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63. God's Day of Vengeance and Redemption

¹ Who is this coming from Edom,
from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?
Who is this, robed in splendor,
striding forward in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, proclaiming victory,
mighty to save.”

² Why are your garments red,
like those of one treading the winepress?

    ³ “I have trodden the winepress alone;
   from the nations no one was with me.
I trampled them in my anger
   and trod them down in my wrath;
their blood spattered my garments,
   and I stained all my clothing.
⁴ It was for me the day of vengeance;
   the year for me to redeem had come.
⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help,
   I was appalled that no one gave support;
so my own arm achieved salvation for me,
   and my own wrath sustained me.
⁶ I trampled the nations in my anger;
   in my wrath I made them drunk
   and poured their blood on the ground.”

Praise and Prayer

    ⁷ I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD,
   the deeds for which he is to be praised,
   according to all the LORD has done for us—
yes, the many good things
   he has done for Israel,
   according to his compassion and many kindnesses.
⁸ He said, “Surely they are my people,
   children who will be true to me”;
   and so he became their Savior.
⁹ In all their distress he too was distressed,
   and the angel of his presence saved them. Or Savior in their distress. / It was no envoy or angel / but his own presence that saved them
In his love and mercy he redeemed them;
   he lifted them up and carried them
   all the days of old.
¹⁰ Yet they rebelled
   and grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy
   and he himself fought against them.

    ¹¹ Then his people recalled Or But may he recall the days of old,
   the days of Moses and his people—
where is he who brought them through the sea,
   with the shepherd of his flock?
Where is he who set
   his Holy Spirit among them,
¹² who sent his glorious arm of power
   to be at Moses’ right hand,
who divided the waters before them,
   to gain for himself everlasting renown,
¹³ who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in open country,
   they did not stumble;
¹⁴ like cattle that go down to the plain,
   they were given rest by the Spirit of the LORD.
This is how you guided your people
   to make for yourself a glorious name.

    ¹⁵ Look down from heaven and see,
   from your lofty throne, holy and glorious.
Where are your zeal and your might?
   Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.
¹⁶ But you are our Father,
   though Abraham does not know us
   or Israel acknowledge us;
you, LORD, are our Father,
   our Redeemer from of old is your name.
¹⁷ Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways
   and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?
Return for the sake of your servants,
   the tribes that are your inheritance.
¹⁸ For a little while your people possessed your holy place,
   but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.
¹⁹ We are yours from of old;
   but you have not ruled over them,
   they have not been called Or We are like those you have never ruled, / like those never called by your name.

15. Look down from heaven. After having, in the name of the whole people, related the benefits of former times, he now applies this to the present subject, and entreats the Lord to pay regard to his people.

Behold from the habitation of thy holiness. By these words he means that the power of God is not diminished, though this does not always appear; for we must supply a contrast, that God at that time might be said to be concealed, and did not shew himself to them as he had shewn himself to the fathers. “Although, therefore, we do not see thee, O Lord, and although thou hast withdrawn from us as if thou wert shut up in heaven, so that thou mayest seem to have altogether ceased to care about us, yet ‘look down from heaven, and from thy habitation’ behold our distresses.” Believers must differ from unbelievers in acknowledging a powerful and kind God, even when they perceive no tokens of his power or kindness; and thus, even when he is at a great distance, they nevertheless call on him; for God never ceases to care about his people, (1 Peter 5:7,) since he governs unceasingly every part of the world.

Where is thy zeal? By these questions believers appear in some measure to reproach God, as if he were not now moved by any affection toward them, or as if his power were diminished; but the Prophet’s meaning is different; for in thus extolling those benefits, his object is, as I have already remarked, to confirm the hope of believers for the future, that they may know that God is always like himself, and will never lay aside his care about his people. This will appear more clearly from what follows.

The multitude of bowels and of compassions denotes God’s vast goodness; for God displays and opens up his bowels, so to speak, when he exercises toward us bounty and kindness, which truly is so great that we cannot praise it in adequate language. Nor is it a new thing that believers, when oppressed by grief, expostulated familiarly with God for shutting up his bowels. They do indeed hold by this principle, that God is always compassionate, because he does not change his nature; and though they impute it to their sins that they do not experience him to be compassionate, yet, that they may not sink into despair, they ask how it is possible that God should treat them with severity, and, as if he had forgotten his natural disposition, should shew nothing but tokens of absolute displeasure? ¹⁷⁹¹⁷⁹ Luther’s version runs thus, Deine grofe herliche Barmherzigfeit halt eich hart gegen mich. “Thy great compassionate loving-kindness deals hardly with me.” — Ed.