“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”
~ Isaiah 12:2
Hi James and Ellen,
There are six verses in Isaiah 12. These six verses make up two short deliverance praise songs that were sung by God’s specially chosen guys and gals. Verse 2 says, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” How do you feel when you are singing to the Lord – Who is your Father God? Do you like singing praise songs to your Father God? Why do you think that singing praise songs to God is so important to do when Christ-follower communities of guys, gals and kids meet to worship God together? Singing praise songs to God is one way that gratifies God and glorifies His name. God expected His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, to praise Him through praise psalm songs. God expects His specially elected guys, gals and kids to praise Him through hymns and contemporary songs. God’s specially chosen guys and gals had memories of the times when and how God delivered them when they were trapped or without water and/or food. God’s specially chosen guys and gals would sing to God different song psalms that had references in them of times when and how God saved them from their enemies or when and how God helped them with a special need. This particular deliverance praise song makes reference to a well. This well may be a reference to the couple of times when God miraculously supplied water for them during the forty years that God had them wander aimlessly in an arid, desolate desert.
How important is your Father God to you? Do you want every guy, gal and kid in every country and in every people group that is on planet Earth know about your relationship with your Father God? Do you want every guy, gal and kid in every country and in every people group that is on planet Earth know about your Father God and what your Father God has done for them? One by one guys, gals and kids by their own volition through responding to the beckoning of God the Son after having sensed the prompting of God the Spirit will pass through a faith/grace door into a milling family that is composed of only Christ-followers. Being Christ-followers and being members of the family of Christ brings genuine joy into the lives of Christ-follower guys, gals or kids. Having joy that is genuine will invariably lead a guy, gal or kid to express loudly his or her feelings. When your grandpaa was in high school, your grandpaa was expected to go to the Sunday night youth activities at the church where his dad and ma are members. Ron lives on a farm that is less than half a mile from the farm that your grandpaa’s dad farmed. Ron is about four years older than your grandpaa. Your grandpaa would ride with Ron each Sunday night to the youth activities at the church where both Ron’s dad and ma and your grandpaa’s dad and ma are members. A high school age kid whose dad and ma are members of the Volga Christian Reformed Church in Volga, South Dakota would first go to Volga’s hospital where he or she would spend time singing hymns with other high school age kids. Your grandpaa and the rest of the high school age kids would stand in Volga’s hospital’s foyer to sing to the patients who were in the hospital. Volga’s hospital was not a large hospital. When your grandpaa was a really young kid, your grandpaa spent a couple of nights in Volga’s hospital after Volga’s doctor – Dr. Pike, determined that your grandpaa had virus pneumonia. Your grandpaa likes to sing but . . . your grandpaa cannot carry a tune. The kid who your grandpaa rode with each Sunday night to the youth activities at the Volga Christian Reformed Church was not good at carrying a tune either. What Rob did though was to sing as loud as he could. Ron’s way of singing was something like shouting loudly as a way of singing for joy – which is exactly what this deliverance praise song says to do.
Do you shout loudly when you sing? Do you sing for joy when you sing? Do you like to sing hymns or do you prefer to sing contemporary songs? The Volga Christian Reformed Church had a morning and then depending on the time of the year, an afternoon or an evening service. The Volga Christian Reformed Church when your grandpaa was a kid followed a liturgical program during each Sunday service. A guy or gal who was a member of the church would sometimes become upset if there was any kind of deviation from the identically structured Sunday services. The Volga Christian Reformed Church when your grandpaa was a kid began each church service with a few seconds of silence. Four hymns would be sung in the Volga Christian Reformed Church during each church service that took place on a Sunday, the Nicene Creed would be recited by the guys and gals who would be in attendance in a Sunday morning service, a question from the Canons of Dordt would be read and then expounded upon during each Sunday morning service and each church service would end with a benediction and the singing of a doxology. Going to church was not something that your grandpaa when he was a kid really looked forward to doing. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are now going to a church where the first twenty minutes or so are spent singing mostly contemporary tunes. Your grandpaa most of the time just stands and listens while most every other guy and gal sings. There have been a couple of times when your grandpaa has been singing when a guy or gal has turned around to look at your grandpaa with a look that conveyed to your grandpaa that his singing is really not very good. Do you think that your grandpaa’s Father God cares how well that your grandpaa sings? Do you think that your grandpaa’s Father God is counting what your grandpaa is doing when your grandpaa tries to please Him? Your grandpaa knows though that His Father God expects your grandpaa to always live his life joyfully thanking Him for His unmerited saving grace.
Isaiah 12 (495)