“For my name’s sake I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”
-Isaiah 48:9–11
So, there’s three verses and four time God repeats why he shows mercy to his people. He’s talking about how he’s forgiving his people, how he will redeem his people, he will spare them the wrath they deserve in their sin, and four times he says, “For my own sake I defer my anger.” There’s the first one, the second one, “For the sake of my praise I restrain it for you.” Then he repeats himself in verse eleven, he says, “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. For how should my name be profane.”
Isaiah 48:9–11 Explains that God Alone is Worthy of All Glory
God is driven with zeal for His own glory. He alone is worthy of all glory.
This is one of the clearest pictures we have in God’s word, or something we see all over god’s word, but it’s so crystallized here how God is driven with zeal for his own glory. That even when God shows grace it ultimately is intended to bring him glory. Now, we think about that and, I think, we probably wrestle with it a bit in our minds, like, “Okay, so everything God does is for his own glory?
God does everything he does to exalt himself?” And it kind of rubs us wrong because we think, “Well that would not be good for any one of us.” Like, what if I told you, “I do everything I do for my own glory.” You’d be like, “Man, you got problems. That’s horrible, to live your life all for your own sake? Say, that’s selfish.” So, does this make God selfish? Is God self-centered?
This Verse Emphasizes God’s Glory
Well, in a sense, absolutely he is self-centered. God is God-centered. Everything he does is for his own glory and if that rubs us wrong well then who else would you rather him glorify? You or me or someone, something else? No, because at the point at which God were to glorify someone or something else, then he would no longer be the God who’s worthy of all glory and he is. That’s what makes him God.
God by his very nature is God-centered. That’s what we’re seeing here in Isaiah 48 versus 9 through 11 is that God glorifies himself how? By showing grace and mercy to sinners. We look forward in the Bible to the New Testament, God glorifies himself by sending Jesus, his son, as a sacrifice for sinners. How does God glorify himself? He glorifies himself by saving you and me from our sins, by reconciling us to himself. So, God shows his grace, God gets the glory. Praise be to his name for this picture.
Isaiah 48:9–11 Thanks God for His Salvation
So, God we do, we praise you for your salvation. We praise you for your mercy. We praise you for your grace. Jesus, we praise you for your forgiveness of our sins. We praise you Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins. In light of all these things we look to heaven and right now we give you glory. We confess that you deserve all glory. Exactly what you said in Isaiah 48:11. Your glory you will not give to another and we don’t want to give your glory anywhere else. We want you to receive all glory. All glory be to your name for our salvation.
Thank you for saving us for your name sake. Thank you for forgiving us for your fame, so may it be so, oh God, as long as we have breath in this world, use our lives. Your salvation in us, your mercy toward us every day, even the grace you pour out on us today, God may it all resound to your glory. Glorify yourself in our lives, our families, our churches, in our work, and everything we do make your glory known, oh God, by the grace you pour out on us. In Jesus’ name we pray for your grace, for your glory. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
