When it is said
Pray the first part when the news is bad.
Pray the song when the worst is past, to thank God for the days ahead.
Where it comes from
Author known
Who was Hezekiah?
Hezekiah was a king of Judah in the time of the prophet Isaiah. When he fell ill and was close to death, Isaiah came to tell him to put his house in order, because he would die and not recover (Isaiah 38:1). Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed, weeping bitterly (Isaiah 38:2-3).
Fifteen more years
Isaiah had not yet crossed the middle court on his way out when the LORD sent him back. God had heard Hezekiah’s prayer and seen his tears, and He would heal him and add 15 years to his life (2 Kings 20:4-6). At Isaiah’s word a cake of figs was laid on the king’s boil, and he recovered (2 Kings 20:7).
The song he wrote
After he recovered, Hezekiah wrote a song, which the Book of Isaiah gives in full (Isaiah 38:9-20). It remembers his fear of dying in the prime of life, and it ends by thanking God, Whom the dead cannot praise but the living can (Isaiah 38:18-19). The Greek Old Testament heads the song as the prayer of Hezekiah.
The King James Version, on eBible.org; The Greek Old Testament in Brenton’s translation, on eBible.org
The Scripture in it
… saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
“Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.” I said, “I will never again see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I will no longer look on mankind with those who dwell in this world.”
“I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”
Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. For Sheol cannot thank You; Death cannot praise You. Those who descend to the Pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness. The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness. The LORD will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the LORD.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.