Hezekiah's Psalm of Praise (Isaiah 38:9-20).
‘The writing of Hezekiah the king of Judah when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness.'
This was clearly originally a record on its own, written by Hezekiah. It was then incorporated by the compilers into the book. It stresses that it was Hezekiah who wrote it down. It was his purpose that it be sung in the Temple (Isaiah 38:20), and was in gratitude for his deliverance from death.
‘I said, in the noontide of my days,
I will go through the gates of Sheol,
I am deprived of the residue of my years.
I said I will not see Yahweh,
Yah in the land of the living,
I will look on man no more,
Among the inhabitants of cessation.
My period of life is removed,
And is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent,
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He will cut me off from the loom.'
In the first part of the Psalm Hezekiah picturesquely describes his sense that, for him, life is over, and bemoans the fact that he is to be cut off without reaching old age. He was concerned that he would go through the gates of the grave-like world of the dead while still not old, deprived of part of his allotted years; that he would no longer be able to see the activity of God among living people; that he would no longer be able to enjoy life, and watch man about his activities, for he himself would be among the inhabitants of that world where all such activities have ceased.
He sees his life as temporary, as being as transient as the pitching and striking of a shepherd's tent, and reluctantly consigns himself to death, as someone who would be cut off like a piece of cloth would be cut off from the larger piece on the loom and rolled up. He has woven his life and now it has been prematurely cut off. He is totally despondent.
‘He will cut me off from the loom.' Literally, ‘from the thrum.' The second figure is that of a web completed and removed by the weaver from the loom. The thrum is the ends of the threads by which the web is fastened to the beam.
‘I thought over things until morning. Like a lion he breaks all my bones.
From day even until night, will you make an end of me.'
Like a swallow or a crane so did I chatter on,
I mourned as a dove, my eyes fail to look upward.
O Yahweh, I am oppressed. You be my surety.
He then recognises the finality of death, and feels that his life is being wrenched from him. He feels that he will be like the prey of a lion, leaped upon and crunched to pieces almost immediately. He will no more experience day and night, for God will have made an end of him. That is why he does nothing but can only chatter on, uselessly and nervously, like the birds, mourning like a dove with downcast eyes. But then he takes hold of himself and calls on Yahweh to act as his surety, the One Who stands up for him, and all is then changed.
‘What shall I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done it,
I will go carefully all my years, because of the bitterness of my soul.'
God has spoken to him and answered him directly by His action. Thus he is not to die, but will have many years ahead (‘all my years'). But he will treasure them and use them carefully because of the bitterness of what he has endured. He has learned through suffering to make the most of life, walking in obedience to God's ways.
‘O Lord, by these things men live, and wholly in them is the life of my spirit,
So do you make me recover, and make me live.'
‘These things' are the bitter experiences he has gone through, learning the lessons of life. It is such things as these that tend to make men seek and find life, and his own spirit has now been inspired by them. Compare Deuteronomy 8:3 where we read, ‘And He humbled you and made you suffer hunger, -- that He might make you to know that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds from the mouth of God does man live.' Such suffering, says the writer, is in the end what makes men seek true life through the word of God. And so, having experienced suffering, he prays that God might now make him recover so that he can live that life in His will.
‘Behold it was for my welfare (peace) that I had great bitterness,
But you have in love for my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption.
For you have cast all my sins behind your back.'
He acknowledges that it was for his own good that he has gone through these experiences. He has learned from them the importance of life (‘I will go carefully' - Isaiah 38:15). But he also rejoices because he now knows that God has in love for him cancelled out the effect of his sin, the sin which would have produced premature death, and He has done it by casting his sins behind His back. That is why he has been allowed to live. That is why God has delivered him from the pit where he would have become a rotting corpse. He recognises that had it not been for the suffering he had undergone he would never have experienced this forgiveness so fully. So overall he acknowledges that the experience has been good.
Israel at its best recognised clearly the connection between sin and death as it is described here. The man who sinned would die (Ezekiel 18:4). Thus death resulted from sin, and premature death was a pointer to sin. The corollary was that death could be delayed by true repentance and looking to God, and finding forgiveness for sins committed. This was their simple faith. What lay beyond they did not know, unless they had read Isaiah's earlier revelations.
‘For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot celebrate you,
Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.
The living, the living, he will praise you as I do this day,
The father to the children will make known your truth.
The idea is that once a man has died, it is too late for him, either to seek to praise God, or to celebrate Him. It is too late to look for truth. That is only available to the living. And it is the living who will praise God as Hezekiah was doing this very day, it is the living who teach and pass on truth. The father teaching the children was the main way in Israel of them growing up in the truth about Yahweh and His covenant (Deuteronomy 11:19). So death is to be avoided if at all possible, and it is good that Yahweh is restoring him to life.
Hezekiah is not commenting on the afterlife as we know of it. He is speaking of the certainties that he knew of. What he says positively is true. What lay on the other side he did not surmise. Indeed, as far as he was aware there was nothingness, a shadowy world of the grave. Thus a man should seek to live by following the word of Yahweh.
Yahweh is ready to save me,
Therefore will we sing with stringed instruments,
All the days of our life in the house of Yahweh.'
As a result of Hezekiah's experience he now knows that each man can know that God is ready to save him, if he turns to Him, as Hezekiah, had done in repentance. Each can say, ‘Yahweh is ready to save me.' That is why they come to the house of Yahweh and sing with stringed instruments all their days.
This ending reveals that Hezekiah expected his Psalm to be used in worship in the Temple. It was his public testimony to God. Alternatively it may have been added once the Psalm was presented to the Temple for such use.