A Song of Joy

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 27:2-3

²In that day sing to her, “A vineyard of red wine!  ³I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; Lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day.

Isaiah 27:2

In that same day, when God is punishing the leviathan, let His people be easy and cheerful; let those that attend her sing to her for her comfort, sing her asleep with these assurances; let it be sung in her assemblies that they are God’s vineyard, and is under his particular care, v. 2, 3.

In the day sing to her - That is, sing unto, or respecting the vineyard. The word rendered ‘sing’ signifies properly, “answer, respond to;” and then, sing a responsive song.  In the Hebrew manner of things, it would be where one portion of the choir responds to another (see Exo. 15:21).

A vineyard - (see the notes at Isa. 5:1 ff) The Hebrew phrase rendered ‘a vineyard of red wine’ can be regarded as the title to the song; or the responsive song respects the ‘vineyard of red wine.’ She is, in God’s eye, a vineyard of red wine. The world is as a fruitless worthless wilderness; but God’s people are enclosed as a vineyard, a peculiar place, and of value, that has great care taken of it and great pains taken with it, and from which precious fruits are gathered, wherewith they honor God and man. It is a vineyard of red wine, yielding the best and choicest grapes, intimating the reformation of the church, that it now brings forth good fruit unto God, whereas before it brought forth fruit to itself, or brought forth wild grapes, ch. 5:4.

Of red wine - Some have proposed that we read this as “pleasantness, beauty, or beloved.” The Septuagint reads it: ‘Beautiful vineyard.’

The word which now occurs in the text denotes properly “wine,” from to “ferment.” The word also has the signification “to be red” (Ps. 75:9; Job 16:16). It might literally be rendered, ‘A vineyard fertile in producing wine.’ The very literal translation would be one that would not seem very meaningful in our language, ‘a vineyard of wine,’ or ‘a wine-vineyard.’

Isaiah 27:3

I, the LORD, keep it - There is understood here or implied an introduction; as ‘God said’ (compare Ps. 121:3-5). God takes care of the safety of this vineyard: I the Lord do keep it. He speaks this as glorying in it that he is, and has undertaken to be, the keeper of Israel. Those that bring forth fruit to God are and shall be always under his protection. He speaks this as assuring us that they shall be so: I the Lord, that can do every thing, but cannot lie nor deceive, I do keep it; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. God’s vineyard in this world lies much exposed to injury; there are many that would hurt it, would tread it down and lay it waste (Ps. 80:13); but God will suffer no real hurt or damage to be done it, but what he will bring good out of. He will keep it constantly, night and day, and not without need, for the enemies are restless in their designs and attempts against it, and, both night and day, seek an opportunity to do it a mischief. God will keep it in the night of affliction and persecution, and in the day of peace and prosperity, the temptations of which are no less dangerous. God’s people shall be preserved, not only from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, but from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day, Ps. 91:6. This vineyard shall be well fenced.

I will water it every moment; Lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day - That is, constantly, as a vinedresser does his vineyard.

God also cares for the fruitfulness of this vineyard: I will water it every moment, and yet it shall not be overwatered. The still and silent dews of God’s grace and blessing shall continually descend upon it, that it may bring forth much fruit. We need the constant and continual waterings of the divine grace; for, if that be at any time withdrawn, we wither, and come to nothing. God waters his vineyard by the ministry of the word by his servants the prophets, whose doctrine shall drop as the dew. Paul plants, and Apollos waters, but God gives the increase; for without him the watchman wakes and the husbandman waters in vain.