Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
– Isaiah 49:16
That is an amazing verse. So get the context here. God is speaking to his people through Isaiah. And just a couple of verses before this in verse 14, God’s people say, “The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me.” Do you ever feel like that? You may not say it out loud like, “God has forgotten me,” but do you ever feel like, “Does God even see what’s going on in my life right now? Does God care?” Maybe you’re walking through a trial and wondering, “Does God want this to end? Does God want this circumstance to change that is so hard in my life?” And you can start to think, at least in the back of your mind, “The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me.”
Isaiah 49:16 teaches us that God is committed to us.
And if or when you are ever tempted to think that, remember Isaiah 49:16. What God says to his people there, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”. I just picture that imagery. Imagine engraving something on the palm of your hands in a way that you would see it all the time. You’d be aware of it all the time. That’s what God is saying to his people. “I see you. You are so valuable to me. I am thinking about you all the time”. This is the last part of verse 16, “Your walls are continually before me”.
“I don’t forget”, God says, “my people whom I love, and I’m committed to saving, and redeeming, and helping, and leading, and guiding. I don’t forget my people. And I love my people. I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”. And this is obviously a specific word to the people of Israel in the Old Testament. And at the same time, we know this truth that’s all over the New Testament and Jesus that God does not forget us, that God is with us and for us, and he loves us, and he’s always working together for our good. He sees every single thing that’s going on in our lives right now. Let’s just start to pray based on this.
Isaiah 49:16 calls us to rest in God’s sovereignty.
God, we praise you. The sovereign Lord over all that book of Isaiah is just making clear. There is no one like you. You’re the Holy One with all authority, sovereignty, control, and power over all. There are no other gods. You, alone, are God, and the thought that you have your people engraved on the palm of your hands, that you love each of us. God, I pray for all who trusted in you who are listening to this right now, that they would know that you see them, that you see every hurt, every challenge, every trial that they’re walking through, and not just that you see that you love them, that you continually think about us and are at every moment working together for our good.
God, we believe this by faith. And we rest in this. We rest in this just as you were saying this to your people and Isaiah to remind them that you have redeeming purposes in whatever they were walking through at that point and whatever we are walking through at any point in our lives. God, we pray. Help us to trust you and your love for us. Help us never to believe the lie from the adversary that you have forgotten us.
This verse reminds us that God is working for our eternal welfare.
We praise you for never, ever, ever, for all of eternity forgetting us. Just as you say right before this verse in verse 15, “Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?” If a mother can’t forget her babies, all the more so, you, as our heavenly Father, our perfect Father, do not forget us. All glory be to your name for not just remembering us, but thinking about us all the time, even when we are the ones who are so prone to forget you.
Oh, God, help us to live in light of this reality today. That you have the names of your people engraved on the palms of your hands.
Prayer for the Jewish People
And God, based on that, we step in and intercede for our brothers and sisters who have yet to be brought into the family. Among the nations and specifically in light of this text in Isaiah, God, we just pray for the Jewish people, the people of Israel, Jewish people scattered throughout the nations in so many different places, including likely near where any of us live.
God, we pray. We pray for the spread of your grace and mercy in Jesus, your redemption in Jesus. The Savior to Jewish men, women, and children all around the world. That they would know you have not forgotten them. You’ve sent the Messiah to bring salvation to them. God, please may it be so. We pray all these things according to your word, which we love, in Isaiah 49:16. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
