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1.
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They that trust in the Lord: 2 Chron. 32:7,8. Hezekiah
trusted in the Lord more than any of the kings of Judah either before or after
him (2 Kings 18:5).
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As mount Zion, which cannot be removed. The
inviolability of Jerusalem, and of those who trust in the Lord, is the same.
This is certainly not always true, but it was quite sensationally true in the
great experience of Hezekiah’s reign (Isa. 31:5; Psa. 48:1-3,11-14). Zion
is the original “house built upon a rock” (Matt. 7:24,25).
“And the floods came... and beat upon that house” (Psa. 124:4,5;
Isa. 8:7,8!); “and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock”
— and that Rock was the Lord. (On a spiritual level, mount Zion is
synonymous with the new covenant in Christ: Heb. 12:18-25; Gal. 4:24-26 —
which certainly is also appropriate here.)
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2.
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As the mountains are round about Jerusalem. In what
sense can the immediate mountains about the Holy City be regarded as her
defense? Certainly not by their height alone, for though ten times higher than
the little “hills” on which Rome is built, none of the adjacent
mountains (not even Olivet) has any great elevation above the city itself.
However, Jerusalem is situated in the center of a mountainous region. Rugged
peaks and narrow passes secure the city against any rapid invasion by a large
force. And as the city is approached, a network of deep ravines and valleys
further breaks up the terrain. Finally, the old city itself is a peninsula of
land, immediately surrounded on three sides by steep valleys (at least, this
was so before some of the valleys were considerably filled in by the
debris of the centuries) (W.M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, pp.
667,668). But geography, while interesting in its own way, is not the
truth upon which the spiritual lesson is imposed: By whatever figure
employed, God alone is the defender of His city.
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So the Lord is round about his people. There will come
a time when the mountains are no longer round about, and the people of Jerusalem
are no longer preserved (Zech. 14:1-3). But in Hezekiah’s day, the Glory
of the Lord was round about, precisely as in 2 Kings 6:17 (cp. Zech.
2:4,5).
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3.
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The rod of the wicked = Asshur, or Assyria (Isa.
10:5,15,24; 9:4; 30:31), lifted up by God Himself against a wicked Judah. The
word there, as here, is shebet, or “scepter”,
signifying the exercise of authority. But the rod of the wicked shall not
rest or remain upon the lot of the righteous:
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“O my people that dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the
Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod... for yet a very little while (as
26:20), and the indignation shall cease” (10:24,25).
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In a re-enactment of the first Passover, the faithful shut
themselves in their house — in this case, Jerusalem — the doorposts
of their hearts sprinkled with the blood of faith (Heb. 10:22). All around them
is darkness, but in the presence of the prophet and king there is divine light.
In the morning the faithful awake to a new freedom: their vaunted oppressors lie
silent in death:
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“O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had
dominion over us [i.e., the Assyrian lords]... they are dead, they shall not
live [i.e., the Assyrian army]... thou hast visited and destroyed them [by the
Angel of death]... (but) thy dead men [like the fatally ill Hezekiah]
shall live... Awake and sing [the Songs of Degrees!]” (Isa.
26:13,14,19).
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Lest the righteous people put forth their hands unto
iniquity. The phrase “put forth” suggests that the
“iniquity” was turning in prayer to the “gods” of the
heathen, as Ahaz had done (2 Chron. 28:16-25). At the height of the crisis, it
would be a sore temptation to buy peace and easy treatment by forsaking Yahweh
for Asshur.
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4.
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Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, that is, to
those who hold in firm allegiance to Thee, the God of Israel. And here “Do
good, O Lord” means: ‘Answer the prayers of these faithful
ones.’ (This was a favorite theme and prayer of Nehemiah: 2:8,18; 5:19;
13:14,31.)
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5.
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As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord
shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. The special
righteousness and faith and trust of Hezekiah still was not enough to command
the loyalty of all his subjects (Isa. 32:4-7; 33:3; 30:16). There were even
among his counsellors (did Hezekiah choose them?) men of decidedly
different characters — men who wove spider webs of intrigue and
double-dealing diplomacy (Isa. 30:1), men who with silver tongues urged
compromises that would turn Israel aside from godly paths (vv. 9-11). Such
ministers were never completely eradicated in the best of times; it was probably
during Hezekiah’s long illness and confinement that they undid most of his
good reforms, and suggested and implemented the various Gentile alliances that
so weakened Judah.
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Chief among such traitors (no other word fits half as well!)
was Shebna (22:15). Shebna is condemned by Isaiah as a prominent representative
of false security and luxury in a time of national trouble, when true Israelites
should have been afflicting their souls. His end is not expressly recorded in
the Bible, but (unless he repented) it surely fulfilled in some way the scathing
prophecy of Isaiah: that any flight would be fruitless, since he was destined to
be led forth to captivity and death in a strange country (22:17,18). So this
subtle serpent was at last publicly displayed by God for what he was, and was
led away with other “workers of iniquity” to the place of his
death.
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But peace shall be upon Israel. The psalmist returns to
the concluding theme of other cycles in the Songs of Degrees: the entire nation
sharing in the peace upon Jerusalem (122:6-8; 128:6). Paul seems to quote this
verse:
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“And as many as walk according to this rule [i.e.,
crucifying the flesh and becoming new creatures], peace be on them, and
mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).
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It is noteworthy that in this concluding section of his
letter, Paul also states that God is not mocked, that a man shall reap
whatsoever he has sown (vv. 7-9). Shebna and his kind sowed to the flesh, and at
last they reaped the same. Their fleshly circumcisions availed them nothing, for
they never became new creatures (v. 15) — they continued to trust in the
arm and the mind of the flesh right to the end. But men like Hezekiah were not
weary in well-doing. They sowed the seed of faith and watered it with their
tears; in due season they reaped the reward (v. 9; Psa. 126:5,6): peace upon
Israel (2 Kings 20:19; Isa. 39:8).
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1.
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Trust in the Lord. This is ‘justification by
faith’, the matchless experience of those who are found to abide like
mount Zion and in mount Zion. Those who become affiliated with Zion will
share her destiny: like her, they will “abide” (yashab:
to sit down or reign) forever. They will become “pillars” in
the glorious millennial temple, and they “shall go no more out”
(Rev. 3:12).
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Both these psalms and Isaiah ring out with odes to the beauty
and desirability of Zion, the city of the great king. She is “beautiful
for elevation (RSV: cp. Zech. 14:10,11), the joy of the whole earth” (Psa.
48:2). She is the hill where God will dwell forever (Psa. 68:15,16; 132:13,14).
And Isaiah calls upon Zion to awake from her slumber (moral stupor), to shake
off the dust (of mourning), to loose herself from the yoke (of Assyria), and to
put on once again her beautiful garments (the priestly robes, symbols of
holiness and divine fellowship). His is the cry of victory at the vanquishing of
the murderous oppressors from the north:
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“For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the
uncircumcised and the unclean” (52:1,2).
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3.
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For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of
the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Here
is a practical illustration of the principle stated by Paul:
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“God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to
escape” (1 Cor. 10:13).
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We are such frail creatures that it would be no great
difficulty for God so to multiply our trials that hope and joy would be crushed
beyond recovery, and we would be led in despair to forsake righteousness and
follow iniquity. But God does not do this; instead, by a delicate balance, He
places His children in the testing fire only long enough to purge out the dross,
but not so long as to consume them. The trials of our faith are but for a moment
alongside eternity (2 Cor. 4:17,18), and they serve an indispensable end: the
perfection of godly characters that will be of everlasting use to the Father
(Prov. 3:11,12; Heb. 12:5-11). Let us take our cue from these records of
God’s dealings with His nation.
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“All these things happened unto them for types; and they
are written for our admonition” (1 Cor. 10:11).
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Perhaps we may in time approach the divine ideal of rejoicing
in our tribulations, seeing in them not present distress but future glory (Rom.
5:3; Matt. 5:10-12).
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