Isaiah

Isaiah Chapter 12

• Isaiah 12:1 And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
• 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

Here the author seems to take a break away from the usual prophecy and begins to praise the Lord and rejoice in the Lord for His salvation. I have heard many modern songs and choruses using these same words. If we could actually see with our eyes and hear with our ears what is prepared for those that love Him, we too would be rejoicing along with Isaiah. I believe in giving the Lord praise and worship due unto His name.

The rocks should not have to do the praising for us. There is nothing wrong with rejoicing, praising and worshipping God with our voices, music, instruments, and both at home and in our meeting together in assemblies. Sure we can become quiet, be dignified and have everything done in an orderly program but we may be in danger of becoming boring if we do. I don't believe God is boring, so our believer's meetings should not be boring either. It's exciting to serve the Lord and worship Him. It should be a "want to" thing, not a "have to" thing. He is our strength, our song, our salvation and the one in whom we trust. He is our life.

Look at the price Jesus paid for us to have eternal life and salvation. Is He not worthy of praise and from now and forever? Yet there are times for quiet worship. Some of them can be times of peace, comfort and quiet meditation of His goodness. Those are times when the Holy Spirit can speak to us and teach us His Word. Yes, there are times when we will be quiet before the Lord and listen for His voice to speak to us. This is not a boring, controlled quiet but a peaceful time of being in the presence of the Lord, listening for His direction and receiving His peace. To rejoice loudly with a joyful noise has its place also and we never should abandon it. 

• Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

This reminds me of the living water Jesus talks about in John chapter 4 and 7.

• "John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"

Notice that Jesus said, "as the scripture said." Jesus was referring to the Old Testament since the New Testament had not yet been written. If we search diligently we will discover a wealth of information about salvation in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament leads us to the Messiah and the New Testament reveals to us who the Messiah is.

• Isaiah 12:4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
• 5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.
• 6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. 

The words "in that day" most probably are referring to the day when the Messiah rules over the earth. However, we don't have to wait until that day to praise Him if the kingdom of Christ now reigns in our lives. We can have that living water and the salvation now and then also in that day. Sing unto the Lord. He is truly worthy of all our praise. This is everlasting, this is forever, this is eternity.

There are different ways to worship the Lord. We can pray and we need to pray both as a gathering of believers and also in our private places at home. We can worship by learning of His word studying diligently the scriptures to learn more about God and about His will for our lives. We can also sing about the Lord like most hymns do or sing unto the Lord like many of our modern praise and worship songs do. God looks at the heart and can surely see our sincere worship in song or with our voices. With or without instruments of music, worship can be a time of rejoicing and showing our thanks to God for His salvation. Singing to the Lord can be joyful and refreshing.

Isaiah 13

Isaiah Index