ArtWay

Beauty is not pasted over suffering but grows out of it—like the proverbial shoot from parched ground. Bruce Herman

Sons of Korah: Isaiah 53

Sons of Korah: Isaiah 53

He grew up like a tender shoot
And like a withered root out of dry ground
No beauty, no glory to draw us to him
And nothing in his outward form to desire

He was despised and rejected
A man of sorrows familiar with suffering
Like one from whom men hide their faces he was
Like one from whom men hide their faces he was

But who has believed?
Who has believed?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He was despised and we esteemed him not
But surely he took our infirmities
And carried our sorrows and carried our grief
Yet we deemed him stricken, afflicted by God

But he was pierced for our transgressions
And he was crushed for our iniquities
The punishment that brought us peace was on him
And by his stripes, by his wounds we are healed

But who has believed?
Who has believed?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

But who has believed?
Who has believed?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

We all like sheep have gone astray
Each of us has turned to his own way
But the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all
Yes the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all

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Sons of Korah is an Australian based band devoted to giving a fresh voice to the biblical psalms. The Psalms have been the primary source for the worship traditions of both Judaism and Christianity going right back to ancient times. FIND OUT MORE

About this song about Isaiah 53 they write:

"We almost never diverge from the Psalms with our compositions but there was one part of the bible that we could not resist. Isaiah 53, sometimes called ‘the servant song,’ is the perfect accompaniment to the psalms. In its haunting lyrical-oracular style it celebrates the greatest thing that God ever did. It tells of the suffering servant, the man of sorrows, who is none other than Jesus Christ, the very incarnation of the one true God. The prophet sings of the sacrifice of God’s righteous servant in an event so singular that he wonders in the same instance who could believe that such a thing could ever happen. Whereas the psalms often lament the human condition, the song of the suffering servant presents God’s answer to this predicament: God himself takes on our suffering so that we can be clothed in joy. The act of God that Isaiah 53 sings of is what accounts for every turning point in the psalms. It is why, as Psalm 103 declares, “he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” It is the reason why there is any praise and rejoicing in the psalms at all. That’s why we wanted to sing this song and place it beside the saddest of the psalms, Psalm 88. It is the work of the man of sorrows, Jesus Christ, that assures that, as Psalm 126 declares, our sowing in tears will return to us a harvest of joy."