From the Pastor's Desktop
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not
remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like
a blazing torch. The nations will see
your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the LORD will bestow.
You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in
the hand of your God. No longer will
they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your
land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be
married.” Isaiah 62:1-4 NIV
The
words of the song, Sweet Beulah Land,
the men’s quartet is to sing for special music were rolling around in my head
the last few weeks, and I decided to find out where the term “Beulah Land” came
from. The only place in all of Scripture
that I can find a reference to it is in Isaiah 62:4. If you were to look up the passage, you may
have notes in your copy of the Scriptures that help you, but the definition is
right there with the Scripture if we know how to find it. The whole passage uses a pattern of two
phrases that are similar and comparable.
We see it in verse 1. The key
words in that verse are “silent, and quiet” and also “dawn and blazing torch”. The words help confirm the word picture
contained in the sentence.
The
words Deserted and Desolate describe Israel after the time of exile and
captivity. The land lay basically
deserted and desolate. His plan was that
upon their return to the land, that He would bless them, and no longer would
their neighbors think of their land as deserted and desolate, but as a delight,
and that they, in a sense, would be married to the land. Verse 5 helps make that point. “As a
young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom
rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”
So
when we sing, “Beulah Land, I’m longing for you, and some day, on thee I’ll
stand, there my home shall be eternal, sweet Beulah Land,” we are singing of
the land that God has promised us as an inheritance, our home in heaven, that
we are longing for it, and that we will be married to it eternally as when a
man takes a wife and that union is to be a lifelong union.
Deserted
and desolate describe for us our time before Christ, and maybe even some of our
time while in Christ, but still on this earth.
We are, or at least should be, in some sense longing for that place God
has prepared for us that we will rejoice in as when a couple who has been
waiting and waiting finally get married, and are delighted in their new life
together. Thank you Squire Parsons for
the rich words of this song.
By His Grace Alone,
Pastor Bruce Jacobsen
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