1 And
in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry
with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. 2 Behold,
God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is
my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. 3 Therefore
with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4 And
in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his
doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. 5 Sing
unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the
earth. 6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is
the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. (Isaiah 12:1-6)
The Collect
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RANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God,
that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have
ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and
with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
¶ This Collect
is to be said daily throughout the Octave.
Hearts who are centered on those
things heavenly cannot but ascend to those like natures of the spiritual that
are possessed in heaven. Today's Collect makes one only appeal – that is to
grant to those who believe in all of the cardinal points of the Gospel –
including the ascension to which the Creed makes reference – an ascension like
unto His that we may ever dwell in the heavenlies with Christ. Of course, the
appeal is also an indirect appeal to fellowship with the Holy Ghost and the
Father since to abide in Christ entails an abode with the Father and Holy
Ghost. In constructing this Collect from the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, with
a leading thought from Gelasius, Archbishop Cranmer united the term Mind to
that of Heart, for wherever the heart is, there will the mind be stayed. He
also substituted "Our Lord" for "Redeemer" since, in
Cranmer's mind, Our Lord gives a warmth and all-encompassing meaning to the
title of our Savior. If we fully know Christ as our Lord and sovereign, it
would be impossible to miss the point that He is also our Redeemer.
Since I have already written most
of the previous year's devotions from the Gospels and Epistles, I am taking the
liberty of writing from the lesser practiced texts of the Old Testament and
shorter Epistles as they come up on the Lectionary – sort of a random
selection, but we need to know the whole of God's Word and not simply those
thrilling Words of the more popular Books. (C'est la vie!) Of course, if any
would prefer a particular book to be expounded, I will gladly comply where
possible.
1 And in that day thou
shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine
anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. God puts a song
in the hearts of those whom He has Redeemed and brought through the seas and
fires of this life. Moses, after having been miraculously and powerfully saved
in the crossing of the Red Sea, burst out into His famous Song of Moses, and
all of the Children of Israel sang with him. (Exodus 15:1-19) God has often
been disappointed in our pursuit of the trivial and fruitless to the detriment
of the riches of heaven, yet, He loves us through all of our slips and stammers
just as a father loves his precious children – all born by the wife of his
heart. O LORD is an exclamatory title of exalted praise and adoration. Do we
truly look upon the Lord with this reverence and unbounded love? What did a
loving mother ALWAYS do after giving us a spanking for misbehaving? She later
comes and embraces our downcast shoulders, lifts us to her breast, and tells us
how she loves us. So does the Lord our God!
2 Behold,
God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD
JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my
salvation. (BEHOLD!) – an emphatic expression intended to gain our
undivided attention! If God is NOT our salvation, then we have NO salvation.
Is there any absolute other than God? He us unchanging and unchangeable. We can
put our complete trust in the Gold of His Currency. Jehovah (the Existing One)
is my strength and my song. Perhaps peculiarly to
our minds, strength and song go together. When that strength is on our behalf,
we cannot but have a song in our hearts. It is by the strength of His Person
that He saves us.
3 Therefore
with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. There
is no greater relief, joy, and amazement than to come upon a cooling fountain
after almost perishing in the desert wilderness. Such Well of Life-giving Water
becomes our salvation. There is no lack of enthusiasm in a thirsty soul in
drawing water from a well for salvation of the body, and no lack of enthusiasm
in drawing upon those Wells of Salvation in Christ. The Woman at Jacob's Well
learned by grace and love the greater value of that Water of Life that Christ
gives compared to the temporary value of the water the earth yields. Poor
Hagar, more than once, discovered the Fountains of Water which God provided for
her in the Wilderness which she could not see until God had opened her
tear-filled eyes. Have your eyes been opened to this Water of Life – these
Wells of Salvation?
4 And
in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his
doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
Whether the world and Creation continues on unabated for the next thousand
years, it is nonetheless THAT DAY in your life that nears its conclusion. What
are a paltry seventy, eighty, or ninety years compared to the Scarlet Cord of
Eternity? If you have tasted of the cool Waters of Salvation in a "dry
and thirsty land where no water is," (Ps 63:1) then you can know
that God is worthy of our praise and worthy to be called upon in time of, not
only trouble, but harvest. Are you not proud of the Lord and to be called
His Own? If you are so elated, you can not contain your joy and praise. Like
the poor son, blind from birth, mentioned in John 9, we will be unable to
contain our excitement and joy by keeping secret the name of the One who has
given us sight, who has made us whole. Have you made mention of that name to
others that is above every other Name? When was the last occasion of your
mention?
5 Sing
unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all
the earth. My son used to come home from school with a different
little Bible ditty almost every day. One such song was, "If you're
Happy and you Know it, Clap your Hands!" I often wondered
just how we could be so happy as to clap our hands ….and not KNOW IT? The ONLTY
things the Lord has done have been EXCELLENT THINGS! All of the
earth knows the greatness of God – even the pretended atheist! There are only
two responses to the reality of God – great joy and comfort to those who know
Him, and fear, trembling, and rejection to those who make as show of denying
His Works and Person. I say "make a show" because every human born
upon God's green earth know that God exists. They will climb great mountains to
deny Him when they could comfortably stand upon the flat earth and confess Him.
6 Cry
out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of
Israel in the midst of thee. Wait! This must not apply to us,
right? Do we inhabit Zion? Who is YOUR Holy One? Is it not
the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you prayed "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in Heaven?" Do you believe that such a
glorious existence is possible? Isn't our Zion the Holy City of God which every
believer shall, or does, inhabit? Has Christ promised that "where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there I AM IN THE MIDST OF THEM?" Perhaps the people of God
have been too timid in these evil days to "Cry out and shout."
The world is headed for Hell in a hand-basket – how is that we can hold our
tongues in the face of such tragedy?
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