3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping.
Go from me, all you workers of evil; for the Lord has given ear to the voice of my weeping.
Keep me in mind, O my God, in connection with this, and do not let the good which I have done for the house of my God and its worship go from your memory completely.
Happy is the man in whom the Lord sees no evil, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
I have put the Lord before me at all times; because he is at my right hand, I will not be moved.
The Lord gives me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean before him. For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been turned away in sin from my God. For all his decisions were before me, and I did not put away his laws from me. And I was upright before him, and I kept myself from sin. Because of this the Lord has given me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean in his eyes. On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the upright you will be upright; He who is holy will see that you are holy; but to the man whose way is not straight you will be a hard judge. For you are the saviour of those who are in trouble; but eyes full of pride will be made low.
<To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> May the Lord give ear to you in the day of trouble; may you be placed on high by the name of the God of Jacob; May he send you help from the holy place, and give you strength from Zion; May he keep all your offerings in mind, and be pleased with the fat of your burned offerings; (Selah.)
I will do wisely in the way of righteousness: O when will you come to me? I will be walking in my house with a true heart.
I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping:
In the body of his mother he took his brother by the foot, and in his strength he was fighting with God;
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, See, here is a true son of Israel in whom there is nothing false.
Who in the days of his flesh, having sent up prayers and requests with strong crying and weeping to him who was able to give him salvation from death, had his prayer answered because of his fear of God.
For God is true, and will not put away from him the memory of your work and of your love for his name, in the help which you gave and still give to the saints.
For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done foolishly, for from now you will have wars.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of God.
And do what is upright and good in the eyes of the Lord your God, so that it may be well for you and you may go in and take for your heritage that good land from which the Lord undertook by an oath to your fathers,
Then his servants said to him, Why have you been acting in this way? you were weeping and going without food while the child was still living; but when the child was dead, you got up and had a meal. And he said, While the child was still living I went without food and gave myself up to weeping: for I said, Who is able to say that the Lord will not have mercy on me and give the child life?
The high places, however, were not taken away: but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.
He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him. For his heart was fixed on the Lord, not turning from his ways, and he did his orders which the Lord gave to Moses.
And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and daughters: And all the years of Enoch's life were three hundred and sixty-five:
He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but his heart was not completely true to the Lord.
This Hezekiah did through all Judah; he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And for everything he undertook, in connection with the work of the house of God and his law and orders, he got directions from God and did it with serious purpose; and things went well for him.
Now while Ezra was making his prayer and his statement of wrongdoing, weeping and falling down before the house of God, a very great number of men and women and children out of Israel came together round him: for the people were weeping bitterly.
Then, after hearing these words, for some days I gave myself up to weeping and sorrow, seated on the earth; and taking no food I made prayer to the God of heaven,
And I gave the Levites orders to make themselves clean and come and keep the doors and make the Sabbath holy. Keep this in mind to my credit, O my God, and have mercy on me, for great is your mercy.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 38
Commentary on Isaiah 38 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 38
This chapter proceeds in the history of Hezekiah. Here is,
This is a chapter which will entertain the thoughts, direct the devotions, and encourage the faith and hopes of those that are confined by bodily distempers; it visits those that are visited with sickness.
Isa 38:1-8
We may hence observe, among others, these good lessons:-
Isa 38:9-22
We have here Hezekiah's thanksgiving-song, which he penned, by divine direction, after his recovery. He might have taken some of the psalms of his father David, and made use of them for his purpose; he might have found many very pertinent ones. He appointed the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David, 2 Chr. 29:30. But the occasion here was extraordinary, and, his heart being full of devout affections, he would not confine himself to the compositions he had, though of divine inspiration, but would offer up his affections in his own words, which is most natural and genuine. He put this thanksgiving in writing, that he might review it himself afterwards, for the reviving of the good impressions made upon him by the providence, and that it might be recommended to others also for their use upon the like occasion. Note, There are writings which it is proper for us to draw up after we have been sick and have recovered. It is good to write a memorial of the affliction, and of the frame of our hearts under it,-to keep a record of the thoughts we had of things when we were sick, the affections that were then working in us,-to write a memorial of the mercies of a sick bed, and of our release from it, that they may never be forgotten,-to write a thanksgiving to God, write a sure covenant with him, and seal it,-to give it under our hands that we will never return again to folly. It is an excellent writing which Hezekiah here left, upon his recovery; and yet we find (2 Chr. 32:25) that he rendered not again according to the benefit done to him. The impressions, one would think, should never have worn off, and yet, it seems, they did. Thanksgiving is good, but thanksliving is better. Now in this writing he preserves upon record,