PASSION WEEK - CONTINUING

The Song of the Suffering Servant

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted.

Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?

His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
(NASB)

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Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see him dying on the tree!

'Tis the Christ by man rejected; yes, my soul, 'tis he, 'tis he!

'Tis the long expected Prophet, David's son, yet David's Lord;

by his Son God now has spoken; 'tis the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like his?

Friends thro' fear his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress;

many hands were raised to wound him, none would interpose to save;

but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great

here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate.

Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load;

'tis the Word, the Lord's Anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation, here the refuge of the lost;

Christ's the Rock of our salvation, his the name of which we boast.

Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel guilt!

None shall ever be confounded who on him their hope have built.

(Thomas Kelly, 1804)