Isaiah 38:19 

 Something always gets a hold of me when I read this riveting passage of Scripture, Isaiah 38, comprised of 22 verses. It begins with doom and gloom, but it ends with a celebration of joyous victory. It begins speaking death, but it ends celebrating life. It begins with sickness, but it ends with divine intervention and miraculous healing. It begins with a prophecy of gloom and despair, but it ends with a glorious song of victory. It strongly teaches the reader that superintending all the vicissitudes of our transient lives, is a sovereign God who meticulously, providentially watches over us and is passionately concerned about our welfare. 

 In the beginning of the passage the prophet Isaiah is sent to speak death to the King Hezekiah, but he was instantly sent back to speak life. It informs us yet that God can change the verdict and sentence spoken over our lives. It begins in pain but concludes with a removal of the pain as suddenly as the sickness came. Pining sickness is defeated, and health is restored. It speaks of the power of God to reverse our misfortunes and after we have suffered a while to bring us out and bring us forth. Truly God can reverse it. That is our unchanging testimony and witness. 

 He can turn our darkness into light and our sorrow into joy and our mourning into dancing. He can rebuke death and prolong life. He can dry our weeping eyes and revive hope and joy. That “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh I the morning” is not just a superficial, nice–sounding phrase but for us an experiential lived truth. In Him we incessantly experience a reversal of fortunes, a vetoing of the power of darkness to wreak havoc in our lives and to execute mass destruction upon us. Therefore, it is with grateful hearts we unreservedly break out in joyful praise and worship and fill His temple and own lives with praise. Spontaneous, unending praise is our only response. 

 There are indeed some profound truths we learn from Hezekiah as he was brought back from his near-death-experience. When he was taken to the jaws of death and brought back, there was not a devil in hell that could stop his praise. Only he who feels it, knows it. People who have had near death experiences are different. Real crisis, real pain, real sickness changes the individual. When you have had real life crises; when you have had real dark nights of the soul and you come out – your praise is different. When you have been traumatized like Hezekiah was, and you come out you are never the same. 

 There is something about real deliverance that transforms us. You stop playing church! When the prophecy was – You are going to die for sure – Set your house in order – Plan the funeral and suddenly God turns it around. Tell me if you can come to church and be passive and ordinary. 

 Therefore, all I am saying to us today is God has done too much for us to come into His sanctuary and for us to sit here in praise less silence. We were supposed to die, to be dead, sleeping in our graves, but somehow Jehovah-Jesus got in there and transformed the entire landscape and direction of our lives. So, this is not ordinary praise today, but extraordinary praise to an extraordinary God who has done extraordinary things for us. This is the praise of a transformed worshipper. This is the praise of a different order. This is an after-the-battle praise! A victory praise! Like Hezekiah we declare “The living, the living shall praise thee, as I do this day . . .” (Isaiah 38:19). 

Presiding Bishop – Northeast Region 

September 30th, 2023