Note: The first portion written in blue is spoken to God by someone, maybe Isaiah as the prophet or a group of the leaders, but either way hopefully representing all of the people. The red writing was spoken by God to His people stating what He has and will do for those whom He has assigned as His special people!
9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the LORD;
awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
Rahab is a word used in the Bible to refer to Egypt. Egypt was a powerful nation in those times. The word means proud, arrogant even blustering and is used to belittle the nation – to challenging its arrogant blustering attitude to Israel!
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?
– they remind God of His past great victories. The word redeemed here refers to their delivery from slavery!
11 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
I’m sure that this is able to sung because of the great things promised by God in the first verses of this Psalm, as discussed yesterday. Following this God speaks!
12 “I, I am he who comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
of the son of man who is made like grass,
13 and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
Wake up! Lift your eyes from what people can inflict on you to see Me, the ‘I AM’, the real source of authority!
And where is the wrath of the oppressor? – defeated! The oppressor (the conquerors) overcome and the oppressed relieved.
14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
he shall not die and go down to the pit,
neither shall his bread be lacking. – My promise says God!
15 I am the LORD your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the LORD of hosts is his name. – the use of ‘his’ and not ‘my’, makes me think that this line was interjected by Isaiah!
16 And I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
– What a stirring speech! Surely they must have felt uplifted and humbly proud because of what God has done and will do for them!!
From the OT – Joshua 21: 45 – Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
and from the NT – 2 Corinthians 1: 19,20a – the Son of God, Jesus Christ….. was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
Prayer: Thanking You for those promises already fulfilled, please keep me believing that Your, as of now, unfulfilled promises will be made good in Your good time.