Hopewell ARP Church is a Biblical, Reformed, Presbyterian church, serving the Lord in Culleoka, TN, since 1820. Lord's Day Morning, set your gps to arrive by 11a.m. at 3886 Hopewell Road, Culleoka, TN 38451
Read Isaiah 63:15–64:12
Questions from the Scripture text: What does Isaiah 63:15a–b ask YHWH to do? What is Isaiah concerned seems to be the case (verse 15c–d)? But what must be the answer—what two familial terms does Isaiah 63:16 use about YHWH? Even over-against whom? What has YHWH given them over to (Isaiah 63:17)? What is the hope for their returning? What does Isaiah call Israel in verse 17d, laying hold of that inheritance? And Isaiah 63:18a? What pitiful circumstance does Isaiah 63:18 plead? What even more pitiful circumstance does Isaiah 63:19 describe? For what solution does Isaiah 64:1 plead? In what sort of power, and to what end (Isaiah 64:1-2)? What precedent was there for this (Isaiah 64:3, cf. Exodus 19:18)? From forever to forever, what has only YHWH been and done (Isaiah 64:4)? What does God do for whom (Isaiah 64:5a–b)? And against whom (verse 5c)? What does this mean for Israel; what are they doing, and what do they need (verse 5d–e)? What is their condition (Isaiah 64:6a)? What is the quality of all their righteousnesses (verse 6b)? With what result in them themselves (verse 6c–e)? What doesn’t anyone do (Isaiah 64:7a–b)? Why don’t/can’t they (verse 7c–d)? What does Isaiah 64:8 again ask Him to be? What does it freely admit, as it asks for His help (cf. Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9)? What do Isaiah 64:9a–b ask Him to do? Upon what grounds (verse 9c)? What circumstances do Isaiah 64:10-11 again repeat? With what hoped for (or hoped against) response (Isaiah 64:12)?
What hope is there for those whose sins carry them away like the wind? Isaiah 63:15–64:12 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seventeen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the only hope for sinners is the love and zeal and power of the Lord, their Redeemer.
Having preached and written about God’s coming salvation in Christ, Isaiah’s attention now turns to Israel’s present situation. How can he compare the promised forever-salvation to just a few hundred years in the land (Isaiah 63:18) in which the people hardly walked with the Lord at all (Isaiah 63:19)? If God’s love waxes hot for His people, how can it be that He has given them over to such straying and such sin (Isaiah 63:17)?
The reality is that even the people’s best righteousnesses are like “garments of menstruation” (Isaiah 64:6b). Their sin easily prevails over them (verse 6c–e). What believer has not felt this to be true about himself?
So the prophet draws his hope not at all from the people’s character or intentions, but from God. He has made Himself not only Father to them (Isaiah 63:16a, verse 16d, Isaiah 64:8b—even in Christ, cf. Isaiah 9:6), but especially Redeemer (Isaiah 63:16e). This has been one of the keywords in the prophecy that the Spirit has compelled Isaiah to proclaim, and now he clings to the Lord as next of kin.
The bookends of this prophecy look to the Lord not only as Father, but as Redeemer—the Husband Whose passionate heart for His bride is expressed with zeal and strength (Isaiah 63:15, Isaiah 64:12). Surely, He will not restrain His love! In the Hebrew, Isaiah 64:1-2 are in the past tense; the prophet is crying out for what he wishes had already happened. But this implies continued prayer that it might happen even now, even more urgently that it would happen immediately. “Oh if you had already torn open the heavens and You would have come down!” (Isaiah 64:1). Man could not have imagined what the Lord would do at the Exodus (Isaiah 64:3), and Isaiah is counting on the Lord continuing to be this Lord. He is counting on Him continuing to be the One Who delivers His people in ways that ear couldn’t hear or eye see (Isaiah 64:4). And indeed, the Lord has done this: the Lord of glory has been crucified (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9)!
Can the Lord do this? Surely He has the power and authority to do so. Isaiah 64:8 marshals the same illustration used against the unbelief of rebellion (cf. Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9) to ward off the unbelief that would think that granting repentance from sin is too tall an order. Belief, faith, now cries out, “we are the clay, and You our Potter, and all we are the work of Your hand”!
For what do you feel the need, in your own life, that the Lord would tear open the heavens and come down in power and love and deliverance? In your family’s life? In your church’s life? In the life of the church more broadly? In the life of the nation? What hope can there be of this?
Sample prayer: Lord, You are our Father and our Redeemer, but we have strayed from Your ways and hardened our hearts from fearing You. We so often act as if You do not rule over us, as if we are not called by Your Name. And even our righteousnesses are as polluted garments. Our sinfulness so easily carries us away like a tornado. We forget to call upon Your Name. We do not, indeed cannot, stir up ourselves to take hold of You. But You are full of love to Your Redeemed, and You are almighty in power and great in zeal. Come now, and display all of that toward us. Tear the heavens open, as it were, and come down by Your Spirit and revive us and reform us. Restrain Yourself no longer, and display that You have forgiven us our sins, as You cleanse us from our remaining unrighteousness, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP51A “God, Be Merciful to Me” or TPH434 “A Debtor to Mercy Alone”
Read Psalm 119:89–96
Questions from the Scripture text: How long has YHWH’s Word been settled (Psalm 119:89)? Where? How long does His faithfulness endure (Psalm 119:90a)? What has he made firm (verse 90b)? With what result? What do heaven and earth do (Psalm 119:91a)? As what (verse 91b)? What were his delights (Psalm 119:92a; plural in the original)? What did this value system prevent (verse 92b)? What does he refuse to do (Psalm 119:93a)? Why—what has God used them in doing (verse 93b)? What does he ask and why (Psalm 119:94a)? What evidence does he have of God having taken him into covenant (verse 94b)? Who are doing what (Psalm 119:95a)? But what is he seeking to do (verse 95b)? Of what has he seen the limit (Psalm 119:96a; NKJ, “consummation”)? What has he discovered to be limitless (verse 96b)?
Where can true and lasting delight be found? Psalm 119:89–96 looks forward to opening portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that true and lasting delight can only be found in the Lord, by means of His Word.
The everlasting God and His limitlessly good Word. The bookends of this stanza (Psalm 119:89, Psalm 119:96) set the foundation for the core of the stanza (Psalm 119:92-93). And that foundation is the eternality of YHWH’s Word (Psalm 119:89). Though heaven and earth endure and abide (Psalm 119:89-91a), they are mere servants (Psalm 119:91b). It is YHWH Himself Who makes them to endure.
And there is nothing else in all heaven and earth that is characterized by such endurance and strength. Psalm 119:96 reduces the whole of Ecclesiastes to two (!) short clauses. The psalmist has exhausted (seen the limit/extent of) all perfection, as Solomon describes himself to have done. None of it could hold up. All of it ran out and could not give what the psalmist desired. But God’s Word has never failed him! God’s commandment has always had exactly what he needed for every situation.
The life-giving God and His delightful Word. The core of the stanza is not the endurance of the Word, but its pleasantness and power. How is it that God kept the psalmist from perishing in his affliction (Psalm 119:92b)? By working in him such a value system that earthly property, pleasures, and praise were not his delights. Rather, God’s law was his delights. “Delights” is plural in the original, implying that God’s good law was, for him, more than all the pleasures that spiritually dead men tend to go after.
And what a blessing this was to him! For, when the affliction came, he hadn’t lost his delights. He still had the great pleasures of God readily available in God’s law. I hope, dear reader, that God’s Word (and really, God Himself, by means of His Word) is such a pleasure to you that no affliction can rob you of that. If not, may His Spirit give you a “delights-reorientation,” or transplant, procedure beginning even now!
Even under that great affliction (Psalm 119:92), it was through His own precepts (Psalm 119:93a) that YHWH made the psalmist continue to live (verse 93b). This verb for “given me life” is the same verb as in the plea of Psalm 119:88, “Revive me!” So, there is a sense in which Psalm 119:89-96 are the joyous morning after the storm of Psalm 119:81-88. The affliction is over, and he has not perished, and one of the results of having come through this is having an even bigger view of God, and of His Word—and an even stronger commitment to finding his pleasure in in the Lord and drawing his strength from Him.
The covenant God, Who drives us to His Word. “For you, Me!” Psalm 119:94 literally begins. The “save me” (just one word) that follows is an echo of the “help me” (also just one) in Psalm 119:86. Both are forceful by their brevity, but this one more with the force of conviction than of desperation. How does the psalmist know that he is the Lord’s, and the Lord is his? Because he has sought the Lord’s precepts (Psalm 119:94b). The only answer that he has for why a sinner like he is would so desire to understand and discern (Psalm 119:95b; NKJ “consider”) God’s testimonies is the grace of God Himself. This is the proof that he is the Lord’s, and how he can be certain that the Lord will save him. The wicked produce wickedness like conspiracy to destroy life (verse 95a), but one characteristic of those in whom God has worked is that they earnestly desire a thorough understanding of God’s own testimonies. Do you have that desire, dear reader? Then it has come from God! Pursue this desire, in dependence upon His Spirit, Who will fulfill it! And if you do not so desire to understand His Word thoroughly, all hope is not lost. For, we are reminded here from whence it can come. Ask Him even for the desire! He works in us not just to work, but even to will, according to His good pleasure (cf. Philippians 2:12–13).
What encouragement can you draw from the fact that all creatures are God’s servants? What are your pleasures? How does your pleasure in thoroughly understanding God’s Word compare—what time, effort, wealth have you spent upon each? If your confidence that your belonging to God covenantally is genuine and spiritual, and not merely formal, were measured by how you have sought to understand His Word thoroughly, how confident would you be? What is an example of a created or earthly thing that has failed you? What never will?
Sample prayer: O Lord, heaven and earth continue this day as Your servants, by Your Word. But it is to us that You have given the pleasure of coming to worship You by means of Your Word. Grant to us to take such delight in You now, and such delight in Your Word, that no affliction could take our pleasure away, and no earthly enjoyment could compare to it. We are Yours! Save us! By Your Spirit, grant that we would seek earnestly to understand Your testimonies thoroughly. Dazzle us with the limitless blessedness even of Your commandments, as You delight us in Yourself in Christ, through Whom we ask it, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP119L “Evermore, O LORD” or TPH119L “Eternal Is Your Word, O Lord”