God's Empty Alter

The Lord's Promise to Save the World  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Isa 43:22-44:8

Intro

General Illustration - a child grown weary of their mother’s voice, until the father comes home for work.
Specific illustration - Christian apostate children, who grow weary of the way, and wander into the filth of the world.
-Standing in the church and looking out the windows.
-Many of those who professed faith in the school I grew up in have fallen away,
While this is attributive to a host of factors, not the least of which is a simple growing weary of the Lord.

Purpose

Today we’re going to continue to see the Lord’s interaction with His people under three large ideas.
1 The Lord disciplines and despises apathy, He graciously promises blessing despite sin, He is only one who can do it!.

Review:

One long continuous prophecy, going back and forth through various themes, including:
Israel mixing God’s worship with the worship of the pagans, and how much God hates it. (As Israel was meant to influence the nations unto godliness, not the other way around.
the worship in the OT related to premature anticipation, looking forward to the future Messiah
(Israel’s election) God set apart a nation from the nations, a tribe from the tribes, a family in that tribe, and a single man in that family,
this was to point to the Christ, the mediator between God and man, the seed of Abraham through which all the families of the earth would be blessed.
God rebukes the error of election pride
Though God will judge the wicked within Israel as a national and civic state, the true Israel of God, Israel as a church, will abide forever, and God will multiply and give children to her.
The error of not being able to separate Israel as a church from Israel as a nation
The Servant of Yahweh needs to be seen as a complex person, a Body and a Head; in essence the same image by which we view the church. Those in the body are represented by the Head.
Sometimes the whole servant is Addressed, sometimes just the head, sometimes just the body.
The Seed of Abraham/Jacob/Israel listed in Isa 41, is the body of Christ, the Head of the Servant of Yahweh as seen is Isa 42
The Servant of Yahweh is promised to lead Justice to victory, and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His Law!
God constituted the true Israel, His elect people to be His witnesses, to know an believe in Him.
The reason for the constitution of God’s people is for them to know and believe and witness and testify that Yahweh is and there is no Savior besides Him —We know Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh, Emmanuel, come to save sinners. (the true Jehovah’s Witnesses)
God calls His shots, predicts the end from the beginning.’
He challenges all false gods in their failure to do this.
What He does, no one can reverse. He is utterly sovereign.
He chooses His people.
God’s work is promised to change the face of all the creation.
God destroys the enemies of His people (as represented by the Babylonians.)
He is saving the world through the Christ.
He is gathering the citizens of the new creation.
He is totally rennovating the world.
Because He is making all things new, a new earth, and new people, who sing to the Lord a new song.
Today we’re going to continue to see the Lord’s interaction with His people under three large ideas.
1 The Lord disciplines and despises apathy, He graciously promises blessing to the world despite sinners, He only one who can do it!

The Lord's response to apathy 43:22-28

The Firey Rebuke

Isaiah 43:22–23 LSB
22 “Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob; But you have become weary of Me, O Israel. 23 “You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings, Nor have you glorified Me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, Nor wearied you with frankincense.
After God’s extensive promise of making a way for them through the wilderness, and making a path for them through the wasteland, destroying their enemies, and all such high and wonderful promises, He turns to rebuke their present state.
The examples held forth are representing the entire form of worship.
Despite what God has done in History, they have grown weary.
-like the ones who run to the pomp of eastern orthodox or Rome because they grow tired of the simple preaching of the word
-like children who go behind the school to huff glue, because they’ve grown tired of obedience and dilligence
-like a wife of 20 years who’s left her husband to go live with another man, because she’s grown weary of the first
-like a man heaps up pornography, because he’s grown weary of the love of his wife.
-like a Christian who’s given up on reading the Scripture, pressing into God’s presence, because he is just tired of communion with God.
-like a Christian who simply doesn’t feel like churching and worshipping. he has grown weary.
Have you grown weary! are you tired of the voice of the Lord!?
Kindle afresh the anointing that is within you.
Strengthen the things which remain, you who have grown weary of your first love.
Wake up, and strengthen what remains. He comes at an hour you don’t expect.
You who are Lukewarm, become hot again in fervent spirit for Yahweh, lest He spit you out of His mouth.
Like newly weds, remember your first love.
His commandments are not burdensome
Isaiah 43:23 LSB
23 “You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings, Nor have you glorified Me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, Nor wearied you with frankincense.
And how much less so now that we are no longer under the tutor of the law?
under the temple system, the sacrifices, the blood offerings, of bulls and goats, the feast days, the rituals.
How much less weary is it to know God in spirit and in truth, to taste of His sweet bread and drink His wine, to fellowship with His people.
To press into the throne room of God, the holy of holys in prayer
to petition Him day and night
How burdensome is it?
How much do the people of God prefer the filth of the pigs, the slope of the world, the godless philosophers, and cry out to Nebuchadnezzar, “Save us, Hosaanna”
Man runs to every tool and advantage under the sun for his problems then to trust and rely and wait upon the King of the ages, and to obey dilligently His word.
Isaiah 43:24 LSB
24 “You have not bought Me sweet cane with money, Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; Rather you have burdened Me with your sins; You have wearied Me with your iniquities.
You have not offered your first fruits, the first of your day, your time, your money, the fruit of your lips, and your life to Yahweh.
You have turned not the pages of Scripture, but the pages of the world, you have not sought His face, but your lust.
You have burdened Him again and again with the same sins, running again and again to the same filth.
To you apathy to your doubt to your unbelief
These wicked roots, which bear in sprout into bitterness, sinful anger, envy, sexual immorality, Greed
Put to death these deeds, weary Him no longer.
You have grow weary of God, and wearied Him with your sins. Over and over again, how much will you test Him in your iniquity!
Here’s a quote from John Owen from the “mortification of sin”, concerning the lusts and sins in which you return to again and again:
“It may only be a short time before you see the face of God in peace no more. Perhaps by tomorrow you will not be able to pray, read, hear, or perform any of your Christian duties with the least bit of cheerfulness, life, or vitality. And it may be possible that you will never see another quiet hour while you live. You may carry around broken bones, full of pain and terror, all the days of your life. Perhaps God will shoot his arrows at you, and fill you with anguish and torment, fears and bewilderment. He may make you a terror and a shock to yourself and others, or show you hell and fury every moment. He may frighten you with anticipation of his hatred so bad that the sores of your sin will open and seep, and your soul will refuse to be comforted. You will wish for death rather than life. Consider this a little. Although God would not utterly destroy you, he might just throw you into this condition where you will have immediate and living visions of your destruction. Move your heart to think of this. Let your heart know what it is like to be the product of its sinfulness. Do not leave this imagery until you have made your soul tremble within you.”
Put these things to death! And by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the law. The Law has no power to enable obedience, only condemn. Seek the Lord, call upon Him in the power of holiness, and you will be set free from the power of sin over your life.
And cut off every hand, every arm, rip out every organ, trash every device, every book, everything that causes you to stumble.
Better to enter into heaven without these things than to be cast into hell.
..
But even though ye have sinned.

The Forgiveness

But
Isaiah 43:25 LSB
25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.
He will wipe out the transgressions of His people, He will clean you, and cleanse you.
Micah 7:19–20 LSB
19 He will again have compassion on us; He will subdue our iniquities. And You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea. 20 You will give truth to Jacob And lovingkindness to Abraham, Which You swore to our fathers From the days of old.
On the basis of His promise. For His own names sake. He brought you out of Egypt, and He will take you to the promise land, by His grace. By His promise, the power of His word.
He is mighty to save.
He will not remember them. They will come to mind no more. He will not think of them any longer.
Quote from Lion and the Witch and the Wardrobe, after the traitor Edmund is rescued by Asland and brought back into the camp.
“When the other children woke up next morning (they had been sleeping on piles of cushions in the pavilion) the first thing they heard from Mrs Beaver — was that their brother had been rescued and brought into camp late last night; and was at that moment with Aslan. As soon as they had breakfasted they all went out, and there they saw Aslan and Edmund walking together in the dewy grass, apart from the rest of the court. There is no need to tell you (and no one ever heard) what Aslan was saying, but it was a conversation which Edmund never forgot. As the others drew nearer Aslan turned to meet them, bringing Edmund with him. “Here is your brother,” he said, “and — there is no need to talk to him about what is past.”
In forgiveness, there is a holy forgetfulness, Almighty Alzheimer's.
The all knowing God, promises to forget the transgressions of His people. He rmeembers them no more. This is done through the cross, through the payment of your sin by Jesus.
Therefore, if God doesn’t remember you sin, you ought not to remember one anothers.
You hear me, keep no record of wrongs, because to do so is to be antiChrist.
Isaiah 43:26 LSB
26 “Bring Me to remembrance, let us enter into judgment together; Recount your cause, that you may be proved right.
God forgets your sin, and commands you to remember Him!
What an awesome thought that this Holy One desires a relationship, with you!
Bring God to your remembers, recall Him to your memory you apathetic ones; time to argue your case, that you may be justified. Declare your cause that you may be justified.
Will you prevail?
How do you stand before Him?

The First Father

Isaiah 43:27 LSB
27 “Your first father sinned, And your spokesmen have transgressed against Me.
Your first father sinned. Adam, the first man, sinned. By his sin, sin entered into the world, and death through sin.
Romans 5:12–14 LSB
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the trespass of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
(they are not formally charged with sin through the revelation of the law, but despite that fact, people were still dying, because they were under Adam and they died anyway. They didn’t sin against a direct commandment of God necessarily, but Adams sin entered, and you have inherited his sin.
The spokesmen too, Moses, David, the preachers, the prophets, they’ve all sinned.
All have sinned. The best of us, the best of our kind, the best we can muster, still sin. They are still corrupt.
Though faith one is transfered from being under Adam to being under Yahweh; which are you under? Under Adam? or Christ?
As in Adam all die, so also in Christ, all will be made alive. The natural man is dying day by day, the new man is being renewed; though his outter man decays, his inner man is renewed day by day in the strength of godliness and holiness.
How does God respond to the continuing apathy and sins of His people? His rebellious people, well because of His holiness
Isaiah 43:28 LSB
28 “So I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, And I will give Jacob to be devoted to destruction and Israel to revilement.
He gives them over to discipline. He disciplines the nation.
And God disciplines the church, to remove those which are no churches indeed!
God disciplines His church & children individually. He can take away the lampstand from one church, and give it another. He can make one a byword and a proverb among the people, like Mars Hill.
He can give over a whole denomination to apostacy like the Methodists.
So that they ordain transgender dogs, recite the sparkle creed, and do conga lines singing love train.
God disciplines His children.
He atones for their sin in the cross, but those who take upon His covenant, they are subject to discipline;
-it’s something we ought to be thankful for.
Charles Spurgeon said: “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”

The Lord's gracious revival of Israel (44:1-5)

Restoration of the chosen
Isaiah 44:1 LSB
1 “But now hear, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen:
Chosen people of God: listen up. Seed of Abraham, chosen one, kingdom of priests.
Isaiah 44:2 LSB
2 Thus says Yahweh who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant, And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
Thus says the God who put you together.
Do not fear, O Jacob.
Don’t fear that the discipline of the Lord means that His plans will fail, or His promises. Do not fear that His discipline means that He will make and end of you, but trust Him. Don’t fear when He disciplines you, that you will be cast off forever. Hear His promises:
Just a reminder here,
The true Israel, God’s chosen people, His servant, the elect church, existed with the civic national Israel, and the Gentiles are called into the true Israel of God in the new testament (while the unbelieving Jews are kicked out), any believing person who is a new creation is a part of the Israel of God, a Jew inwardly, the true circumsion, the true desendent of Abraham, and the true elect, and children of promise.
So don’t stumble at this; those who are in Christ have every spiritual blessing, and every promise of God that exists, in Christ, it is “yes and amen.” Affirmed and confirmed in Christ, all things are given to those who are in Christ.
I bring this up, because this is a point of contention, and a big part of why you should be a part of this church, as opposed to many others in this town, even my beloved seminary Shepherd’s.
They will read this section, and every other, and will say that because these promises are made to the Jews, and you are not a Jew that therefore these promises are not for you. They deny the inheritance of believers based on the flesh. Maybe they are for you by analogy (that God promises this one people at one time, so most likely the same is still true for us today.)
These people don’t understand what makes someone Jewish in the first place (it’s not physical lineage, consider the fact that all of Abraham’s house was circumcised, Ruth, a Moabite, became a Jew, etc. etc.), they don’t understand the Jews, nor the people of God.
The BHI’s the “black” “hebrew” Isrealites”
who are neither black (**explain the non black thing**), nor Hebrew, nor Isrealite.
They think that Israel is the Africans who were enslaved and brought to America.
It’s because of passages like this, where God speaks so lovingly to the nation, that all these contentions arise, because people are eager to claim the promises for themselves, and to deny others of them.
But if you follow the Apostles teaching, they teach that all who are in Christ are the Israel of God, to whom is afforded every promise and blessing.
(side note on the BHI encouter Friday night.)
Deuteronomy 28:68 LSB
68 “And Yahweh will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
**By that logic, any people group who have ever been chained and sold into slavery would be genetic Jews, so therefore we’re all Jews I guess, because the Europeans were enslaved by the Africans; russians enslaved themselves, the slaves were slaves, etc.
“Men, women, and children were captured to such a devastating extent that vast numbers of sea coast towns were abandoned. According to Robert Davis, between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the 15th and 19th centuries.”
So, I’m going to reserve the right to bring this up repeatedly throughout this book, because this truth is actually revealed very clearly in Isaiah, as well will see in chapters 63, and 66, and 54, and 49, and many others,
I reserve the right to say it because it is one of a few unique threads which connects this church to the Puritans, and the early church, which is categorically denied by most other Christians in town this town, being under the sway of a man named Darby.
As a small church we ought to lean into our distinctives, so far as they are surppassingly godly, that God may bless us with growth.
Isaiah 44:2 LSB
2 Thus says Yahweh who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant, And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
Jeshurun is a poetic and endearing name for Israel. It’s stem means “straightness” or “uprightness” and it’s a proper name.

Renovation of the earth

Isaiah 44:3 LSB
3 ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty ground And streams on the dry land; I will pour out My Spirit on your seed And My blessing on your offspring;
We’ve spoken a lot of the promise of the new renovated creation, that God promises to pour out water in the dry places, to give life to where there is none.
And herein it is connected to the great promise of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Israel’s Seed!
To the children of promise, herein is a promise! God will pour out His Spirit on the seed!
Acts 2:38–39 LSB
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
Now just because the promise is for all whom God calls, non necessarily of physical lineage, does not negate the fact that herein (In Isaiah) a promise is made to the children of believers.
God promises to pour out the Spirit on the seed of the faithful!
He is promising it to our fathers, and this promise is still. That God has ordinarily ordained the salvation of the children of believers through the means of godly parenting. They are promised to be part of the covenant, so long as the faithful are that, faithful.

Raining down of the Spirit

Isaiah 44:3–5 LSB
3 ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty ground And streams on the dry land; I will pour out My Spirit on your seed And My blessing on your offspring; 4 And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.’ 5 “This one will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s’; And this one will call on the name of Jacob; And this one will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to Yahweh,’ And will name Israel’s name with honor.
He will rain down the Spirit.
The pouring out of the Spirit is deeply connected to the imagery of washing and cleansing with water, and with the symbol of baptism; it is the pouring out of Spiritual life, of life itself in to the world, and into the heart of the believer’s soul!
Now Jesus said to Nicodemus:
John 3:3–6 LSB
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
The parallel of being born again is being born of water and Spirit, and this image I believe is directly connected to what is said in
Ezekiel 36:25 LSB
25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols.
Where God promises to take His elect and sprinkle them clean, and cleanse them from all their idols and filth.
So the pouring out of the Spirit is deeply connected to the imagery of water.
Herein promises Yahweh to pour out water on the dry land, and His Spirit on the seed of Israel, and they will pop up, like populars, like gardinas, daises and dandelions,
like poppies in a poppy-field.
Like a bountiful field, covered in little flowers, the flowers of believers…/
To hell with unbelief, God has widespread revival, resurrection. Our world, our city is full of the dead!
He has promised.
I’m sick of unbelief, I’m sick of my OWN unbelief. I’m sick of powerless prayers.
Isa 62:6-7
Isaiah 62:6–7 LSB
6 On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind Yahweh, take no rest for yourselves; 7 And give Him no rest until He establishes And sets Jerusalem as a praise in the earth.
We are the New Jerusalem, for this morning we are in faith ascending to the courts and throne room of Yahweh Himself, with Christ at the right hand of the Father, seated in the Holy of Holies. He doesn’t have to leave like the weak high priests of men, like the sinful spokesman, but He sits there!
Give Him no rest! Until God fulfills His promise!
Until this one says, “I am Yahweh’s” and this other one will name the name of Jacob with honor.
The Spirit of God is poured out on Pentacaust,
And don’t you dare tell me that that was a temporary provision that was fulfilled in 70 ad.
That’s God’s Spirit only was poured out them.
Yes, new revelatory doctrine has ceased
yes the signs of the apostles has ceased
but if you don’t believe in the supernatural power and presence of the Holy Spirit today at work in the church today, that you are in grave error.
His spirit grants faith, it frees the people from the power of sin, it enlightens the mind in understanding Scripture, it fills God’s people with strength, He guides and directs them,
And in this age the only limitation of your intimate and personal knowledge of God and His power in your life is the limitation which comes from a feeble desire to seek Him!

The Lord is One! (44:6-8)

Finally:
Isaiah 44:6–8 LSB
6 “Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: ‘I am the first, and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. 7 ‘Who is like Me? Let him call out and declare it; And let him tell it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient people. And let them declare to them the things that are to come And the events that are going to take place. 8 ‘Do not be in dread and do not be afraid; Have I not long since caused it to be heard to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’”

The Α and the Ω

He is the Alpha and the Omega!
The beginning and the end. He is the before all things, and after all things. Nothing is outside of His power of His control!
God is not limited by the sins of world, He does not look down the corridors of time to choose those who first chose Him,
but all things are based on God’s decree.
God spoke it in the beginning and it was. He spoke and all things came to be. He created all things. Jesus Christ, the eternal word of God, created all things.
Jesus Christ, is the alpha and the omega. He says:
Revelation 22:13 LSB
13 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Colossians 1:15–18 LSB
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, And in Him all things hold together. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
(Primary inheritor, His will, His inheritance, is the whole universe.)
He is the first, and He the last.

The Sovereign.

Isaiah 44:7 LSB
7 ‘Who is like Me? Let him call out and declare it; And let him tell it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient people. And let them declare to them the things that are to come And the events that are going to take place.
Who is like God? Let’s here it. Let all contenders fight. Who is like Him. Let Him call out and declare it.
We take all challengers. Muslims, Hindus, Mormons, Atheists, Postmodernists, We’re not afraid of anyone, because there is nothing to fear!
Death, oppression from the government? We are afraid of nothing.
God calls His shots. That’s prophecy and fulfillment - eight-ball corner pocket… but God NEVER misses.
Why is Jesus definitly the Christ, because God called His shot.
Why are false prophets known to be false prophets, because they can’t.
Joseph Smith “prophesied the building of a temple in his contemporary generation”; and the lot remains today empty.
Muhammed didn’t even understand the Trinity when he wrote the Quran, thinking that Christians worship Allah, Jesus, and Mary.
There is none who can stand against God.
There is none who can stand against Yahweh. Jesus is not like the rest, He is the creator come in the flesh.
God created Israel by His word, and He is perpetuating and will grow the church.
But just as many Israelites didn’t believe and were destroyed, so also those in the church who fall into unbelief will be cut off!
We are not afraid. Do not be afraid.

The Only Rock

Isaiah 44:8 LSB
8 ‘Do not be in dread and do not be afraid; Have I not long since caused it to be heard to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’”
Be not afraid! Do not fear man, who’s breath of life is in his nostrils.
Has he not long since called the shot. And that call is total victory. He will subdue every enemy, and the last which is destroyed is death.
Is there anyone besides Him? Is there any other Savior? is there any other Rock?
I don’t know of any?
Are your feet on the rock, are your feet on the firm foundation, is your house built on the rock! or the sand!
He is the only rock.

Conclusion:

We’ve seen today’s God’s rebuke of apathy and continual transgression,
Yet despite this, His gracious forgivness
and the fall of the first father.
We’ve talked about God’s gracious revival of Israel, despite her unfaithfullness.
His promise to pour out His Spirit and give life to the world, which began at pentacaust and goes still until this day, until the earth is full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
If you don’t know Christ, repent from sin and cry out to Him in faith until He assures you of His salvation.
If you do know Christ, commune with Him, fellowship with Him, purify yourself, and please, for all our sakes, be a people of disciplined and serious prayer and study of the Word.
In ending on the thought of God as the rock, I just want to read to you Psalm 18. (use your Bible)
Psalm 18 LSB
For the choir director. Of the servant of Yahweh, of David, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 1 He said, “I love You, O Yahweh, my strength.” 2 Yahweh is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call upon Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death encompassed me, And the torrents of vileness terrified me. 5 The cords of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon Yahweh, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears. 7 Then the earth shook and quaked; And the foundations of the mountains were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry. 8 Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it. 9 He bowed the heavens and came down With thick darkness under His feet. 10 He rode upon a cherub and flew; And He sped upon the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 12 From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, Hailstones and coals of fire. 13 Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High gave forth His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. 14 He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, And lightning flashes in abundance, and threw them into confusion. 15 Then the channels of water appeared, And the foundations of the world were laid bare At Your rebuke, O Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. 16 He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, But Yahweh was my support. 19 He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. 20 Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. 21 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, And have not wickedly departed from my God. 22 For all His judgments were before me, And I did not put away His statutes from me. 23 I was also blameless with Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. 24 Therefore Yahweh has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes. 25 With the kind You show Yourself kind; With the blameless You show Yourself blameless; 26 With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute. 27 For You save an afflicted people, But eyes which are lifted up, You bring down. 28 For You light my lamp; Yahweh my God illumines my darkness. 29 For by You I can run upon a troop; And by my God I can leap over a wall. 30 As for God, His way is blameless; The word of Yahweh is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. 31 For who is God, but Yahweh? And who is a rock, except our God, 32 The God who girds me with strength And makes my way blameless? 33 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me upon my high places. 34 He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 35 You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, And Your right hand upholds me; And Your gentleness makes me great. 36 You enlarge my steps under me, And my ankles have not given way. 37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them, And I did not turn back until they were consumed. 38 I crushed them, so that they were not able to rise; They fell under my feet. 39 For You have girded me with strength for battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 40 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, And I destroyed those who hated me. 41 They cried for help, but there was none to save, Even to Yahweh, but He did not answer them. 42 Then I beat them fine as the dust before the wind; I emptied them out as the mire of the streets. 43 You have delivered me from the contentions of the people; You have placed me as head of the nations; A people whom I have not known serve me. 44 As soon as they hear, they obey me; Foreigners cower before me. 45 Foreigners fade away, And come trembling out of their fortresses. 46 Yahweh lives, and blessed be my rock; And let the God of my salvation be lifted high, 47 The God who executes vengeance for me, And subdues peoples under me. 48 Who delivers me from my enemies; Surely You lift me above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent man. 49 Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Yahweh, And I will sing praises to Your name. 50 He gives great salvation to His king, And shows lovingkindness to His anointed, To David and his seed forever.
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