Songs of Deliverance and Triumph (Isaiah 12:1-6)

This sermon was preached on 22/7/2012

In John 7:37-39, the writer informs us that ‘On the last day of the feast [of Tabernacles], the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’ This was usually a very happy occasion, indeed it was claimed that whoever had not seen it had never seen the heights of rejoicing. What happened on that occasion was the priest for the last occasion during the feast took water from the stream of Siloam in golden vessels and poured it upon the altar. As he did so, the words of Isaiah 12:3 were sung. These words are, ‘With joy shall you draw water from the wells of salvation.’ At that moment, Jesus stood up and cried out that he fulfilled the words of that verse.

There are also parallels between this chapter and the song that the children of Israel sang at the Red Sea after they had been delivered from the Egyptians (Exod. 15), and these similarities can be seen should you compare both chapters. The Israelites had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt and they sang with great joy as they realised the extent of their freedom.

This chapter is a response to what is said in chapter 11 about the kingdom of the Messiah. His arrival had removed the darkness of judgement from the people of God as a whole, illustrated by being sent into exile, and had brought them into an environment of peace (depicted by changes in the animal kingdom). This happened when Jesus came and died; therefore we can say that chapter 12 gives a delightful picture of the New Testament church as it engages in the activities of praise to God, receiving sustenance from God, and evangelism.

Spurgeon likened the words of verse 2 (I will trust and not be afraid) as travelling to heaven in a first class compartment as distinguished from third class travelling found in Psalm 56:3: ‘When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.’ The problem most believers have is that they keep changing carriages; one time they are in first class enjoying God’s blessing, at another time they are in third class wondering if the conductor will discover that they have the wrong ticket.

In this passage the prophet predicts two different songs from the Lord’s people. The first song is in verses 1 and 2 and it is addressed to a male individual (‘you’ in verse 1 is singular), and then we have a comment by the prophet in verse 3 (the ‘you’ in verse 3 is plural, so the prophet is addressing all who sing the song); the second song is in verses 4 and 5 and it is addressed to the group in verse 3 (the ‘you’ in verse 4 is plural), and then we have the prophet’s comment on verse 6 (his comment here is addressed to a female individual identified as an inhabitant of Zion, which was a description of each person who worships the Lord). It is obvious that the two songs in this passage should be the response of every person who has tasted the goodness of the Lord.

Song 1 – The inhabitant of Zion is comforted (vv. 1-2)

Isaiah points out that the believer will praise the Lord for two reasons: one is that God’s anger is turned away from the believer and the other is that God comforts the believer. We could say that the hand that chastised now caresses.

Why was the Lord angry? He was angry because of their sins. This is also how Paul described the past of the believers who lived in Ephesus: they were ‘children of wrath’ even as others. That was a dangerous place for them to be.

Where did the anger of God go? The answer to that question is that it was appeased by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. There we see God’s anger in action. We have all heard of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. In it he points out that the anger God now shows against sinners in this life is the same anger as he will show against sinners in a lost eternity. The only difference is that today God wills not to unleash the punishment that sin deserves. But he is angry with the wicked every day.

Yet their experience of his anger was also felt in a particular sense when he convicted them of their sins. Conviction of sin before conversion is not a pleasant experience, even although it is an activity of the gracious God. Obviously there are degrees of conviction, with some believers experiencing more of it than do other believers. Yet whatever the degree, eventually it comes to an end when the person finds deliverance by believing in Jesus.

Upon believing in Jesus, the sinner discovers that the God who was convicting him now comforts him. The Holy Spirit who had been targeting him with strong assessments of his sin now gives him sweet consolation through the promises of the gospel. What comfort does a convinced sinner need?

No doubt, there are many but I think that there are three in particular, and they are connected to his experience of conviction of sin. He wants to know that his sins are forgiven, he wants to know that he will have the power to overcome remaining sin, and he wants to know that the time will come when he will be freed from the presence of sin. The Spirit gives comfort by reminding the converted sinner that these blessings will indeed be his. His weakness will be compensated by the wonderful fact that the Lord will be his strength. In fact God, because he is the covenant-keeping Lord, will perform every detail that his salvation involves, be it salvation from the penalty of sin (justification), from the power of sin (sanctification), and from the presence of sin (glorification).

This sense of comfort leads the believer to sing. By definition, a song is vocal; in other words, people hear it. Also a song is performed to convey a message; the singer is concerned about what the people will hear. So Isaiah is saying that is an element of public witness in what the inhabitant of Zion is doing. Perhaps he has in mind what Paul later describes in Ephesians 5:19-20: ‘addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Or it could be a song sung to those who are outside Zion, as in the later verses of Isaiah 12.

It is worth noting the straightforwardness of this song. The believer is focussed entirely on God and not on anything else. This is another key to joyful living. Of course, there is a wide range of material to sing about, whether we think of what he has done as Creator or Redeemer.

The inhabitants’ of Zion provision (v. 3)

The prophet says that weary believers [he changes to the plural pronoun in verse 3] will draw waters out of wells of salvation. It is not one well, but many wells, which is a wonderful way of depicting the blessings that come to believers as they travel through a desert land (or the wilderness which Hosea 2:14 says the Lord often takes those whom he intends to bless). They feel spiritually drained by the hostile environment they travel through and they feel tired and dry within. But there is always a well close at hand to which they can go at any time and drink their fill and find refreshment.

What are these wells? There are the wells of the Father: in them we find the blessings of adoption such as chastisement, assurance, sense of love. There are the wells of the Son: in them we find the benefits of the work of Jesus as our prophet, priest and king. There are the wells of the Spirit: in them we find the fruit of the Spirit. In a sense, the Spirit’s work is to apply to us the benefits of the Father and the Son as well as his own.

We drink from these wells by faith. Yet that faith is not alone because it is accompanied by other graces of the Spirit. Faith is not a clinical act, rather it is an attitude of the heart that is never alone. What graces are found alongside faith? Its twin is always repentance, they go together. Within the believer there will be this constant awareness that he is unworthy of God’s blessing, and this sense of unworthiness is the evidence of penitence.

Beside faith and repentance, there will be great joy. In God’s mathematics, the more repentance we have, the more joy we will have. Sometimes people complain about their lack of joy. In such a situation, assess your repentance. We should be sorrowful and always rejoicing.

Accompanying joy, there will be gratitude. The gratitude of a believer is strengthened because he realises that all he has received from God has been given freely. So here are believers marked by penitence, joy and gratitude because of the riches of God’s free grace. That is where we should be at all times.

Doxological evangelism

Verse 4 is a summary of the life of a believer: praise (praise the Lord), prayer (call upon his name) and witness (declare his doings among the people). Here we have a key to successful evangelism: it must flow from a praising and prayerful people.

The mission of the church is to remind the world of the greatness of God and the wonder of his actions. A man-centred church is a contradiction in terms. A church does not exist for itself, but to bring others to praise God. Therefore it tells the world what God has done in restoring sinners to his favour through the work of Jesus, and it tells the world what he will do in the future.

The church can perform this mission with confidence because it knows that the Lord is in her midst. This dependence on his presence is strengthened when we realise that the word ‘inhabitant’ is feminine. In Isaiah’s time, women would not be prominent in society because they were not as physically strong as men. Yet the strength that is found in Zion is not a creaturely strength, which means that even those regarded as weak would be able to take part in this song.

The presence of the Lord is the guarantee of safety as well as of satisfaction. They are the companions of the holy God, who delights to have them in his presence. But in his presence they should sing songs that highlight his majesty and his mercy. In doing so, they will engage in a form of evangelism that will stress the greatness of God.