Isaiah 38

Sanctify! previewed Isaiah 36-39 on Tuesday night.

Given my recent health issues, Hezekiah's prayer in chapter 38 is particularly timely:

⁹A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

¹⁰I said, In the middle of my days
   I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
   for the rest of my years.
¹¹I said, I shall not see the LORD,
   the LORD in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more
   among the inhabitants of the world.
¹²My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
   like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
   he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
   ¹³I calmed myself until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
   from day to night you bring me to an end.

¹⁴Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;
   I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
   O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
¹⁵What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
   and he himself has done it.
I walk slowly all my years
   because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, by these things men live,
   and in all these is the life of my spirit.
   Oh restore me to health and make me live!
¹⁷Behold, it was for my welfare
   that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my life
   from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
   behind your back.
¹⁸For Sheol does not thank you;
   death does not praise you;
those who go down to the pit do not hope
   for your faithfulness.
¹⁹The living, the living, he thanks you,
   as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children
   your faithfulness.

²⁰The LORD will save me,
   and we will play my music on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
   at the house of the LORD. [ESV]