Prisoners of Hope

“Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will renter double unto you.”

Let us commence our meditation with the description of our Lord which is given us in verses 9 and 10.

Here we see his kingdom, his character, his power to save, his lowliness, the weapons of his conquest—“speak peace unto the heathen,” and the ultimate extent of his dominion—“to the ends of the earth.”

Because of him, and through him, there is mercy for the oppressed and troubled ones in Zion—“as for you also,” verse 11.

This is a wonderful text for those who are in the lowest possible state of mind. May the Lord make it a blessing to them!

Our subjects of thought shall be,—

I. CONDITION OF THE SORROWING ONES. “Prisoners in the pit wherein is no water.”

They are described as—

1. Prisoners: bound, freedom gone, unable to do as they would, in the power of another, miserable.

2. Prisoners in a pit: escape impossible, darkness intolerable, fate unavoidable, present discomfort terrible.

3. Prisoners in a pit wherein is no water: comfortless, and likely to perish of thirst. They find no comfort in sin, nor indeed in anything else. They are, however, though less comfortable, all the less likely to be drowned when there is no water. Comfort in sin is deadly: the absence of that comfort is hopeful.

   • Thus are many oppressed souls helplessly in the power of despair until the Lord comes to rescue them.

II. CAUSE OF THEIR DELIVERANCE. “I have sent forth your prisoners.”

1. The Lord Omniscient spies them out in their dungeon, and he knows whose prisoners they are.

2. He has the power and the right to set free prisoners. Who can shut up those whom he delivers?

3. He sends them forth from the pit. He grants life, light, and liberty to them. Their feet are free, and they are on free soil.

4. He sends them forth by “the blood.”

   • By the expiation made for sin before God.
   • By the peace created in the conscience of the penitent.

5. He sends them forth by what is called “the blood of your covenant”—the covenant made between Zion and her King.

   • Let a soul once know the blessedness of “the covenant,” and the sealing power of “the blood,” and it is a prisoner no longer.

III. COURSE COMMENDED TO THE DELIVERED ONES. “Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope.”

They are out of the pit of despair, but not “out of the wood” of trouble: they have hope of salvation, but they need salvation itself. It will be their wisdom—

1. To make hope their characteristic. When they feel like prisoners, let them hope, and so become “prisoners of hope.”

2. To make Christ their Stronghold.

3. To turn to him every day, and all the day.

4. To turn to him specially when they feel like prisoners.

   • When a man is freed from death and despair, he is still to come to Jesus more and more. “To whom coming,” etc. (1 Peter 2:4.)

IV. COMFORT GIVEN TO THOSE WHO TURN TO THE STRONGHOLD. “Even today do I declare that I will render double unto you.”

1. God is speedy in his comforts to those who turn to Jesus. “Even today do I declare.”

2. God is abundant in his mercy: “I will render double unto you.”

   • The double of your trouble. Job 42:10.
   • The double of your expectation. Is. 61:7.
   • The double of your attainments: “grace for grace” (John 1:16).
   • The double of your largest faith. Ephesians 3:20.

3. God is consoling in his promise; for it is—

   • Plain: “I declare.”
   • Present: “Even today do I declare.”
   • Positive: “I declare that I will.”
   • Personal: “I will render unto you.”

Let us glorify the Lord for lifting us out of the pit.

Let us glorify the Lord Jesus for being our Stronghold.

Let us glorify the Lord for that double portion which he allots us.

Free Thoughts

Here God the Father speaks to Christ with relation to some covenant between them both; and what covenant can that be but the covenant of redemption? All the temporal, spiritual, and eternal deliverances which we enjoy, they swim to us through the blood of that covenant that is passed between the Father and the Son. By virtue of the same blood of the covenant, with which we are reconciled, justified, and saved, were the Jews delivered from their Babylonish captivity. The Babylonish captivity, thraldom, and dispersion, was that waterless pit, that dirty dungeon, that uncomfortable and forlorn condition, out of which they were delivered by virtue of the blood of the covenant; that is by virtue of the blood of Christ, figured by the blood that was sprinkled upon the people, and by virtue of the covenant confirmed thereby, Exodus 24:8; Psalm 74:20; Hebrews 13:20. Look, as all the choice mercies, the high favors, the noble blessings, that the saints enjoy, are purchased by the blood of Christ; so they are made sure to the saints by the same blood; “by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners.” Whatever desperate distresses, and deadly dangers, the people of God may fall into, yet they are “prisoners of hope,” and may look for deliverance by the blood of the covenant.—Thomas Brooks.

With what gratitude and joy should these intimations of hope be received by those who are naturally in so miserable a condition! It is a celebrated story that, when Titus Flamininus, at the public games, proclaimed the liberty of Greece, after it had been conquered by the Romans, the auditors were at first lost in a silent amazement, and then burst out into one continued shout for two hours together, “Liberty! Liberty!” Methinks such joy, and greater than this, should appear among miserable sinners when these proclamations for liberty are made. And are they not now made? Have I not been telling you, from the Word of God, that though you were condemned under the righteous sentence of the law, through a Redeemer that sentence may be reversed, your souls may be restored to life and happiness? Have I not been proving that, though Satan held you in a dark captivity, yet by the law of the great Redeemer you may be rescued from his hands, and made more than conquerors through him? Have I not told you that, notwithstanding the painful and the fruitless struggle which you have hitherto had with the feebleness and corruptions of a depraved nature, you may still receive those communications of the Spirit which will purify and strengthen you, and enable you to perfect holiness in the fear of God?… Prisoners of hope, will you despair?—Dr. Doddridge. Sermon on this text.