The Servant Our LORD: Isaiah 61, 62(1)

Pray Psalm 146.1, 2.
Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
While I live I will praise the LORD;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Read Isaiah 61.1-3.

Reflect.
1. How did Jesus appeal to this passage in Luke 4.16-21? What was He saying?

2. What blessings does the Servant bring with Him in these verses?

Meditate.
The Servant Who is to come – Who is the Lord’s covenant and Who brings His salvation to His people – at last begins to speak for Himself. His words come from the LORD, by the Spirit of the LORD (v. 1). Here we see all three Persons of the Godhead. All the divine Persons Who are the LORD– Father, Word, and Spirit – are present in the coming of the Servant. He comes bearing “good tidings” (v. 1) – of healing, freedom, comfort, consolation, beauty, and joy. The power for all these is in His Word alone, and in the accompanying power of the Spirit of God (cf. Jn. 6.63).

The people to whom the Servant comes are not the beautiful people we might expect. They are the hurting, those trapped in misery and addiction and oppression, the sorrowing, those who long for beauty, all who are weighed down by sin and circumstances (vv. 1, 2). The Good News comes to such as these, whether they be poor physically or spiritually. All who welcome the Servant and hear the Good News He proclaims can expect to know the power and promises that accompany that message of hope.

The effect is immediate: praise, righteousness, and glorifying God (v. 3). But, as we shall see, this is just the beginning. The hallmarks of salvation are these, that our souls and lives and aspirations are turned in gratitude to God. We look up to Him, give Him all praise and thanks, and begin the work of bringing our lives into line with His promises and commands.

This prophesy, and all its glorious promises, are fulfilled and realized in Jesus, as He Himself declared to the shocked and stunned congregation of His neighbors in Luke 4.16-21.

Reflect.
1. How would you describe the scope of the salvation the Servant brings? Is it just spiritual in nature?

2. To what kind of people does the salvation of the Lord come? 

3. Summarize the response of those who receive this great salvation. How should we express this?

Isaiah calls “poor” those who have lost heavenly riches, “broken-hearted” those who have corrupted their reason, “blind” those who do not know God and who worship creation, “prisoner” those brought into the enemy’s camp and who have lost their original freedom.… Theodoret of Cyr (393-466 AD), Commentary on Isaiah 19.61.1-3

Help me to grow in Your great salvation, O Lord, so that, increasingly, I can…

Pray Psalm 146.
Let this psalm call to mind the many ways God has brought His blessings to you through the salvation which is ours in Jesus Christ.

Sing to the Lord.
Psalm 146 (Hallelujah! What a Savior!: Man of Sorrows)
Praise the Lord, my soul, give praise! While I live, His Name I’ll raise! 
And exalt Him all my days – God forever reigns in Zion!

Trust we not in prince or man – no salvation’s in their hand; 
Death shall take them, breath and plans – God forever reigns in Zion!

Blessed are they whose hope resides in the Lord, Christ at His side. 
By Him heav’n and earth abide – God forever reigns in Zion!

He is faithful evermore; He gives justice to the poor, 
feeds the hungry from His store – God forever reigns in Zion!

Jesus sets the pris’ner free, heals blind eyes that they may see, 
lifts those burdened painfully – God forever reigns in Zion!

He the righteous loves the best; wand’rers in His grace are blessed;
needy ones in Him find rest – God forever reigns in Zion!

But the wicked who defame His eternal blessèd Name, 
them He brings to ruin and shame –God forever reigns in Zion!

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are fromThe Ailbe Psalter (available byclicking here).