9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and [d]recovery:
10 I said, “In the middle of my [e]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?
[f]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;
[g]O restore me to health and let me live!
17 “Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness;
It is You who has [h]kept my soul from the pit of [i]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?”
As with Hezekiah’s illness and recovery, there is a contrast in this poem/song that he wrote afterward. Yet as we read the first half, of Hezekiah describing his thoughts while on death’s door, there is a common thread that begins to emerge. It is faintly seen in v. 13, “Like a lion–so He breaks all my bones.” The “He” is distinctly God’s hand in all this.
Hezekiah likely didn’t know that at first, but it must have been pretty clear when Isaiah brought the word of God to tell Hezekiah to “put his house in order” as he was about to die. This becomes pretty clear in v. 15, “He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it…” He may have even thought of Job’s words, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?”
I don’t know that it makes the bitterness any easier to bear, and Hezekiah was certainly not excited about it as he moaned like a dove–a sick, struggling dove. It’s a strange thing to think of, but God loves to bless His children, so what about the adversity? Does He love it less, does He love us less? No, just as a good father disciplines his children, so does God.
And God doesn’t have to guess if it will work, He already knows exactly what is needed, even when it is hard, boy is it hard… Hopefully we don’t need quite the heavy hand that Hezekiah did in his pride (still, we might), but when God does bring the inevitable adversity, let us remember the words of Hezekiah in v. 19, “It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today…” Give God thanks, wherever you are, whatever is happening, whether you feel it or not. Give thanks for His mighty love that can even bear to bring us the hard things in life.