In that day you will say: "O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me. Sermons
I. THE FULL HEART SEEKS RELIEF IN RELIGIOUS SONG. If burdened with the sense of guilt, it must have its litany of grief and deprecation. Pain in the mind, the sense of lonely suffering, readily translates itself into the image of the anger of God. As Madame de Stael justly remarks, "When we suffer, we easily persuade ourselves that we are guilty, and violent griefs carry trouble even into the conscience." And when the suffering ceases, it seems as if a cloud had passed from the sky, and the anger of God were allayed. He who had been the Judge now appears as the Savior; the heart that had been trembling as the bruised reed is now strong as if the feet were based on eternal rock. Awhile dejected in the extreme, "writing bitter things against itself," presently it is filled with boasting and triumph in the sense of possessing God, nay, of being possessed by God. There is a long gamut of religious feeling; in critical moments the heart may run through every tone in the scale. In the simple life of feeling the religious spirit expatiates. The habit of flower, of bird, of child, opening to the sun, singing in the spring-time, is the reflection of that of the soul. We do not suffer our memories of a long and dreary winter to mar our enjoyment of the genial breath, the odors, sights, and sounds of spring-time. Nor should the sense of the long struggles, doubly wintry seasons of the hiding of God's face from the soul, linger in those moments when the Sun of righteousness returns with healing in his wings, and salvation is for the present a fact, no longer a hope. II. THE FITNESS AND BEAUTY OF THANKSGIVING. To withhold thanks from an earthly benefactor, whose hand has extracted us from a state of peril or need, is to show a deformed soul. To seal the fount of joyous religious expression, is the way to have presently nothing to express. For if expression follows naturally on feeling, so the cultivation of religious expression tends to form and to enrich the feeling itself. Nothing artificial is recommended; but it is well to recognize that sentiment, no less than thought, remains poorer than it need be without training and tillage. This psalm probably belongs to the period to which the last section of the psalter belongs; they are songs of deliverance, songs of return from exile, as those which immediately precede them refer to the dispersion. If the latter soothe us by the profound insight into suffering and sympathy with the soul in its seeming loneliness and exile from God, no less, maybe, the psalms of the return educate us in hope, reminding us that we are on our way to God, that our spiritual exile draws to its close, and "every winter yields to spring." - J.
And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee. As the Israel that was redeemed from Egypt raised songs of praise on the other side of the Red Sea, so likewise does the Israel of the second redemption when brought not less miraculously over the Red Sea and Euphrates.(F. Delitzsch.) (J. Parker, D. D.) (J. Parker, D. D.) In that day —I. EVERY PARTICULAR BELIEVER shall sing a song of praise for his own interest in that salvation (vers. 1-3). "Thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee." Thanksgiving work shall be closet work. II. MANY IN CONCERT. shall join in praising God for the common benefit arising from this salvation (vers. 4-6). "Ye shall say, Praise the Lord." Thanksgiving work shall be congregation work. ( M. Henry.) The text is many sided. We shall find out the very soul of the passage if we consider it as an illustration of what occurs to every one of God's people when he is brought out of darkness into God's marvellous light.I. THE PRELUDE of this song. Here are certain preliminaries to the music. "In that day thou shalt say." Here we have the tuning of the harps, the notes of the music follow after in the succeeding sentences. 1. There is a time for that joyous song which is here recorded. The term, "that day," is sometimes used for a day of terror, and often for a period of blessing. The common term to both is this, they were days of the manifestation of Divine power. "That day," a day of terrible confusion to God's enemies; "that day," a day of great comfort to God's friends. Now, the day in which a man rejoices in Christ, is the day in which God's power is revealed on his behalf in his heart and conscience. 2. A word indicates the singer. "Thou." It is a singular pronoun, and points out one individual. One by one we receive eternal life and peace. You fancy that it is all right with you because you live in a Christian nation; it is woe unto you, if having outward privileges, they involve you in responsibilities, but bring you no saving grace. Perhaps you fancy that your family religion may somewhat help you, but it is not so; there is no birthright godliness: "Ye must be born again." Still, I know ye fancy that if ye mingle in godly congregations, and sing as they sing, and pray as they pray, it shall go well with you, but it is not so; the wicket gate of eternal life admits but one at a time. This word, "thou," is spoken to those who have been by sorrow brought into the last degree of despair. 3. The next thing to be noted in the preliminaries is the Teacher. It is God alone who can so positively declare, "thou Shalt say." If any man presumes to say, "God has turned His anger away from me," without a warrant from the Most High, that man lies to his own confusion; but when it is written. "Thou shalt say," it is as though God had said, "I will matte it true, so that you shall be fully justified in the declaration." 4. Here is another preliminary of the song, namely, the tone of it. "Thou shalt say." The song is to be an open one, avowed, vocally uttered, heard of men, and published abroad. It is not to be a silent feeling, a kind of soft music whose sweetness is spent within the spirit. II. IN THE SONG ITSELF, I would call to your notice — 1. The fact that all of it is concerning the Lord. It is all addressed to Him. "O Lord, I will praise Thee: though Thou wast angry, Thine anger is turned away." When a soul escapes from the bondage of sin, and becomes consciously pardoned, it resembles the apostles on the Mount Tabor — it sees no man, save Jesus only. God will be all in all when iniquity is pardoned. 2. The next thing in this song is, that it includes repentant memories. "Though Thou wast angry with me." There was a time when God was to our consciousness angry with us. In the Hebrew the wording of our text is slightly different from what we get in the English. Our English translators have very wisely put in the word "though," a little earlier than it occurs in the Hebrew. The Hebrew would run something like this, "O Lord, I will praise Thee; Thou wast angry with me." Now we do this day praise God that He made us feel His anger. 3. The song of our text contains in itself blessed certainties. "Thine anger is turned away." Can a man know that? can a man be quite sure that he is forgiven? Ay, that he can; he can be as sure of pardon as he is of his existence. 4. Our song includes holy resolutions. "I will praise Thee." I will do it with my heart in secret. I will praise Thee in the Church of God, for I will search out other beliers, and I will tell them what God has done for me. I will cast in my lot with Thy people. I will praise Thee in my life. I will make my business praise Thee; I will make my parlour and my drawing room, I will make my kitchen and my field praise Thee. I will not be content unless all I am and all I have shall praise Thee. I will make a harp of the whole universe; I will make earth and heaven, space and time, to be but strings upon which my joyful fingers shall play lofty tunes of thankfulness. 5. This is a song which is peculiar in its character, and appropriate only to the people of God. I may say of it, "no man could learn this song but the redeemed." It is not a Pharisee's song — it has no likeness to "God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men"; it confesses, "Thou wast angry with me," and therein owns that the singer was even as others; but it glories that through infinite mercy, the Divine anger is turned away, and herein it leans on the appointed Saviour. It is not a Sadducean song; no doubt mingles with the strain. It is not the philosopher's query, "There may be a God, or there may not be"; it is the voice of a believing worshipper. It is not, "I may be guilty, or I may not be." It is all positive, every note of it. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) It is a full song — the swell of the diapason of the heart.( C. H. Spurgeon.) "Thou comfortedst me." Persons may be liberated from slavery by the arm of power; they may be rescued from oppression by the exercise of justice; they may be relieved from want by the hand of bounty; but to pour reviving consolation into the dejected mind is the kind office of pure affection and pity (Isaiah 66:13).(R. Macculloch.) Such will one day be the song of a ransomed nation, and such is even now the song of the ransomed soul. Until we can sing this song we do not know what praise really means. It is a striking contrast indeed.(1) It is a stern and terrible fact that there are some persons on whom the wrath of God does rest (John 3:36). There are few more startling expressions in the whole Bible than this. Think of the wrath of God abiding on you! You rise up in the morning, and there it is — hanging over you. You go forth to your work, the sun is shining in the outer world, making all nature jubilant, and over you this dark funereal pall is still hanging. You surround yourselves with all the pleasing scenes of a comfortable home. In the very midst of your comfort and prosperity still that cloud is there. You lay your head upon your pillow at night, and if you should think at all, your last thoughts might well be: If I never wake again here on earth, I must certainly wake to find the wrath of God abiding on me. This is not the only passage in which such an affirmation is made.(2) How did this great change indicated here take place? If you refer to the immediate context, you will learn a valuable lesson. In the previous chapters we meet with a very mournful refrain: "For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still." These sorrowful words come after a description of terrible and overwhelming judgment. This points to the solemn conclusion that, although it is perfectly true that sin always brings punishment in its train, the punishment which we endure, as the result of our sin, does not expiate its guilt. What was it that turned away the anger of God from Israel? The tenth chapter is merely a parenthesis. It is when the Rod of the stem of Jesse has appeared, and the eye of God, looking down upon His own nation, sees something within that nation that He is well pleased with, that a complete change comes over the aspect of things. The anger of God disappears, the sunlight of Divine pleasure bursts upon a rejoicing nation, and the next moment we are introduced to this song of triumphant praise. The moment that the eye of God, gazing down upon you, sees in your nature that which He beheld of old in the sacred land, and which He will behold again one day on a consecrated earth, the Plant of renown — Christ received into your nature, Christ growing in the thirsty, barren soil of your fallen humanity, like a root in a dry ground, and making all things fertile and fruitful by His presence — when God, gazing down, sees within you a received Christ, He has no anger, no judgment for that. You will be able to say, "Thou wast angry; Thine anger is turned away: Thou comfortedst me."I. In reaching this point the soul proceeds to make the most astonishing and glorious discovery it is possible for us to make. "Behold, God is my SALVATION." I suddenly discover that I have no longer anything to fear in God. He bridges over in His own blessed Person the vast chasm between my sin and His purity, and as I step upon this wondrous bridge I find that it will bear my weight. God Himself brings me to God. This salvation is offered to us for nothing. But it cost the Son of God something. This salvation is to be appropriated by simple trust. "I will trust, and not be afraid." II. But not only does the happy soul find out that God is his salvation; he goes on to find out that the Lord Jehovah is his STRENGTH. The very title which the prophet gives to God suggests the eternal immutability of the great "I Am." As we obtain salvation by taking God for our salvation, so we obtain strength by taking God for our strength with equally simple, childlike faith. III. When you have made the discovery that the Lord Jehovah is your strength, no wonder if you go on to make yet a third. He is our SONG. God designs that from this time forth you shall be perfectly happy; but, if you want to be really happy, God must be your song. When we think upon God there is always something to sing about. His faithfulness and truth; His unchanging love; His readiness to be to us all that we want; the hope that He holds out to us, blooming with immortality. IV. And, as the result of this, we shall "WITH JOY DRAW WATER OUT OF THE WELLS OF SALVATION." Some have sat beside the wells of salvation, from time to time, as a matter of custom and habit, and yet have never known what it was to draw water out of the wells with joy. You have come to church on Sunday because it happened to be Sunday. You were expected to be there, and there you were. Some of you have read your Bible because it is a proper thing to do. Your life has been a life of legal performances. Your prayers have been little better than superstitious incantations. Now all that is changed. It is with joy, and not with murmuring, that we are to find our wells. On more than one occasion the Israelites applied for water in this spirit, and found a curse mingled with their blessing. Let us dig our wells as they dug the well of old at Beer, when, though they lacked water, they were wise enough to leave the matter in the Lord's hands. Then it was God undertook for them. (Anon.) God, in His infinite mercy, has addressed the most various motives to sinners in general, to induce them to turn to Him. He has been pleased to set before sinners in His Word the immediate happiness that they may enjoy in His service, as incomparably greater than any they can hope to have in this world while absent and alienated from Him And this truth is not before us most strikingly in these words.I. We have to consider THE JOY THAT FLOWS FROM THE SENSE OF PARDONED SIN. 1. The first thing here declared to us is, that God does pardon the penitent believer. He was originally angry with him. God is, and must be, according to His Divine perfections, angry with those who are living in a state of rebellion against Him. But when a person is brought to believe in Christ that anger is gone. 2. And as this is the blessing itself, so is the believer, when faith is strong, assured of that blessing. But when I speak of this as a constraining motive why sinners in general should turn to God, they may feel that ungodly persons have no such burden. Yet though now the sinner may not feel his need of such a consolation, he may be assured that it is a consolation surpassing in value and in peace and in joy all that he has ever experienced in a life of indifference and ungodliness. II. THERE IS A JOY ARISING FROM TRUST IN GOD FOR FUTURE BLESSINGS. "Behold, God is my salvation," etc. 1. God is become the "salvation" of a penitent believer. That is, He accomplishes His entire deliverance from sin and its consequences. 2. God is his "salvation" from all present evil, and introduces him to the possession of all real good (Psalm 121:7; Psalm 84:11; Romans 8:28). Hence, then, the Lord does not reserve all the blessings of His people for the eternal world, but pours out His treasures of mercy upon them even now. And as God bestows upon His people this assurance that He is "their strength and their salvation," it must fill them with abiding joy. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) Methodist Times. At the Southport Convention, 1901, the Rev. W.Y. Fullerton told an amusing incident of a friend of his, not a Methodist, but with enough fire for two, who wrote a post card to a friend, and having filled up the back, wrote a closing message on the front of the card, "Be of good cheer, brother." And the Post Office authorities not only surcharged the recipient, but stamped beneath the message, "Contrary to regulations." Christian joy is legitimate, and not opposed to the regulations of heaven.(Methodist Times.) makes the firmest, the most active, the most useful, the holiest, the happiest, the most even and regular Christians.(John Bate.) People IsaiahPlaces Assyria, ZionTopics Although, Anger, Angry, Comfort, Comforted, Comfortedst, Comfortest, Hast, O, Praise, Thank, Thanks, Though, Turn, Wast, WrathOutline 1. A joyful thanksgiving of the faithful for the mercies of GodDictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 12:1 5029 knowledge, of God Library The Well-Spring of Salvation'Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. ISAIAH xii. 3. There are two events separated from each other by more than fifteen hundred years which have a bearing upon this prophecy: the one supplied the occasion for its utterance, the other claimed to be its interpretation and its fulfilment. The first of these is that scene familiar to us all, where the Israelites in the wilderness murmured for want of water, and the law-giver, being at his wits' end what to do with his … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture 'My Strength and Song' How Shall the Soul Make Use of Christ, as the Life, which is under the Prevailing Power of Unbelief and Infidelity. With Him, all Things Life in India. His Holy Covenant Appendix xiv. The Law in Messianic Times. Opposition to Messiah in Vain The Gospel Message, Good Tidings Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem Isaiah Links Isaiah 12:1 NIVIsaiah 12:1 NLT Isaiah 12:1 ESV Isaiah 12:1 NASB Isaiah 12:1 KJV Isaiah 12:1 Bible Apps Isaiah 12:1 Parallel Isaiah 12:1 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 12:1 Chinese Bible Isaiah 12:1 French Bible Isaiah 12:1 German Bible Isaiah 12:1 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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