Sing A New Song
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 26th November service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
Isa 42:2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
Isa 42:3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
Isa 42:4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Isa 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
Isa 42:6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
Isa 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Isa 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Isa 42:9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
Isa 42:10 Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 42:11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Isa 42:12 Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.
Sing A New Song
The beauty of this chapter will be enhanced by at once recognising the identity of the Lord’s servant. In the previous chapter the Holy Spirit left open the question of the identity of the ‘righteous man from the east’. This time there is no doubt. Matthew in his Gospel specifies the Lord Jesus Christ to be God’s chosen servant, God’s elect in whom His soul delights. It is the Lord Jesus in His mediator role who is endued with Holy Spirit strength to bring salvation to the Gentiles.
Christ’s tender care
In this passage we read both of the Lord’s successful deliverance of His people and His tender care towards them who are bruised and troubled. Our Lord Jesus in His humanity was fortified and upheld by Jehovah God. In turn He fortifies and upholds His church. Christ was strengthened in His work and His people will not be broken despite the great number of enemies ranged against them. Isaiah is describing the Messiah’s success to encourage the Old Testament Jews. The Messiah will come, fitted and supported to fulfil God’s covenant purpose of grace and salvation, not only for the elect among the Jews but throughout the whole world.
An earnest of things to come
God reminds His people He created the heavens and the earth. The wonder of the created universe is a token, a guarantee of greater glory to come. Jehovah pledges to furnish His servant with help to secure the deliverance of all His covenant people. The Lord Jesus humbled Himself to fulfil His Father’s will for the Bride upon whom divine love rested from eternity. The Messiah would bring gospel light to the Gentiles. He would open men’s eyes to spiritual truth and deliver them out of captivity.
Christ our covenant
The Lord Jesus, together with His Father and the Holy Ghost, is a party to the covenant of grace. John Gill says Christ is ‘the representative of his people in it; the surety, Mediator, messenger, and ratifier of it; the great blessing in it; the sum and substance of it; all the blessings and promises of it are in him, and as such he is “given”. Gill continues, ‘it is of God’s free grace that he was appointed and intrusted with all this in eternity, and was sent in time to confirm and secure it for “the people”; given him of his Father, redeemed by him and to whom the Spirit applies the blessings and promises of the covenant; even the elect of God, both among Jews and Gentiles’.
A new song
These blessed people for whom the Lord Jesus is covenant, and for whom He died, receive eternal salvation but they are also predestined to experience and enjoy the privileges of new life and conversion in this world. They have a song placed in their heart. It is a new song, a song of gospel truth. The redeemed of the Lord sing praises to God who justifies sinners. They sing in worship of a Saviour who died and rose again. They sing of righteousness, redemption and rest. It is the new song of the new covenant for a people raised to newness of life and daily renewed in the inward man.
A gospel melody
It is also the new song of preachers sent to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, who rejoice in fruit for their labour and ‘give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands’. By this song the Lord goes ‘forth as a mighty man’, overthrowing kingdoms and gathering His church. God’s elect are sinners who are led out of blindness, made to walk in new paths, see in new ways and delight to honour the Lord in all their hymns of praise.
A message to comfort
Here, again, we see the wonderful clarity of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Christ’s victories and gospel success. These revelations came that God’s people in the Old Testament might be comforted in their personal pilgrimage and encouraged during the nation’s Babylon captivity. The old prophecies had been fulfilled now ‘new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them’ that the remnant people of Isaiah’s day might be strengthened and the faithful amongst the Jews sustained. In every age the Lord is at work and in every generation the Spirit of God watches over His flock protecting and comforting His own.
A solemn end
Isaiah ends the chapter with a very solemn and serious declaration. There would be those who would see the Messiah, hear His gospel and wonder at His miracles but they would not be saved. The scribes and Pharisees, for example, would witness the fulness of the revelation of Jesus Christ and observe His perfect holy life yet despite marvelling they would not hearken and they could not believe. Such is the deadness of the natural man. ‘Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?’ May the Lord grant us mercy and grace to hear.
Amen
Our hymns are below.
Hymn 1
Gadsby selection 571
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold.” Isa. 42. 1; 65. 1
W. Gadsby 148th
1
Behold, with wondering eyes,
The Servant of the Lord;
On wings of love he flies,
His counsels to unfold!
He comes, he comes with truth and grace!
And Zion shall behold his face.
2
Behold him as your Head;
Your Husband, and your Friend;
Your Saviour, and your God,
Your Way, your Life, your End.
Behold him as your Shepherd dear,
And on him rest when danger’s near.
3
Behold him as your King,
Whose laws are peace and love;
Mercy and judgment sing,
And set your minds above.
Behold him as your great High Priest,
With Zion’s name upon his breast.
4
Your Counsellor to plead,
Your Prophet he to teach;
A Daysman he is made,
To make up every breach.
On him depend; before him fall;
Behold him as your All in All.
Hymn 2
Gadsby selection 618
“I will lead them in paths … not known.” Isa. 42. 16
W. Gadsby 148th
1
The path that Christians tread
To reason’s eye is strange;
Through regions of the dead,
They frequently must range;
Ten thousand monstrous beasts of prey
Beset the soul by night and day.
2
We must not learn God’s truth
As school-boys learn their task;
Such knowledge is not proof
Against delusion’s blast.
An empty knowledge bloats with air,
But dies when dreadful storms appear.
3
Christians oft pray for faith;
To trace God’s beauties more;
To triumph over death;
And Jesus’ name adore.
God hears and answers their desire;
But ’tis through scenes of floods and fire.
4
When self and nature die,
And all our beauty’s gone,
The Saviour brings us nigh,
To trust in him alone;
’Tis then we trust his righteousness,
And rest alone on sovereign grace.
5
Thus Jesus wears the crown;
We gladly trace the power
That brings all nature down,
And leads us to adore
Jesus, the Lord our Righteousness,
Who saves in every deep distress.
The Lord Jesus Christ is God’s elect servant in the covenant of grace. He alone could serve as Mediator to reconcile God and fallen man. In His great work our Saviour was upheld by His Father and in turn Christ gently and tenderly upholds His people in the midst of their troubles. He saves our souls, teaches us the gospel and places a new song of praise in our hearts.
26 November 2023