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I. ISAIAH'S DESPONDENCY. It arose from a two-fold source.

1. The sense of a Divine desertion. "My way is hidden from the Lord." It was the necessary result of the prophet's office that all the nation's sorrows must press home on his spirit, and must wound with their keenest anguish his sensitive soul. Now, remembering this union of deep sympathy with the people, observe the tremendous power with which, for fifty years, the wickedness of the land, and God's great judgment upon it, must have pressed on his large and tender heart. It made his very office often seem a vanity. Many men have had the same experience; perhaps all earnest men must undergo it.

2. The absence of Divine recompense. "My judgment is passed over from my God." The prophet unquestionably spoke these words as a cry uttered only by himself. The people were buried in God-forgetting repose. The priests were dead in formalism. The spiritual life of the land was decaying; and thunders of woe were muttering in the nation's future. What had his life been worth? Apparently nothing! All great men think that they die in failure. Is it not hard for a man who has given to God his all, and worn out his life in His service, to go out into the eternal silence and see no reward?

II. THE TRUTH THAT REMOVED ISAIAH'S DESPONDENCY. In the verses following our text we perceive that the double manifestation of God's greatness in Nature, and the tenderness of His revealed will, dispelled the gloom.

1. The greatness of God in Nature. He speaks not only of the unsearchable Creator, but of the everlasting God. Thy recompense is sure — thy work, and conflict, and toil are for eternity; then "why sayest thou, O Jacob, that thy way is hidden from the Lord?"

2. The tenderness of the revealed will. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength." The revelation of God's tenderness is far more full for the Christian man, and has, therefore, far greater power to remove our despondency. We know how the Great Shepherd gave His life for the sheep.

III. THE RESULTS OF ITS REMOVAL.

1. Strength in weakness. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Feebleness is transformed into power when God has taught His great lesson of "glorying in infirmity."

2. Immortal youth. "They shall mount up on wings as eagles." You have heard the old Jewish fable, that the eagle in dying recovered its youthful power.

(E. L. Hull, B. A.)

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KJV: Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

WEB: Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"