HEZEKIAH'S SONG

Isaiah 38:9-20

In chapter 38-39, Hezekiah was sick unto death, but he cried to the Lord who miraculously healed him, extending his life. Told by Isaiah to set his house in order for his death was imminent, Hezekiah prayed and wept fervently to the Lord. The Lord then had Isaiah tell Hezekiah he would live fifteen more years, and offered the turning back of the shadow ten degrees on the sundial of Ahaz as a sign he would be healed. When he recovered, Hezekiah then wrote a psalm describing his illness and deliverance by the Lord. The following is the song written by Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

• 10 I said, �In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.�
• 11 I said, �I will not see the LORD, The LORD in the land of the living; I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.
• 12 �Like a shepherd�s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me; As a weaver I rolled up my life. He cuts me off from the loom; From day until night You make an end of me.
• 13 �I composed my soul until morning. Like a lion�so He breaks all my bones, From day until night You make an end of me.
• 14 �Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.
• 15 �What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it; I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.
• 16 �O Lord, by these things men live, And in all these is the life of my spirit; O restore me to health and let me live!
• 17 �Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
• 18 �For Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.
• 19 �It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today; A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.
• 20 �The LORD will surely save me; So we will play my songs on stringed instruments All the days of our life at the house of the LORD.�
• 21 Now Isaiah had said, �Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.� 22 Then Hezekiah had said, �What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?�