Saturday 28 May 2016

Psalm: Psalm 147

Background

This passage from Isaiah is reminiscent of Thursday's passage (link) from Revelation -both are full of amazing visions and dramatic imagery. But Isaiahis about history as well as poetry. Grim political realities arenever far away. Isaiah gives us God - unutterably mysterious, yetpresent and active.

In this passage Isaiah has a dramatic encounter with God thattransformed him into one of the great prophets of God's people. Atfirst he feels both grief and shame at his own uncleanness and withthe unclean community of which he is part (verse 5). It leads to amoment of personal and corporate confession: "Woe is me!"

Then, with vivid imagery, his lips are made clean with coalsfrom the altar. Finally Isaiah hears God's voice speaking to himand speaking a word of action: "Who will go for us?" After the wayhis heart, mind and lips have been touched he cannot help butrespond with the famous words of self-offering: "Here am I; sendme."

The message of this passage is that transforming encounters withGod are always available to us, however unworthy we might thinkourselves to be.

To Ponder

• Isaiah's excuse for not being God's spokesman was that his lipswere 'unclean' and that he lived among unclean people, what is yourexcuse?

• We are reasonably familiar with individuals havingtransformative encounters with God; after all we have seen it thisweek with the experience of John Wesley in 1738, but have you everheard of a whole group of people having a transformativeexperience. In what ways are the dynamics different in such acase?