort: Thy children shall make haste. Converts to the faith of Christ are the children of the church; they shall join themselves to her with great readiness and cheerfulness, and flock into the communion of saints, as doves to their windows. "Thy builders shall make haste" (so some read it), "who shall build up thy houses, thy walls, especially thy temple; they shall do it with expedition." Church work is usually slow work; but, when God's time shall come, it shall be done suddenly. [2.] Her enemies, who had threatened and assaulted her, shall be forced to withdraw from her: Thy destroyers, and those who made thee waste, who had made themselves masters of the country and ravaged it, shall go forth of thee. By Christ the prince of this world, the great destroyer, is cast out, is dispossessed, has his power broken and his attempts quite baffled.
(2.) Now by this it will appear that Zion's suggestions were altogether groundless, that God has not forsaken her, nor forgotten her, nor ever will. Be assured, [1.] That God has a tender affection for his church and people, Isa 49:15. In answer to Zion's fears, God speaks as one concerned for his own glory (he takes himself to be reflected upon if Zion say, The Lord has forsaken me, and he will clear himself), as one concerned also for his people's comfort; he would not have them droop, and be discouraged, and give way to any uneasy thoughts. "You think that I have forgotten you. Can a woman forget her sucking child?" First, It is not likely that she should. A woman, whose honour it is to be of the tender sex as well as the fair one, cannot but have compassion for a child, which, being both harmless and helpless, is a proper object of compassion. A mother, especially, cannot but be concerned for her own child; for it is her own, a piece of herself, and very lately one with her. A nursing mother, most of all, cannot but be tender of her sucking child; her own breasts will soon put her in mind of it if she should forget it. But, Secondly, It is possible that she may forget. A woman may perhaps be so unhappy as not to be able to remember her sucking child (she may be sick, and dying, and going to the land of forgetfulness), or she may be so unnatural as not to have compassion on the son of her womb, as those who, to conceal their shame, are the death of their children as soon as they are their life, Lam 4:10; Deu 28:57. But, says God, I will not forget thee. Note, God's compassions to his people infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents towards their children. What are the affections of nature to those of the God of nature! [2.] That he has a constant care of his church and people (Isa 49:16): I have engraven thee upon the palms of my hands. This does not allude to the foolish art of palmistry, which imagines every man's fate to be engraved in the palms of his hands and to be legible in the lines there, but to the custom of those who tie a string upon their hands or fingers to put them in mind of things which they are afraid they shall forget, or to the wearing of signet or locket-rings in remembrance of some dear friend. His setting them thus as a seal upon his arm denotes his setting them as a seal upon his heart, and his being ever mindful of them and their interests, Sol 8:6. If we bind God's law as a sign upon our hand (Deu 6:8, Deu 6:11, Deu 6:18), he will engrave our interests as a sign on his hand, and will look upon that and remember the covenant. He adds, "Thy walls shall be continually before me; thy ruined walls, though no pleasing spectacle, shall be in my thoughts of compassion." Do Zions' friends favour her dust? Psa 102:14. So does her God. Or, "The plan and model of thy walls, that are to be rebuilt, is before me, and they shall certainly be built according to it." Or, "Thy walls (that is, thy safety) are my continual care; so are the watchmen on thy walls." Some apply his engraving his church on the palms of his hands to the wounds in Christ's hands when he was crucified; he will look on the marks of them, and remember those for whom he suffered and died.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv13–17 Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth,.... Which…
Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth,.... Which may be understood of the heavens, and the earth by a personification, a figure usual in Scripture, to express the greatness of the benefit received, and to raise thankfulness and admiration in the hearts of God's people; see Psa 90:11 or by the heavens may be meant the angels in heaven, who, as they rejoice at the conversion of a single sinner, will much more rejoice at such numerous conversions among Jews and Gentiles, here prophesied of, Luk 15:10 and, by the "earth", the saints on earth, the excellent in it, who have a more immediate concern in, and must be affected with, the case here represented:
and break forth into singing, O mountains; such as are in high office either in the state, as Christian kings and princes, Isa 49:23 or in the church, as prophets and apostles, Rev 18:20. The reason of all this is,
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for the Lord hath comforted his people; with the discoveries of his love and grace; by his gracious presence among them; by the coming of Christ unto them in a spiritual way; by sending his Spirit, and renewing the face of things, and reviving his work in the midst of them; by the pure and powerful preaching of the Gospel, and comfortable administration of Gospel ordinances; and by large additions of converts made unto them:
and will have mercy upon his afflicted, or "poor", or "meek" and "humble" ones, as the words (l) may be rendered: the Lord's people is a poor and afflicted people, poor in a temporal and spiritual sense; the church and interest of Christ is in a poor and low condition: the Lord's people are afflicted outwardly and inwardly, and so become meek, and are kept humble; these the Lord, in the latter day, will raise from a low and distressed condition to a more exalted and comfortable one; which will be an instance of his mercy and compassion, and be matter of joy unto them.
(l) "pauperum suorum", V. L. "pauperes suos", Forerius; "inopes suos", Vitringa; "humiles", Sept. "mansuetorum", Targum.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14, 16 But - This is an objection. How can these…
But - This is an objection. How can these things be true, when the condition of God's church is now so desperate?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 16, 17 Verse 13. Break forth into singing, O mountains -…
Verse 13. Break forth into singing, O mountains - "Ye mountains, burst forth into song"] Three ancient MSS. are without the י yod or the conjunction vau before the verb: and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 17 Isa 49:14. But Zion said, &c. — This is…
Isa 49:14. But Zion said, &c. — This is an objection against all these glorious predictions and promises. How can these things be true when the condition of God’s church is now so sad and desperate? Most commentators understand by Zion here, the Jewish Church, and suppose that the complaint which she is here represented as uttering, refers either to her desolate state when in Babylon, or to the time of her long dispersion and desolation in the days of the Messiah. But Vitringa is of opinion that the Christian Church is rather intended, and that the time referred to is that of her cruel persecution under the Romans. Be it which it may, God here declares that he will show her mercy, and destroy her mighty oppressors, Isa 49:24-26.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–17 Sing, O heavens - In view of the glorious…
Sing, O heavens - In view of the glorious truths stated in the previous verses, that kings should rise up, and princes worship; that the Messiah would be for a light to the Gentiles, and that the true religion would be extended to each of the four quarters of the globe. The idea in this verse is, that it was an occasion on which the heavens and the earth would have cause to exult together. It is common in Isaiah thus to interpose a song of praise on the announcement of any great and glorious truth, and to call on the heavens and the earth to rejoice together (see the notes at Isa 12:1-6; Isa 42:10-11; Isa 44:23).
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17 Sion, the Jews, who will at last be converted…
Sion, the Jews, who will at last be converted in great numbers. (Houbigant)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv13–17 So Rev 12:12. God will have mercy on the…
So Rev 12:12. God will have mercy on the afflicted, because of His compassion; on His afflicted, because of His covenant.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv13–17 13. On this coming of disciples to Messiah from…
13. On this coming of disciples to Messiah from every quarter, the whole creation is poetically summoned to shout a paean of triumph. The subject of the song is, Comfort. The past and the future are joined in the promise, and those to be comforted are tenderly called his people. The blessings of the Messianic ages are summed up in the promise from first to last.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–17 13. The lyrical conclusion of the passage on the…
13. The lyrical conclusion of the passage on the Servant, partly resembling ch. Isa_44:23.
his afflicted] See on Isa_41:17.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv13–17 (13) Sing, O heavens.—As in Isa_44:23, all nature is…
(13) Sing, O heavens.—As in Isa_44:23, all nature is invited to join in the chorus of praise for the deliverance of Israel.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv13–17 Vers. 13-26. ZION COMFORTED IN HER DESPONDENCY. While the…
Vers. 13-26. ZION COMFORTED IN HER DESPONDENCY. While the future is thus glorious, both for the "Servant of the Lord" and for his people Israel, the present is gloom and misery. Zion not here the city, but the people of God desponds and says, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me" (ver. 14). This burst of grief, though arising from weakness of faith, is forgiven by the compassion of God, and "afflicted" Israel is "comforted" and consoled through the remainder of the chapter (vers. 15-26).
Ver. 13. Sing, O heavens. (comp. Isa_44:23) Heaven and earth are called upon to rejoice and "break forth into singing
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(1) because of the glory that awaits the Redeemer (vers. 5-12); and
(2) because of the gracious intentions of God with respect to Israel (vers. 16-26).
O mountains The majesty of mountains seems to have deeply impressed Isaiah. Throughout his writings they are continually introduced as the grandest of the works of God. (comp. Isa_2:2, 14 5:25 13:4 14:25 22:5 30:25 34:3 37:24 40:4, 9, 12 41:15 42:11, 15, etc.) He expects them to be especially ready to sympathize with man. Such a feeling would be natural to one accustomed to the hill-country of Palestine and the lofty heights of Hermon and Lebanon, but could scarcely have been developed in an exile of the time of Cyrus, born and brought up in the dead level of Babylonia. Hath comforted... will have mercy. Both verbs designate the same action, which is really future, but in God"s counsels is already accomplished. The perfect is thus, once more, that of prophetic certitude.
Vers. 13-16. The love of God for his Church.
The love of God for his Church is no doubt something mysterious, inscrutable, as are all the Divine attributes; but it is so pointedly set before us in many places, both of the Old and the New Testaments, that it must certainly be intended we should meditate upon it. We may with reverence consider it
(1) in its origin;
(2) in its action;
(3) in its results.
I IN ITS ORIGIN. God"s love for his Church would seem to originate in the fondness with which all intelligent beings regard the work of their own hands; that on which they have spent toil, time, labour, thought, care. God in creating the world had, primarily, his Church in view; he made all material things for the sake of man; and he made mankind with a view to his Church. He was moved to the creation of the world by a desire to have for all eternity a body of pure, good, happy, intelligent worshippers dwelling with him in heaven. He began by making man "in his own image", (Gen_1:27) with a moral nature, free-will, consciousness, personality, memory. He knew that, with these gifts, man would fall; but he determined from the first that out of fallen humanity he would raise up a certain number as many as would allow him save them, purify them, make them his "peculiar people", (Deu_14:2) his Church. In idea, we may say that God loved his Church before he had created it; for, knowing what it would be, he loved it by anticipation, recognizing in it the best, and so the dearest to him, of all his works. Such was his love for his Church in its origin. We have now to consider it
II IN ITS ACTION. As a means of obtaining that Church triumphant in heaven which he desired, God saw good to create a Church militant on earth, which should be its shadow and representative, and to make that Church the peculiar object of his care. For this Church he showed his love by unwearied, ceaseless watchfulness, by supernatural interpositions from time to time, by patient endurance of provocations, by occasional chastisements, by warnings, by providential guidance, by direct teaching from Sinai, by indirect instruction through a long series of inspired prophets and seers. Never forgetting, never forsaking Israel, he delivered them out of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, gave them Canaan, subdued the nations before them, saved them from the power of Assyria, brought them forth out of Babylon, sustained and supported them, until, in the fulness of time, he gave the strongest possible evidence of his love by sending forth his Son to die for his Church, and by his death to infuse into it fresh life, and transform it from a national into a world-wide society, from the Church of the Jews into the "holy Catholic Church the Church of all nations. And this Church he has built upon a rock; he has promised to be with it always; he has declared that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This Church he "nourisheth and cherisheth", (Eph_5:29) guiding it with his Spirit, sanctifying and cleansing it, (Eph_5:26) protecting it from its secret foes, delivering it from its avowed enemies. The Church of Christ for nearly nineteen hundred years has triumphed over all attempts to crush it and destroy it, not by its own strength, but through the love and care of the Almighty. The action of God"s love for his Church is thus, in the first place, to keep it in being; in the second, to purify and perfect it. It only remains to consider this precious love
III IN ITS RESULTS. The present results are:
1. That there is a witness for God in almost every land a witness which testifies unceasingly to the existence, power, and goodness of the Almighty; to the free offer of redemption through his Son, and to the free gift of sanctification through his Spirit.
2. There is a body which preaches holiness of life, even if it very imperfectly practises it.
3. There is a community which witnesses to the spirituality of man, to free-will, moral responsibility, the absolute and eternal difference of right from wrong, a future life, and judgment to come.
4. There is a body which hands on religion from age to age as a real living thing; a power seen in its fruits; a transforming, energizing power; not a philosophy, but a life. In the future the great result will be that which the Revelation of St. John indicates the eternal existence in heaven of a Church triumphant; "a multitude which no man can number," consisting "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," who will "stand before the throne of God, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands," praising him and ready to do his pleasure for. (Rev_7:9, Rev_7:10)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv14–16 But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me
Isa_49:14-16
But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me
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The more than parental love of God
I.
ZIONS BUILDING. Zion here signifies the true Church. Elsewhere she is called Jerusalem; and very frequently is she spoken of as a city or building.
1. If we inquire who is her builder, we find that there is but one who can properly be called by this name. The founder of the true Church is He by whom God made the worlds; therefore she is called The city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel (Isa_60:14). The plan of Zionsbuilding is older than the world itself. The Lord buildeth up Zion, and He alone. Whenever He uses any of us as His under-builders, He first makes us sensible of our own weakness; the excellency of the power is of Him, and not of us.
2. If we inquire concerning the foundation of the true Church, an apostle meets us with an answer: Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
3. If we consider the building itself, it consists of lively stones.
4. The operations of the great Master-builder are not uniform, but marked by diversity. Some stones are separated from their quarry, and brought off by a preparatory process, in a gradual and gentle manner. Others again, are shivered from their worldly holds, as by the explosion of rocks. If we closely inspect the building, we find the lively stones admirable for their unity, evenness, and mutual conformity.
II. ZIONS COMPLAINT. We have heard of Zion, the city and dwelling-place of our God: and that the Lord loveth the gates of Zion (Psa_87:2). But how faithfully and ardently He loves her, she herself does not always consider. Why else that complaint which now comes under our notice? It is acknowledged that circumstances may arise, under which nothing may appear more just than this complaint of Zion.
III. GODS PROMISE. Can a woman forget, &c. (F. W.Krummacher, D. D.)
The complainings of Zion silenced
I. WHAT THERE IS IN OURSELVES TO MAKE US FEAR LEST GOD SHOULD FORSAKE US. Our very fears have often a great show of reason in them; though they may be excessive, they are not wholly unfounded. As--
1. When we recollect how often we have forgotten and forsaken Him.
2. When the aspect of providence is dark and mysterious.
3. When the mind appears to be bereft of its ordinary supports and consolations.
4. When a great and prevailing doubt obtains as to the safety of our state after all.
II. WHAT THERE IS IN GOD TO CONVINCE HIS CHURCH THAT HE NEVER WILL FORSAKE HER.
1. It is contrary to His nature--as contrary to His nature to forget and forsake His Church as it is contrary to the nature of a kind and tender mother to forget and forsake her child. Our Lord teaches us to reason from the less to the greater. If ye, being evil, know how to give, how shall not your Father, &c.
2. It is contrary to His promise. Yet will I not forget thee.
3. It is contrary to the character of His dispensations, for He never has forsaken His Church.
4. It is contrary to His peoples own sober expectations. For Zion does not in her heart believe her own prophetic forebodings. She still speaks of Him, not only as the Lord in one part of the verse, but as my Lord in the other--which she would never do, as a reasonable person, had she finally forgotten or forsaken God, or believed that God had finally forgotten and forsaken her. (S. Thodey.)
The saints final perseverance secured by the love of God
I. THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT OFTEN CONDUCE TO SUSPICIONS ON THE PART OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD CONCERNING THE LORDS GOODNESS.
1. Times of deep affliction; of dark and mysterious providences; days in which there is no light.
2. These are seasons oftentimes, in which, through our frailty, imperfection, sin, and sinfulness, the weakness of our faith and the strength of unbelief, the believer may be led to form some suspicions concerning the goodness of God.
3. Besides this, there may be periods of deep spiritual temptation.
4. Some laxity in the walk will oftentimes briny strength to a mans suspicions here.
5. He may be in a state of spiritual captivity.
II. THE GREAT SECURITY THAT IS HERE PLACED BEFORE US. Can a woman forget her sucking child, &c. There cannot be a figure more tender, more comprehensive. It is the figure of a helpless babe: there is the tenderness of the tie; there is the helplessness of the child; and there is the very posture of the child; and they are all full of great and important truth; and yet according to those last words--they may forget; yet will I not forget thee--this is not enough. As though the Lord would say, If My love were not more than this, it would not be enough to secure thee.
III. GOD DOES GIVE PROOF THAT THIS TENDER LOVE DOES NOT FORGET. They may forget; yet will I not forget thee. He does not forget their persons. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands. They are borne upon the heart of the great High Priest. He forgets not the work of grace that is in them. He forgetteth not the trials of His saints. He forgetteth not the returns of His people He forgetteth not the walk of His saints. He forgetteth them not in death. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
A mournful complaint and satisfactory answer
What a difference is there between the judgment of God, and the judgment of men! We have a very striking instance of this in the passage before us.
I. A MOURNFUL COMPLAINT. Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, He exercises no care over me; and my Lord hath forgotten me, He feels towards me no affection. Let us look into this. The wicked think too much of the goodness of God; they mistake the evidences of His general bounty for the evidences of His peculiar friendship. While they live regardless of His praise, they yet hope in His mercy, and persuade themselves that He will not be rigorous to mark what they have done. The very reverse of this is the disposition of all the subjects of Divine grace. They know that self-deception is tremendous; and therefore they are afraid of self-deception; and they often carry their solicitudes here beyond the point of duty, and in reading and in hearing they will apply to themselves what was intended only for others; for, as an old divine says, There is no beating the dogs out without making the children cry. Let us try to trace up this complaint to its source; and to see the wretchedness that conclusion must produce in the minds of all Gods people. There is a philosophical notion, which is of a semi-infidel character, which supposes that the providence of God is general, and not particular. He regards the whole, and therefore must regard the parts; for the whole is always made up of parts; and He does regard the most minute parts. It is a religious despondency that affects Christians. It is not the influence of infidelity, but it is the influence, first, of unbelief, or weakness of faith. It arises also from ignorance. It springs sometimes from the suspension of Divine manifestation We may also mention conflicting with the troubles of life. We remark once more, the delay of God in the accomplishment of prayer. But who can find language properly to describe the wretchedness that such a conclusion as this, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me, must ever produce in the minds of the godly? The misery that the child of God feels from such a conclusion, may be accounted for by three things.
1. That he loves God.
2. He entirely relies upon Him.
3. He has enjoyed Him already. He has tasted that the Lord is gracious, and therefore prays, Evermore give us this bread.
II. THE SATISFACTORY ANSWER.
1. The improbability of the fear. This is metaphorically expressed: Can a woman forget her sucking child, &c. There are two supposable cases here. She may be bereft of reason, or not survive, and so not be able to remember it. She may be criminally, unnaturally, led to hide herself from her own flesh.
2. The certainty of the assurance, Yet will I not forget thee.
3. The all-sufficiency of the truth established, i.e the perpetual regard of God towards us.
Conclusion--
1. Distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion.
2. How concerned God is, not only for His peoples safety, but for their comfort also.
3. Let His people fall in with His designs. Let them be humbled, and mourn over their ignorance, perverseness, impatience, and unbelief; that they have entertained such hard thoughts of God; that they have so often charged Him foolishly, and unrighteously, and unkindly.
4. Do not take the comfort belonging to a gracious state, unless you are the subjects of a gracious character. (W. Jay.)
Unworthy doubts of God
How common is this weakness of unbelief in man; how natural are these unworthy doubts of God to us. Nor is it difficult to perceive the sources from which this inability to trust in Gods goodness springs.
1. There is the guilt of which we are conscious in our own hearts; the sense of evil desert m ourselves.
2. Then there comes in the undeniable fact of suffering in himself and all around him, which apparently, at first sight, justifies this attitude of mind, and certainly confirms it.
3. We thus discover a third source from which distrust in God springs; the perversions which have been substituted for the pure Gospel by different branches of the Christian Church (J. N. Bennie, LL. B.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v13 Isa_49:13-17. Sing, O heavens, &c.
GOD’S CARE FOR HIS CHURCH
Isa_49:13-17. Sing, O heavens, &c.
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I. Nothing can furnish us with better matter for songs of praise and thanksgiving than the tender care God has of the Church (Isa_49:13). Let the whole creation join with us in songs of joy, for it shares with us in the benefits of the redemption (Rom_8:19; Rom_8:21).
II. The care which God has for His Church is never to be doubted by us. True, the troubles of the Church have given some occasion to question His concern for it (Isa_49:14). The case of His people may sometimes be so deplorable that they seem to be forsaken and forgotten by Him; and at such a time their temptation may be alarmingly violent. Weak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, “God has forsaken us,” &c. But we have no more reason to question His promise and grace, than we have to question His providence and justice. He is as sure a Rewarder as He is a Revenger. Away, therefore, with those distrusts and jealousies which are the bane of friendship. The triumphs of the Church, after her troubles, will in due time put the matter out of question (Isa_49:17).
III. Be assured that God has a tender affection for His Church and people (Isa_49:15). In answer to Zion’s fears, He speaks as one concerned for His own glory; He takes Himself to be reflected upon if Zion say, “The Lord hath forsaken me;” and He will clear Himself. As one concerned also for His people’s comfort, He would not have them droop and be discouraged, and give way to uneasy thoughts. You think that I have forgotten you; “can a woman forget her sucking child?”
1. It is not likely that she should. A woman, whose honour it is to be of the tender sex as well as the fair one, cannot but have compassion for a child, which, being both harmless and helpless, is a proper object of compassion. A mother, especially, cannot, but be concerned for her own child. for it is her own, a piece of herself, and very lately one with her. A nursing mother, most of all, cannot but be tender of her sucking child. But
2. it is possible she may forget. A woman may be so unhappy as not to be able to remember her sucking child; she may be sick, dying, and going to the land of forgetfulness; or she may be so unnatural as not to have compassion on it (Lam_4:10; Deu_28:57). But, says God, “I will not forget thee.” His compassions to His people infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents toward their children (P. D. 1499).
IV. Be assured that God has a constant care of His Church and people (Isa_49:16-17). “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands,” alludes to the custom of wearing signet or locket rings in remembrance of some dear friend. If we bind God’s law as a sign upon our hand (Deu_6:8-11), He will engrave our interests as a sign on His hand, and will look upon that and remember the covenant, “Thy walls shall continually be before Me;” “thy ruined walls, though no pleasing spectacle, shall be in my thoughts of compassion.” Or, “The plan and model of thy walls, that are to be rebuilt, is before Me, and they shall certainly be built according to it.”—Matthew Henry. Commentary: in loco.
A GLORIOUS IMPOSSIBILITY
Isa_49:14-15. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, &c.
I. The believer, like Zion of old, is sometimes led to form suspicions concerning the Lord’s goodness. Such suspicions are apt to arise—
1. In periods of deep spiritual temptation: times of dark and mysterious providences; days in which God’s people “walk in darkness and have no light.” Such times are apt to come upon us through neglect of prayer, through neglect of some known duty; and then, instead of blaming ourselves, we are apt to distrust God.
2. In times of deep temporal trial.
II. The love of God for His people renders all such suspicions utterly unreasonable. A mother’s love for her child is tender and strong; many mothers have contentedly laid down their lives for their children; but history is full of proofs that a mother’s love for her child may utterly pass away. But God’s love for His people will never fail. “Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget; yet will not I forget thee.” How tender, comprehensive, and touching is this figure! There is much to be considered in it: the tenderness of the tie, the helplessness of the child, the very posture of the child.
1. The tenderness of the tie. [1513] The tie between God’s children and Himself is infinitely closer than that between a child and its mother. True, the child derives its life from the mother, as the medium by which the Lord doth communicate it; but God is the life of His saints. They live and move and have their being in Him, and He lives in them.
[1513] The young of all creatures are lovely and attractive always: but let us survey the image here. Here is a child, a harmless object, a helpless object, an endeared object, and towards which any one may feel compassion and tenderness. But you will observe that the child here is the mother’s own—“the son of her womb;” lately a part of herself, and endeared by the anxieties of bearing it, and the pain and peril of bringing it forth. Nor is this all; for the mother is a nursing mother. Isaiah scorned to take an image of exquisite tenderness from those wretches who, when they have it in their power, devolve this pleasing and (ask all the physicians) this salutary duty upon others, upon strangers, and upon hirelings; no, it is a nursing mother, and the child is a “sucking child,” looking up with ineffable satisfaction to his benefactor, and with his little hands stroking the cheeks of her who feeds him.—Jay.
2. The helplessness of the child. The helplessness and dependence of the believer is still greater. In a few months it will be able to walk alone; in a few years we shall find it not only walking and running, but labouring independently of its mother. But look at the believer—at those most advanced in the life of God, most filled with heavenly wisdom; look at “Paul the aged.” He is as feeble, as dependent, as helpless in himself as at the first moment (1Co_15:10).
3. The posture of the child: that is more touching still. There are few sights more endearing, as every mother will acknowledge, than that of a child hanging on her bosom, deriving the support of its physical life from herself. It is one of the most touching pictures that can be presented to our eye. And yet, compared with that of a believer, it is as nothing. His is not an unconscious hanging upon the author and sustainer of His being; His is a conscious, glad dependence upon God for those supplies that come from His Father’s heart, and minister to His spiritual life—that life which is the commencement of life eternal. Who can compare the one with the other? It is a closer tie, a tenderer tie, a more dependent object, and a posture infinitely more endearing. No wonder God gives the strong assurance which our text contains.
III. God’s love for His people manifests itself in a constant remembrance of their condition and needs. “Yet will I not forget thee,” is only another way of saying, “I will always remember thee.”
1. He does not forget their persons (Isa_49:16).
2. Nor the work of grace that is in them. It is described as His poem: “we are His workmanship”—His poem (Eph_2:10). A man takes care of his book; but if he has his own poem, will he be likely to forget that?
3. Nor their trials (Isa_43:2).
4. Nor their returns to Him (Jer_31:18).
5. Nor their obedience (Isa_64:5; Heb_6:10).
6. Nor their needs in death (Psa_116:15). Blessed truth, it is full of unutterable sweetness.
The subject is full of instruction.
1. It should lead to self-examination. Are we of the number of those whom God knows, in the sense of reproving and acknowledging as His? If He does not thus know us, how can we expect Him to remember us?
2. A sight of the helpless child hanging upon its mother’s breast should show us our own dependency, and take away every thought of self-sufficiency.
3. The fickleness of the tenderest of human affections brings out more clearly into view the glory of God’s love for His people.
4. The constancy of the Divine love should make us ashamed of our despondency and distrust in times of trial.
5. If God never forgets us, we should never forget Him.—J. H. Evans, M.A., Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iv. pp. 305–316.
I. A MOURNFUL COMPLAINT (Isa_49:14). The wicked think too much of the goodness of God, in reference to themselves; they mistake the effects of His general bounty for evidences of His peculiar friendship (H. E. I. 3977–3980). The very reverse of this is the disposition of all subjects of Divine grace; they know that self-deception is tremendous, probable, common, and are therefore afraid of it; they often carry their solicitude beyond the point of duty; they apply to themselves what was intended for others, and sometimes think themselves forsaken of God.
1. This arises sometimes
(1.) from the weakness of their faith ([1516]. H. E. I. 2014–2017).
(2.) From ignorance; they have a knowledge of God, but it is very imperfect, and therefore they form mistaken apprehensions as to the manner in which He is likely to deal with them.
(3.) From a suspension of divine manifestation. The sun is always in the sky, but it is not always visible. God hides Himself from the house of Jacob; and if you are part of the house of Jacob, you will be affected thereby (Psa_30:7). When He does this, it is not in the mere exercise of Divine sovereignty, but either as a prevention of sin, or as correction for it (Isa_59:2; Hos_5:15; Job_15:11; H. E. I. 1644–1659).
(4.) From conflict with the troubles of life. It is forgotten that these are really proofs that God has not forsaken us (Pro_13:24; Heb_12:6; H. E. I. 189–196, 3692–3695).
(5.) Sometimes from God’s delay in the accomplishment of prayer. Distinguish between the acceptance and the answer of prayer; God always immediately hears, but does not always immediately answer the prayer of faith (2Pe_3:9; Lam_3:26; H. E. I. 3884–3899).
[1516] Our comfort must always be according to our faith. “In whom,” Bays Peter, “believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” There is always consolation in God’s riches of glory by Christ Jesus; but these can only be perceived and apprehended by faith. There is always fruit enough upon the tree of life, but faith in the hand by which alone we gather it. There is water enough always in the wells of salvation, but by faith we must draw it.—Jay, H. E. I. 1252–1285.
2. Who can find language to express the wretchedness such a false conclusion causes? The misery produced by it in a child of God is due to three causes:—
(1.) He loves God, not perfectly, but supremely; and love can never be reconciled to the absence of its object.
(2.) He entirely relies upon Him, and therefore feels that if God has withdrawn from him, all must be darkness, dreariness, desolation, and death.
(3.) He has enjoyed Him already, and therefore nothing can satisfy him but God (H. E. I. 1018, 2378–2387).
II. A SATISFACTORY ANSWER (Isa_49:15). Notice,
1. The improbability of the fear. This is metaphorically expressed. The case supposed is not likely, but it is possible. But the tenderest feelings of nature are as nothing when compared with the kindness of God.
2. The certainty of the assurance. “Yet will not I forget thee.” With God there is no fickleness (Num_23:19).—H. E. I. 2324, P. D. 815.
3. The all-sufficiency of the truth established; that is, the perpetual regard of God for us. If His favour is set upon us, it secures everything else (Psa_84:11-12).
Concluding remarks.—
1. Distresses and discouragements are not incompatible with religion (H. E. I. 339–346, 2907).
2. See how concerned God is, not only for His people’s safety, but for their comfort also. Let His people fall in with this design (Psa_42:11).
4. Do not take the comfort belonging to a gracious state, unless you are the subjects of a gracious character.—W. Jay: “The British Pulpit,” vol. v. pp. 221–230.
We have here two assertions; Zion’s and God’s.
I. ZION’S ASSERTION. “The Lord hath forsaken me,” &c. Observe four things which may cause this complaint:—
1. The mysteriousness of Divine providence.
2. The long duration of Zion’s troubles.
3. Lack of success.
4. Zion’s own sinfulness and weakness.
II. GOD’S ASSERTION. “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” &c. “Yet will I never forget thee.” Why?
1. He is too nearly related to Zion.
2. He bestows too much thought upon Zion.
3. He has done too much on behalf of Zion.
4. He has given too many promises—great and precious—to Zion.
5. He expects too much from Zion.
6. He hath ordained that Zion shall for ever dwell in His immediate presence. “For ever with the Lord.” God, then, cannot forget His people.
Improvement.
1. Zion should at once withdraw her complaint.
2. As God will never forget Zion, Zion should never forget her God.
3. Zion should never despond in the presence of any untoward event which may overtake her.—W. Roberts, Penybontfawr, “Pregethau.”
1. God’s love is like a mother’s love. There is no love in this world like a mother’s love. It is free, unbought, unselfish (P. D. 2357). God’s love to a soul in Christ is stronger (Psa_103:13-14; Mal_3:17; Isa_66:13; H. E. I. 2322–2333; P. D. 1499). Be not cast down in affliction (H. E. I. 189–196). Deserted souls, God’s love cannot change unless His true nature change. Not till God cease to be holy, just, and true, will He cease to love the soul that hides under the wings of Jesus (H. E. I. 2324).
2. His love is full love. A mother’s love is the fullest love which we have on earth. She loves with all her heart. But there is no love full but that of God toward His Son; God loves Jesus fully—the whole heart of the Father is as it were continually poured down in love upon the Lord Jesus. But when a soul comes to Christ, the same love rests on that soul (Joh_17:26). True, a creature cannot receive the love of God as Jesus can; but it is the same love that shines on us and Him—full, satisfying, unbounded love. How can God forget what He fully loves? A creature’s love may fail; for what is a creature?—a clay vessel, a breath of wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But the Creator’s love cannot fail—it is full love toward an object infinitely worthy of His love—in which thou sharest.
3. It is an unchanging love. A mother’s love is, of all creature-love, the most unchangeable. But far more unchanging is the love of God to Christ, and to a soul in Christ: “I am the Lord; I change not.” The Father that loves has no variableness. Jesus who is loved, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How can that love change? It flowed before the world was; it will flow when the world has passed away. If you are in Christ, that love shines on you (Jer_31:3; Rom_8:38-39).—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sketches of Sermons.
These words apply, first of all, to God’s ancient people, the Jews, but they are equally true of all believers.
I. There are times when believers are apt to think themselves forsaken.
1. In time of sore affliction. So it was with Naomi, Hezekiah, Job. It is a sad thing when the soul faints under the rebukes of God. They were intended to lead you deeper into Christ—into a fuller enjoyment of God (H. E. I. 66–70).
2. When they have fallen into sin. As long as a believer walks humbly with his God, his soul is at peace. But the moment that unbelief creeps in, he is led away into sin—like David he falls very low. A believer generally falls lower than the world; and now he falls into darkness. When Adam fell, he was afraid; and he hid himself from God among the trees of the garden, and he made a covering of leaves. When a believer falls, he also is afraid—he hides from God.
3. In time of desertion. Desertion is God withdrawing from the soul of a believer; so that His absence is felt. Sometimes it pleases God to withdraw from the soul, chiefly, I believe, to humble us in the dust; or to discover some corruption unmortified; or to lead us to hunger more after Him. Such was the state of David when he wrote Psalms 42 (Job_6:4; Job_29:1-2; H. E. I. 1644–1659).
II. God cannot forget a soul in Christ: “Can a woman,” &c.
TO THE PREACHER.
1. Comfort downcast believers. Your afflictions and desertions only prove that you are under the Father’s hand. There is no time when the patient is an object of such tender interest to the surgeon, as when he is under his knife; so, you may be sure, if you are suffering from the hand of God, His eye is all the more bent on you (Deu_33:27).
2. Invite poor sinners to come and taste of this love. It is a sweet thing to be loved. I suppose the most of you have tasted a mother’s love; but this is nothing to the love of your God.
Oh! it is sweet to pass from wrath to love—from death to life. That poor murderess would leap in her cell, when the news came that she was not to die the murderer’s death; but, ah! ten thousand times sweeter would it be to you, if God were, this day, to persuade you to embrace Christ freely offered in the gospel.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 99–105.
GRAVEN UPON JEHOVAH’S HANDS
Isa_49:16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.
The prophets were more than half poets. The language here is highly figurative. It is a bold anthropomorphism. The words are used of Zion, the Church of God. That glorious building, complete in the Divine idea, is regarded as graven upon God’s hands. Each individual member of the spiritual Zion has his own place therein marked out by Jehovah. It is to the individual reference implied in the text that attention is invited.
I. Amid temptations to regard ourselves forgotten of the Lord, how consoling is the reflection that the life of the true believer in God is linked with the life of the Eternal! “Where there is no eye to see reality,” it has been said, “there is ever an eye-brow waiting to rise in scornful wonder at the name of it.” And again, “Where the substantial hand to grasp things worthy is wanting, there is always some thin shadow-hand to wave them off with mocking gestures.” But spiritual discernment embraces the fact, that man, and especially the Christ-like man, lives in God. The being of the godly is bound up with the being of God; they are specially dear to God, shall never be lost sight of by Him, have their life hid with Christ in God, and go forward to the fulness of life, to the pleasures, which, according to another use of the same figure, are said to be at God’s right hand for evermore. To speak after this manner is no doubt mysticism to the unspiritual. But the obscurity is in them. Not always is this momentous truth quite clear even to the spiritual; but it is peculiarly dark and unintelligible to those whose understanding has not been enlightened from above: for it is one of those things which “are spiritually discerned.”
II. Why it is often hard for even the believer in God to realise this union. Many reasons might be suggested. Consider one. The world is but a small part of the universe, and man’s life on earth bears but a small proportion to his God-given immortality. Hence the obscurity resting upon the purpose to which all things tend, and also upon the tendency itself as residing in the means to the end. Chance and accident seem to rule widely in this world. The goal is reached by much of seeming waste, sacrifice, and sorrow (H. E. I. 4033, 4034). As for the world, so for the individual, there is a divine idea, but it is a mosaic, beautiful as a whole, we may believe, yet tesselated with innumerable fragments. Why trouble ourselves unnecessarily, complaining till ourselves are hoarse, and others miserable?—why not just fall in to our little work patient, and believing that the Divine purpose is good, and will yet sparkle forth like a bright jewel from the short period of confusion? (H. E. I. 4047).
III. Consider some part of the proof that our union with God endures and is indissoluble.
1. The believer in God should find it easy to convince himself that there is much undeveloped power in the Church which shall yet be made manifest. And so with the individual. The feeling of undeveloped power within us, this feeling that there is life within us down below our present life, is identical with being graven on Jehovah’s hands. We do not know the possibility of our being, but we feel within us depths that no man knows, and which we ourselves, can appreciate with no distinctness.
2. Do not suppose, because you have been appointed a humble place in the world’s work, because your luxuries are few, and your hands never idle, and sickness like a lion ever crouching at the door of your house, that God has forgotten you, and not graven out your place on the palms of His hands. Poverty, weakness, suffering, shame, are not these just so many powers plying to bring up into play the deep, Divine life? (H. E. I. 91–98). In ways we cannot fathom, God is showing us that He remembers us, is present, ordaining for the best, in every circumstance of life. For the bringing of order out of seeming confusion, it is necessary to believe that He is present in the most trivial circumstances, and, as Christ says, numbers the very hairs of your head.—J. M. Simcock.
The text belongs primarily to the seed of Israel; next, to the whole Church as a body; and then to every individual member.
I. Consider our text verbally. Every single word deserves to be emphasised.
1. “Behold.” It is a word of wonder; intended to excite admiration. Wherever you see it hung out in Scripture, it is like an ancient sign-board, signifying that there are rich wares within, drawing attention to something particularly worthy of observation. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that God should grave upon His hands the names of sinners. Speak of the seven wonders of the world, why this is a wonder in the seventh heavens! No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word “Behold,” is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. How the Divine mind seems to be amazed at this wicked unbelief of man! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God’s favoured people? He seems to say, “How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven,” &c. Here follows the great marvel, that God should be faithful to such a faithless people, and that when He is provoked with their doubting, He nevertheless abideth true. Behold! and be ashamed and confounded for all your cruel doubts of your indulgent Lord.
2. Behold, “I have,” &c. The Divine Artist, who has been pleased to engrave His people for a memorial, is none other than God Himself. Here we learn the lesson which Christ afterwards taught His disciples—“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” No one can write upon the hand of God but God Himself. Neither our merits, prayers, repentance, nor faith, can write our names there, for these in their goodness extend not unto God so as to write upon His hands. Then, again, if the Lord hath done it, there is no mistake about it. If some human hand had cut the memorial, the hieroglyphs might be at fault; but since perfect wisdom has combined with perfect love to make a memorial of the saints, then no error by any possibility can have occurred; there can be no erasures, no crossing out of what God has written, no blotting out of what the Eternal hath decreed.
3. “Behold, I have graven thee.” Not, “I will,” nor yet, “I am doing it;” it is a thing of the past, and how far back in the past! Oh! the antiquity of this inscription! Do not these deep things comfort you? Does not eternal love delight you?
4. “Graven.” I have not merely printed thee, stamped thee on the surface, but I have permanently cut thee into my hand with marks which never can be removed. That word “graven” sets forth the perpetuity of the inscription.
5. “I have graven thee,” &c. “My Lord, dost thou mean me? Yes, even me, if I by faith cling to Thy cross.” “I have graven thee.” It does not say, “Thy name.” The name is there, but this is not all; “I have graven thee.” See the fulness of this! I have graven everything about thee, all that concerns thee; it is a full picture, as though the man himself were there.
6. We are engraven, where? Upon His hands, not upon the works of His hands. They shall perish; yea, they shall all wax old as doth a garment, but His hands shall endure for ever. Notice, it does not say, “I have graven thee upon the palm of one hand,” but “I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” There are two memorials. His saints shall never be forgotten, for the inscription is put there upon the palm of this hand, the right hand of blessing, and upon the palm of that hand, the left hand of justice.
Now let us proceed to the second part of the subject—
II. Consider the text as a whole. God’s remembrance of His people is—
1. Constant.
2. Practical. He will work and show Himself strong for His people; He brings His omnipotent hands to effect our redemption.
3. Eternal. You cannot suppose it possible that any person can erase what is written on God’s hand.
4. Tender.
5. Most surprising. Child of God, let your cheerful eyes and your joyful heart testify how great a wonder it is that you, once so far estranged from God, are this day written on the palms of His hands.
6. Most consolatory. There is no sorrow to which our text is not an antidote.
III. Be heedful of the duty which such a text suggests.
1. If you be partakers of this precious text, is it not your duty to leave your cares behind you to-day? Should not the fact that God always graciously and tenderly recollects you, compel you once for all to leave your burden with Him who careth for you?
2. If this text is not yours, how your mouths ought to water after it! Is there a soul here who says, “O that I had a part and lot in this matter!” Thou mayest have His pardoning love shed abroad in thy heart even now.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 512.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v16
Isaiah
THE WRITING ON GOD’S HANDS
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Isa 49:16.
In the preceding context we have the infinitely tender and beautiful words: ‘Zion hath said, The Lord hath forsaken me. Can a woman forget her sucking child? . . . yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.’ There is more than a mother’s love in the Father’s heart. But wonderful in their revelation of God, and mighty to strengthen, calm, and comfort, as these transcendent words are, those of my text, which follow them, do not fall beneath their loftiness. They are a singularly bold metaphor, drawn from the strange and half-savage custom, which lingers still among sailors and others, of having beloved names or other tokens of affection and remembrance indelibly inscribed on parts of the body. Sometimes worshippers had the marks of the god thus set on their flesh; here God writes on His hands the name of the city of His worshippers. And it is not its name only, but its very likeness that He stamps there, that He may ever look on it, as those who love bear with them a picture of one dear face. The prophecy goes on: ‘Thy walls are continually before Me,’ but in the prophet’s time the walls were in ruins, and yet they are present to the divine mind.
I. Now, the first thought suggested by these great words is that here we have set forth for our strength and peace a divine remembrance, tender as-yea, more tender than-a mother’s.
When Israel came out of Egypt, the Passover was instituted as ‘a memorial unto all generations,’ or, as the same idea is otherwise expressed, ‘it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand.’ Here God represents Himself as doing for Israel what He had bid Israel do for Him. They were, as it were, to write the supreme act of deliverance in the Exodus upon their hands, that it might never be forgotten. He writes Zion on His hands for the same purpose.
Now, of course, the text does not primarily refer to individuals, but to the community, whether Zion is understood, as the prophet understood the name, to be ancient Israel, or as the Christian Church. But the recognition of that fact should not be allowed to rob us of the preciousness of this text in its bearing on the individual. For God remembers the community, not as an abstraction or a generalised expression, but as the aggregate of all the individuals composing it. We lose sight of the particulars when we generalise. We cannot see the trees for the wood. We think of ‘the Church,’ and do not think of the thousands of men and women who make it up. We cannot discern the separate stars in the galaxy. But God’s eye resolves what to us is a nebula, and to Him every single glittering point of light hangs rounded and separate in the heaven. Therefore this assurance of our text is to be taken by every single soul that loves God, and trusts Him through Jesus Christ, as belonging to it, as though there were not another creature on earth but itself.
‘The sun whose beams most glorious are,
Disdaineth no beholder.’
Its light floods the world, yet seems to go straight into the eyeball of every man that looks at it. And such is the divine love and remembrance. There is no jostling nor confusion in the wide space of the heart of God. They that go before shall not hinder them that come after. The hungry crowd sat down in companies on the green grass, and the first fifty, no doubt, were envied by the last of the hundred fifties that made up the five thousand, and wondered whether the five loaves and the two small fishes could go round, but the last fed full as did the first. The great promise of our text belongs to me and thee, and therefore belongs to us all.
That remembrance which each man may take for himself-and we are poor Christians if we do not live in its light-is infinitely tender. The echo of the music of the previous words still haunts the verse, and the remembrance promised in it is touched with more than a mother’s love. ‘I am poor and needy,’ says the Psalmist, ‘yet the Lord thinketh upon me.’ He might have said, ‘I am poor and needy, therefore the Lord thinketh upon me.’ That remembrance is in full activity when things are darkest with us. Israel said, ‘My Lord hath forgotten me,’ because at the point of view taken in the second half of Isaiah, it was captive in a far-off land. You and I sometimes are brought into circumstances in which we are ready to think ‘God has, somehow or other, left me, has forgotten me.’ Never! never! However mirk the night, however apparently solitary the way, however mysterious and insoluble the difficulties of our position, let us fall back on this, that the captive Israel was remembered by God, and let us be sure that no circumstances of our lives are so dark or mysterious as to warrant the faintest shadow of suspicion creeping over the brightness of our confidence in this great promise. His divine remembrance of each of His servants is certain.
But do not let us forget that it was a very sinful Zion that God thus remembered. It was because the nation had transgressed that they were captives, but their very captivity was a proof that they were not forgotten. The loving divine remembrance had to smite in order to prove that it was active. Let us neither be puzzled by our sorrows nor made less confident when we think of our sins. For there is no sin that is strong enough to chill the divine love, or to erase us from the divine remembrance. ‘Captive Israel! captive because sinful, I have graven thee on the palms of My hands.’
II. A second thought here is that the divine remembrance guides the divine action.
The palm of the hand is the seat of strength, the instrument of work; and so, if Zion’s name is written there, that means not only remembrance, but remembrance which is at the helm, as it were, which is moulding and directing all the work that is done by the hand that bears the name inscribed upon it. The thought is identical with the one which is suggested by part of the High Priest’s official dress, although there the thought has a different application. He bore the names of the twelve tribes graven upon his shoulder, the seat of power, and upon his breastplate that lay above the heart, the home of love. God holds out the mighty Hand which works all things, and says to His children: ‘Look, you are graven there’-at the very fountain-head, as it were, of the divine activity. Which, being turned into plain English, is just this, that for His Church as a whole, He does move amidst the affairs of nations. You remember the grand words of one of the Psalms,-’He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.’ It is no fanatical reading of the history of earthly politics and kingdoms, if we recognise that one of the most prominent reasons for the divine activities in moulding the kingdoms, setting up and casting down, is the advancement of the kingdom of heaven and the building of the City of God. ‘I have graven thee on the palms of My hands’-and when the hands go to work, it is for the Zion whose likeness they bear.
But the same truth applies to us individually. ‘All things work together’; they would not do so, unless there was one dominant Will which turned the chaos into a cosmos. ‘All things work,’ that is very plain. The tremendous activities round us both in Nature and in history are clear to us all. But if all things and events are co-operant, working into each other, and for one end, like the wheels of a well-constructed engine, then there must be an Engineer, and they work together because He is directing them. Thus, because my name is graven on the palms of the mighty Hand that doeth all things, therefore ‘all things work together for my good.’ If we could but carry that quiet conviction into all the mysteries, as they sometimes seem to be, of our daily lives, and interpret everything in the light of that great thought, how different all our days would be! How far above the petty anxieties and cares and troubles that gnaw away so much of our strength and joy; how serene, peaceful, lofty, submissive, would be our lives, and how in the darkest darkness there would be a great light, not only of hope for a distant future, but of confident assurance for the present. ‘I have graven thee on the palms of My hands ‘-do Thou, then, as Thou wilt with me.
III. A last thought here is that the divine remembrance works all things, to realise a great ideal end, as yet unreached.
‘Thy walls are continually before Me.’ When this prophecy was uttered the Israelites were in captivity, and the city was a wilderness, ‘the holy and beautiful House’-as this very book says-’where the fathers praised Thee was burned with fire,’ the walls were broken down, rubbish and solitude were there. Yet on the palms of God’s hands were inscribed the walls which were nowhere else! They were ‘before Him,’ though Jerusalem was a ruin. What does that mean? It means that that divine remembrance sees ‘things that are not, as though they were.’ In the midst of the imperfect reality of the present condition of the Church as a whole, and of us, its actual components, it sees the ideal, the perfect vision of the perfect future, and ‘all the wonder that shall be.’ Zion may be desolate, but ‘before Him’ stands what will one day stand on the earth before all men, ‘the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven,’ having walls great and high, and its foundations garnished with all manner of precious stones. ‘Thy walls are before Me,’ though the ruins are there before men.
So, brethren, the most radiant optimism is the only fitting attitude for Christian people in looking into the future, either of the Church as a whole, or of themselves as individual members of it. God’s hand is working for Zion and for me. It is guided by love that does not lose the individual in the mass, nor ever forgets any of its children, and it works towards the attainment of unattained perfection. ‘This Man’ does not ‘begin to build and’ prove ‘not able to finish.’
So let us be sure that, if only we keep ourselves in the love, and continue in the grace of God, He will not slack nor stay His hand on which Zion is graven, until it has ‘perfected that which concerneth us,’ and fulfilled to each of us that ‘which He has spoken to us of.’
I said at the beginning of these remarks that God did what He bids us do. God bids us do what He does. His name should be on our hands; that is to say, memory of Him, love of Him, regard to Him, confidence in Him should mould and guide all our activity, and the aim that we shall be builded up for a habitation of God through the Spirit should be the conscious aim of our lives, as it is the aim which He has in view in all His dealings with us. Our names on His hand; His name on our hands; so shall we be blessed.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v14 The Glorification of Zion by Jehovah’s Servant
The Glorification of Zion by Jehovah’s Servant
v. 14. But Zion, the capital of the chosen people as type of the Church of God, said, The Lord hath forsaken me, the God of the covenant having apparently turned against her, and my Lord hath forgotten me, her Bridegroom and Husband was utterly estranged from her. It is an expression of the deepest affliction of the soul, which is obsessed by the fear and terror of hell. Upon this the Lord Himself answers with words of glorious consolation,
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v. 15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, the tiny infant in her arms; that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? It is the strongest comparison which the Lord can find for human understanding. But His love and mercy surpass even the intense love of the fondest mother. Yea, they may forget, it may so happen that a human mother will so far forget herself and deny the call of natural affection, yet will I not forget thee, the heavenly Father’s love is so inexpressibly great and burning that He actually finds it impossible not to feel the compassion of love toward those that are His
v. 16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands, as a token that the picture of the Lord’s pity is indelibly impressed upon His heart and mind, that He has it before the eyes of His mind always; thy walls are continually before Me, He has them before Him in their proper and correct reconstruction; He sees His Church as a beautiful and perfect building, a habitation of His Holy Spirit.
v. 17. Thy children shall make haste, hurrying to the side of their mother as though they could not come fast enough to save and to glorify her; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee, leaving Zion in undisturbed possession of her city.
v. 18. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold, so the Lord’s consoling admonition proclaims, all these, the people gained for the Lord by the proclamation of the Gospel, gather themselves together and come to thee, to join the Church. As I live, saith the Lord, with a solemn oath of reassurance, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, like a bride putting on her rich garments, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth, as she girds her robes about her. The Church is pictured with a host of her children about her, their great number serving as her choicest ornament.
v. 19. For thy waste and thy desolate places and the land of thy destruction, the land of Judah with its many sacked cities and ruined farms being a type of the Church’s desolation in consequence of the Babylonian captivity, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away, the destroyers of the land being crowded out of the land by the increasing number of Jerusalem’s children, by the growing number of believers in the Messianic era.
v. 20. The children which thou shalt have, the spiritual offspring of Zion, after thou hast lost the other, those that were born to her during the time of the exile, shall say again in thine ears, this would surely come to pass once more that they would clamor, The place is too strait for me, too narrow for their increasing number; give place to me that I may dwell, providing enough room for those who would be born anew by the Spirit of God in the Word.
v. 21. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, in joyful surprise, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, before and during the Babylonian captivity, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? Zion was childless and unfruitful, rejected of her Lord and left by the wayside; she thought she had been utterly forsaken. And who hath brought up these? the children which now come with the demand that they be given sufficient room to spread out in the land. And once more her surprised question is sounded, Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? The Church cannot grasp the mercy of the Lord as it is revealed in this rich blessing. The Lord now gives a most solemn answer:
v. 22. Thus saith the Lord God, the all-powerful Ruler and Sovereign of the universe, Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, in a signal which bids them come, and set up My standard to the people, a guide directing them in the right way; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, the spiritual children of Israel born in the midst of heathenism, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, in eager submission to the rule of the King of Peace.
v. 23. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, protecting and nurturing the Church, and their queens thy nursing mothers, fostering the cause of the believers in every conceivable manner; they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, in the attitude of submission and worship, and lick up the dust of thy feet, giving due homage to the Church on account of the obvious protection which the Lord gives to those that trust in Him; and thou shalt know, by the powerful proof thus given, that I am the Lord, the evidence to that effect being continuous and overwhelming; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me, this being a promise which applies to the believers of all times. Moreover, the Lord now answers an objection which might be made in view of the fact that the children of Zion were still in the power of the enemies:
v. 24. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the lawful captive, the entire band of captives, delivered? this being the somewhat dubious question put by the more timid, who see nothing of the promised deliverance.
v. 25. But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty, those whom the enemies thought they were holding most securely, shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, overcoming those who made war on His chosen people, and I will save thy children, therefore the future is so secure.
v. 26. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, in revenging the wrongs done to His people; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine, in a slaughter brought upon them by Jehovah; and all flesh, all people of the world, shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob, invincible in His power. Thus the Lord promises to bring Zion to the knowledge of His grace and love by imparting His salvation, while His judgment upon the enemies of His Church causes them to acknowledge His sovereign power and covenant faithfulness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 16 But Zion said
But Zion said
The word "Zion" is another name for Jerusalem. Isaiah speaks of the city as if it were a woman who complains that Yahweh has forgotten her. (See: Personification)
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Can a woman forget her baby, nursing at her breast, so she does not have compassion on the son she has borne?
Yahweh uses a question to help his people understand that he will never forget about them or stop caring for them. AT: "A woman would not forget her nursing baby or stop caring for the son she bore." (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
Zion
Yahweh
forsake
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13–14 49:13 This hymn of praise is in response to…
49:13 This hymn of praise is in response to the salvation that the servant would make possible.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.