Comfort from our Lord
June 28th, 2007 by tempe
I am working on a sermon for this Lord’s Day from Isaiah 40:1-5. Here is the text from the New American Standard translation:
“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.” A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
I remember first hearing the arrangements of this passage from Handel’s “Messiah” while taking a music appreciation class in college. We listened to the oratorio “The Voice of Him that Crieth in the Wilderness” and the aria “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted” (the KJV just sounds so much better there, doesn’t it?). I was reminded at this year’s General Synod of just how beautiful those arrangements are (the choir director at the Coddle Creek ARP Church did a wonderful job singing them; and because these words were Scripture I was drawn to the manifold promises of God — His preparation of our hearts by His grace, His removal of obstacles in redemption, the sending of John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.). When I meditate upon the Lord’s work in redemption, the verses in the latter song are wonderful to contemplate:
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill made low
The crooked straight
And the rough places plain
Thanks be to God for His works of grace, for His fulfilling of His promises to His people and to the nations (see v. 5 and think of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant and the Great Commission).