house of the Lord, and pours out his soul in pious and devout thanksgivings : knowing that, if he had died in his illness, he should never have had any more opportunities of glorifying God hefore men, he exclaims, " The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee, they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth; the living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day ; the father to the children shall make known thy truth:" and then he adds in the words of the text, " The Lord was ready to save me, therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord."]
Bat we shall have a further insight into the mean- ing of the text, if we consider more particularly the words themselves —
[They contain a thankful acknowledgment to God for his recovery, and a determination to glorify him for it as long as he should live. " The Lord was ready to save me," says the king. He does not blasphemously ascribe his recovery to his physi- cians, or to the means used, notwithstanding they were used according to God's own prescription ; but he gives the honour, where alone it is due, to God. In disorders of any kind our eyes should not be so fixed upon the creature as they usually are ; our expectation should be from God alone : it is " he who killeth and maketh alive ; he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up." But that which Hezekiah seems to have been more particularly affected with, was the Lord's readiness to help him : " the Lord was ready to save me." This is a matter of astonishment to all who have ever tried the power and pre- valency of prayer : God does not indeed bind himself to answer prayer immediately, at least not in the way in which we expect it to be answered; yet does he often with marvellous con- descension grant the requests of his people as soon as they are offered up ; he often visibly fulfils that precious promise re- corded in Isaiah, " It shall come to pass that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear." David mentions this as his own experience, and seems to have been struck with it as Hezekiah was ; " I will praise thee with my whole heart, O God ; for in the day when I cried, thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soulc. So Hezekiah in the text; "The Lord was ready to save me ; therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord." He determined that as the mercy vouchsafed to him was a public benefit, so he would manifest his sense of it by public acknowledgments. He recorded this mercy and had it set to music, that all the nation might join with him in singing praises
c Ps. cxxxviii. 1, 3.
919.] hezekiah's thanksgiving. 113
to God for it. Nor would he suffer it ever to be effaced from his memory : he made the recital of this mercy a part of his daily devotions ; and determined he would continue to do so as long as he should live; judging very properly that his life, which had been so miraculously spared, should be spent wholly in the service of his God.]
Nothing more being necessary to illustrate the meaning of the words, we shall pass on to notice,
II. The use we should make of them —
1 . To excite our gratitude for the king's recovery —
[There is a striking resemblance between the event which we are now met to commemorate, and that recorded in the passage before us. I will beg leave to point it out in several particulars.
It holds good in the persons who were ill. Hezekiah, you have heard, was one of the most illustrious kings that ever sat upon the Jewish throne : the glory of God and the welfare of his people were ever near his heart. He set a good example to all his subjects, and ardently desired to see them no less obedient to their God than loyal to himself: he published his edicts prohibiting whatever was offensive to God, and enforc- ing the observance of the divine laws : in short, if you would know his character, see it drawn by the inspired penman : " Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah, and wrought that which was good, and right, and truth before the Lord his God : and in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered d." Now compare that of our gracious Sovereign : he has but limited power, and therefore cannot effect all he would ; but what he would do if he were able, we see by the proclamation which was not long since issued. But this is a part of our sub- ject on which it would not be proper to say much, nor is it needful that we should ; for we trust his excellent qualities are too deeply engraven in all our hearts to need any repetition of them from this place —