My object will be to give the text its highest practical appropriation as setting forth in glowing language the return of God’s spiritual Israel, His ransomed ones, from every land.
I. WHO THEY ARE.
1. “The ransomed of the Lord.” To ransom signifies to redeem or free from captivity or punishment by paying down an equivalent, to rescue from danger and death, to deliver from the possession of an enemy either by/exploits of warfare or purchase by gold. The Lord’s ransomed people are, therefore, those who have been spiritually rescued, emancipated, delivered. They are the purchased property of God by the precious blood of Christ.
2. The ransomed of the Lord are the regenerate of the Holy Ghost. They have been quickened into new life as well as redeemed.
3. The ransomed of the Lord are the adopted into the family of God. What a unique and beautiful sequence we have here. Life purchased, life begotten, life ennobled.
II. WHITHER ARE THEY JOURNEYING? “To Zion.” The old-time Zion was typical of the “city which hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God.” Let us glance at the parallelism.
1. Zion of old was the seat and scene of worship. The ransomed of the Lord in returning are going to Zion above, to join the immortal worshippers in the “temple not made with hands.” We shall worship, but we shall also serve in multifold ministries of good.
2. Zion of old was the seat of royalty. “There were set,” we are told, “thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.” Jerusalem was the metropolis of the nation--the centre of monarchy, authority, power, and splendour. Heaven is the city of the Great King. On its sapphire throne, belted as with a rainbow of mercy and grace, sits the Mediator-King of the New Covenant, crowned with many crowns, holding the sceptre of righteousness. To His ransomed ones He says, “Verily, I say unto you, that ye which follow Me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye shall also sit upon, thrones.” “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My, throne. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.”
3. Zion of old was the seat of rest. It was the terminus of the pilgrim-worshippers’ journey. With the ransomed of the Lord it is now the pilgrimage; but daily they pitch their moving tents a day’s march nearer home, heaven, rest. What a magic word is “rest.” What volumes of meaning it holds! Rest from conflict, rest from sorrow, rest from suffering, rest from self and sin, rest from all the ills of the time-life! Rest in the Lord in holy contemplation, holy worship, holy service, holy visions, holy companionships, holy pleasures for evermore!
III. WHAT IS THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THEY JOURNEY? “With songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.” They march to music made in the sanctuary of the soul. Undoubtedly the allusion is to the Songs of Degrees or of the Ascents, which the rejoicing tribes sung on their way to the great festive celebrations at Jerusalem, or to the paeans of deliverance the emancipated exiles rang out as onward they pressed to the laud of their fathers and God. Thus the homeward-bound hosts of God on the highway of holiness are urging their way. They are like soldiers returning from the scene and spoils of a great victory, with heart and step keeping time to jubilant melody. But the ransomed not only sing on the way home, they also “Come to Zion with songs.” It is a jubilant arrival.
IV. WHAT DO THE RANSOMED OF THE LORD REALISE ON THEIR ARRIVAL HOME? “Joy and gladness”--i.e outward and inward joy. The joy of holy retrospect; the gladness of present possession of glory; the joy of fulfilled hope, perfected manhood, satisfied life, prospective progression, intellectually and morally, for ever and ever. It is the “joy and gladness”--
1. Of heavenly reunions.
2. Of perfected knowledge.
3. Of the beatific vision.
This “joy and gladness” will mean the exclusion of “sorrow and sighing.” As light expels darkness, and day excludes the night, so the rapture of joy prevents the sighings of sorrow. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
Deliverance from the burdens of life
1. What are the real sources of that deep power of sorrow which broods so heavily over life? There is, first, over our bodily life and the world of nature which subserves it, the continual blight of pain and suffering. In nature’s highest beauty, even to our power of imagination, there is always some imperfection. But it is no mere pious imagination to declare that its burden is absolutely as nothing in comparison with the burden of the spiritual evil, the blindness, the weakness, and the sin of man. These are the two great burdens which are so heavy upon our human life, and they are worst in this--that they seem to separate us from our Father in heaven, alike by themist of doubt and by the gloom of fear.
2. Need I remind you how the Gospel meets both these things and scatters them to the winds? That law of suffering and of death it hallows doubly by the revelation of the Cross, because, it overrules it to our own good, because it makes it a condition of our saving others. The Gospel deals still more decisively with the burden of sin. In it lies the very essence of redemption. But you will ask me, “Is that promise realised after all?” Remember, that by the very nature of the case the kingdom of Christ here is seen only in the first stages of its conflict against the power of evil. What it can offer us is only a true but an imperfect earnest of a perfect future. Has it given us, and does it give us now, that which it thus professes to give? I answer unhesitatingly, Yes. These things are no dream. They are a present and blessed reality, and we feel sometimes as if they were the only reality in a very fleeting and unsubstantial world. But the reality is yet imperfect. Joy and gladness may be ours, but sorrow and sighing have not yet fled away. There is a heaven hereafter in which alone all these promises shall be quite fulfilled. (A. Barry, D. D.)
“Everlasting joy upon their heads”
This expression may allude to the ancient custom of wearing crowns in seasons of mirth and festivity, which were considered as marks of honour and dignity; or, it may refer to the practice of anointing the head on joyous, festive occasions, which probably gave rise to the phrase used by the royal poet of “the oil of gladness” Psa_45:7). (R. Macculloch.)
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away
The flight of sorrow
I. WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THE STATEMENT that sorrow and sighing shall flee away? The susceptibility of sorrow and the power of expressing sorrow will not be destroyed; but there shall be no appeal to the susceptibility, and no use for the power of sorrowful expression.
1. The sorrow of bodily disease shall pass away with the pain, the languor, the weakness which disease imposes, the nervous excitement which it often sets up, and the debility which it so frequently creates. Disease shall pass away, with all its interruptions of domestic and social intercourse, with all its power to mar our enjoyment, and to interfere with our work. It will flee before a new constitution, before the health and vigour and young rich life of a body, raised in incorruption--raised in glory--raised in power--raised in Christ-like spirituality.
2. The sorrow of dying will pass away. The fear of death--the pains of death--the separations of death--the material consequences of death--the abasement of death.
3. The sorrow of bereavement will pass away. And with it widowhood, orphanage, the loss of wife and children, and every painful farewell which death so often and so rigorously exacts.
4. The sorrow of poverty will flee away, with its hunger and thirst, its nakedness and cold, its homelessness and wretchedness, and all the neglect and contempt, the painful dependence, the degradation and dishonour, which it too often brings.
5. The sorrows caused by the sins of others will flee away. The wicked, whatever now may be their power, through relationship or through position, shall cease to trouble. Slavery, oppression, and persecution will utterly cease. The sorrows caused by the hell-fired tongue, by the fist of wickedness, by the feet swift in running to do mischief, shall flee away. Nothing shall enter the sorrowless world that defileth, that worketh abomination or maketh a lie.
6. The sorrows produced by the fear of evil, by dark imaginations, and by blighted hopes, shall flee away. The flat, “Peace, be still,” shall be spoken to every soul.
7. The sorrows of this life’s illusions and delusions shall pass away. Everything shall, by and by, far exceed your hopes.
8. The sorrows of sin will pass away. The smart of the conscience, remorse, dread, discord between the passions and the sanctified will, chastisement, even temporary Divine desertion.
9. Every “heart knoweth its own bitterness.” The own bitterness of the heart shall flee away. Secret sorrow--sorrow that you hardly admit to yourselves--sorrow upon which you have never put the raiment of speech--the sorrow that you have never groaned out to the nearest friend you have--nameless sorrow, “my sorrow”--sorrow in all its roots, in all its branches, sorrow in all its blossomings and fruits, in all its depths, and in all its manifestations, shall flee away. And this fleeing away of sorrow will leave the channels of the emotions open only to the streams of enjoyment. What a mighty effect this will have upon the character and the entire life! The flight of sorrow will enlarge the love of the heart: for suffering often makes us self-enclosed and self-engrossed; it will help, moreover, to secure uninterrupted intercourse and unbroken activity; it will be the departure of correction no longer needed--the withdrawment of discipline not further required--it will be like the fleeing away of winter when the time of the singing of birds has come.
II. WHEN SHALL THIS BE? The text points to Hezekiah’s reign--to that portion of his reign through which God blessed the people whom he governed with remarkable prosperity. But does this exhaust the text? We think not. I you think it does, there are other words from the mouth of God on this subject (Isa_25:8; Rev_7:17). When shall this be? It shall be to the individual saint when his earthly career terminates. To the saints as a body, this will be realised at the times of restitution of all things.
III. BY WHAT SIGNS MAY WE BE ASSURED THAT OUR SORROWS WILL FLEE AWAY? There are five sure signs.
1. Personal faith--not in King Hezekiah, but in King Jesus.
2. Acknowledged and avowed citizenship in the kingdom of the Saviour. We lay stress upon avowal, because where there is no avowal there must always be reason for doubting and suspicion.
3. The fleeing away of sin--the being cleansed from sin.
4. The present effect of sorrow. If sorrow bends the will and subdues the affections, then it is sanctified, and herein is a sign that sorrow will flee away.
5. A living hope--hope born of faith--hope the child of God’s promises--the hope which is the anchor of the soul. Write on your hearts this onesentence concerning your sorrows and sighs, they shall flee away. The love of God, like the sun upon the snow-drift, which melts the snow, raises it in vapour and then disperses it, shall make sorrow flee away. The power of God, like the north wind, which driveth away the rain, shall constrain sorrow to flee away. (S. Martin.)
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away
There is consolation in this very form of expression--“flee away.” It shows an instability as characterising sorrow in the case we contemplate. Sorrow to the redeemed man is not the sea which is found in its appointed bed in summer and in winter; but it is the crested wave which is here to-day and gone to-morrow. It is not the mountain which stands in its place year after year, and century after century; but it is the clouds which rise rein the valley, and travel up the sides of the mountain, and sometimes cap and completely hide it, but which from their very nature must flee away. The sorrows of the saints are sorrows which from their very character must pass away. (S. Martin.)
