Audio Worship 3/22/2026, "To Declare God's Praise" Isaiah 43.1-7, 14-21

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1723

March 22, 2026

Isaiah 43.1-7; 14-21          Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“To Declare God’s Praise”

 

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

 

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

 

  • Isaiah’s Hearers

 

When Isaiah first proclaimed these words it was to the exiled Israelites who had been driven from their homes and homeland. The fact that God would gather them from the east and west, north and south speaks to the scattered locations. But they were scattered for a reason. The reason was judgment upon their own rebellion against God. Their own sin led them to the ends of the earth. Exile is an unnerving somewhat hopeless place. Not really a place as much as a condition. There is no sense of place, no home, no belonging.

Isaiah has had hearers in every generation since first proclaimed. We are the next generations to hear this Word and we sometimes experience exile, not necessarily from our homes, but exiles in a foreign land in the sense that this earth is not our final home. We might be considered exiles in a personal spiritual sense when we feel out of sorts with God or exiled within our own family or exiled in some way shape or form that is any displacement. Any exile brings a negative and a positive.

On the negative side there may be questions, questions about God’s presence or absence. Questions about finding our way. There are usually feelings of anxiety wrapped around a sense of homelessness, hopelessness, and fear. “Will I (we) ever be able to come home?” There is the fear of the unknown, fear of abandonment, fear that there is no control over our situation, and fear that God may not act to save.

On the positive side is hope. The hope is for deliverance, for homecoming, and for God to act on our behalf. The speech given in Isaiah 43, really from chapters 40-55, is about a Word of comfort in the midst of exile and fear. God gives hope and assurance that exile will not be forever.

 

 

  • Isaiah’s Message

 

Isaiah’s message is from the Lord, “Thus says the Lord…” It is given through the prophet then and through the written Word today. It is a message of comfort and hope, assurance and love, and of a promised homecoming. It is a message to relieve fear. Twice the prophetic word comes down “Fear not” (vss 1 & 5). “Fear not” is known in scholastic circles as a salvation oracle. “Fear not” is a proclamation that God will deliver, that God will act and there is no reason to fear. Isaiah 43:1 is the first oracle of salvation: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Characteristically, with a salvation oracle comes the reason why fear is negated. In this case, because God has redeemed, God has called and God has claimed Israel as God’s own. It has already been done; the only thing left is to come home.

Isaiah 43:5 is the second salvation oracle: “Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.” The oracle continues to call God’s people back from north and south, east and west. God has already redeemed and claimed His people, now the promise is the future tense, “I will bring…I will gather.”

The God who proclaims salvation for Israel is the God who created and formed them. The same God who made them is the one who redeems them, who brings them home, and who values them. “Thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel.” Verse 1 sets the tone and verse 7 completes it. “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Imagine any circumstance where we feel alone or displaced in some way and we might remember these words, “Fear not, God created you and formed you, you are God’s. God has redeemed you, called you, you are His.” We belong to God! We belong to Christ (1 Cor 15.23; Gal 5.24).

I know that “exile” seems alien to our lives. We are at home, within our nation’s boarders, we are relatively safe. We have different fears and concerns for life. But exile, while not a physical reality for us, is often our metaphor. Fear strikes us through death, through hardship, through failed relationships, broken families, struggles beyond our control, even alienation from our own society. Fear of the unknown, fear of abandonment; fear that there is no control over our situation, and fear that God may not act to save. We have the same fears as a people driven from their homes and while our fears do not come from the same experience of physical exile, they are no less real. They are filled with questions of God’s faithfulness to His people and God’s willingness to act on our behalf.

The good news and the promise of the Word is that our God is faithful to save, to redeem, to bring us home, for this is the God who created and formed us. This is the God who promises to gather up our lives, and why? “Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you” (43.4).

 

  • A New Thing

 

I have included Isaiah 43.14-21 because these verses conclude just as verse 7 does, which we will see in the last bullet point, but also because of the new thing God does. Our God surprises us sometimes in His works. First, I want us to see some other synonymous terms in these two sections of chapter 43. Verses 1-7 include these words: created, formed, redeemed, call by name, with you (protects and delivers), will gather. Compare with verses 14-21: Redeemer, Holy One x2, Creator, King, makes a way in the waters (Exodus), and a new thing – makes a way where none seems possible, rivers in the desert, wild beast show honor, gives drink to His people.

There is reference to the exodus from Egypt and that deliverance through the sea, and now, through Isaiah’s prophetic Word, God is about to do a new exodus, giving other people in exchange for His people. There is a ransom paid. I cannot not see the foreshadowing of Christ here, Mark 10:45, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” This is the God of new things! Amazing things. And the Word of God in Isaiah affirms so many wonders of God’s love. God has called each of us by name. God has created and formed us as individuals and as the church. God has redeemed us, claimed us, protected us, given His Son for us; therefore we are God’s. “Fear not” echoes in our hearing, echoes through our lives, all because of who God is and what God does, and what God will do.
We are cared for, loved, identified, and known. We realize that we are known by God – known by the Creator of the universe. If the prophet were alive today he would say the same thing to us, with a little edit, “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O [Church], he who formed you, O [Christian]: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

The promise is that God will bring us through our exile; God will gather our lives and bring us home, home to His presence, home to His love, home to His Son, home to the Word of life. The God who created and formed us is the God who loves us deeply. The God who created and formed us is the God who redeems us, saves us from the exile of death, tragedy, injustice, pain, loneliness, and despair. He calls us by name, claims us through the waters of baptism and gathers us into His presence. He sent Jesus Christ to give His life a ransom for many. He will not rest until he gathers us from the threat of night, from the threat of exile. This is the good news. Fear not.

 

  • To Declare God’s Praise

 

Because God has gathered and redeemed and loved us so, we are called to a joyful obedience to what Isaiah reveals in verses 7 and 21. This is our purpose and God’s will:

 

everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

 

the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

 

Our purpose – 43.7, created for God’s glory, 43.21, formed to declare God’s praise.

 

The first question of the Shorter Catechism is about our chief end. The answer is that our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This is the revealed will of God in Isaiah 43. I get asked from time to time about God’s will for someone’s life. So many want to know of a specific will for their individual life. What college, whom to marry, job, etc.

My response is often not what they want to hear, but I have to be honest in that I don’t know what God’s will for you might be in those circumstances. But what I do know for certain is what the Bible tells us about God’s will for all and part of it is right here in Isaiah 43 – to glorify God and declare His praise. Simple, direct, and God’s will.

If you want to know God’s will for your life, start with declaring His praise! I will tell you how I view this whole notion of God’s will for our lives. It is not some secret we have to discover on any given choice or decision. It is not specific to me any more than anyone else. It is revealed in Scripture in places like Isaiah 43 – to declare His praises, revealed in Exodus 20 – keep the Ten Commandments, or in 1 Thessalonians 5.16-18 - “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Let’s just consider these three sources and see God’s will: to praise Him, obey His commandments, rejoice, pray, and give thanks. There is more in the Bible to God’s will, but my point is that no matter what we might decide to do in any given situation or decision to be made, do these things! Do the things that the Bible specifically tells us are God’s will for us!

One of the strange set of verses about praise is found in Psalm 22. We know it well because Jesus quotes the first verse on the cross, but listen to the following verses:

 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”

 

Verses 1-2 could easily be considered the cry of the exile. Jesus was exiled on the cross. There are times in life when we might cry out, “Why have You forsaken? I cry out but get no answer.” Psalm 22.3 has one of those pivot words, “yet”. There is more to life than our exile, more than our sense of loss or anxiety or worry, because there is a “yet”. “Yet You are holy!” God is holy, and Isaiah’s words, “the Holy One of Israel”, mentioned twice. But it is the last phrase from Psalm 22.3 that is intriguing, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” There is something significant to the praise of God’s people. In Isaiah it is that we are created for this purpose, to glorify and praise the Lord. In Psalm 22 I think it is about our ability to see God’s holiness and reign through our praise. Prayer, praise, thanksgiving, rejoicing, it all opens to us this God. We cannot and will not understand anything until we come to revere and praise God.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1.7). The fear is reverence and one of the ways we show reverence is through worship. Worship is praise and glory to God.

Psalm 73 speaks of trying to understand why the wicked prosper and that understanding did not come until the Psalmist entered into worship, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” (Psalm 73.16-17). Worship, praise, glorifying God: these acts are God’s will for us primarily because this is what we are created to do, but a secondary reason is that we gain understanding when we do what we are created to do. The reason we call people not yet saved as “being lost” is because we have no understanding apart from God. We are found when we come back to knowing God’s purpose for our lives, to declare His praise. I have said many times that we do not worship for the purpose of my getting something out of worship. We worship because that is what we are created to do. But, a by product, a secondary blessing from worship is discernment and understanding. Even as we are fulfilling our created purpose, God is giving us blessing after blessing.

Today’s message and encouragement is to glorify and praise God today and every day, for in so doing, we embrace God’s will and the purpose for which we were created: to declare God’s praise. Amen.