The powerful “Suffering Servant Song” of Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 has long been a regular part of worship services during Holy Week, especially on Good Friday. It is also a favorite passage for sermons about the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, with the numerous references in those verses about the Messiah accepting this punishment for the benefit of others. Best known perhaps is verse 6. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way. And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
That entire suffering servant passage reads like it was written by an eyewitness to the crucifixion, from the account of brutal torture to the crown of thorns, the other malefactors crucified with Him, and being laid in the tomb of a rich man. It is probably the strongest passage in the Old Testament to testify to Jews that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy and is indeed the promised Messiah. It is almost impossible to refute the evidence that it points to Christ. In fact, those verses are so potent, that in the Jewish lectionary of readings for Sabbath worship today, readings that work progressively through the Old Testament, this passage in Isaiah is omitted, perhaps lest people hear it and begin to question whether or not Jesus is indeed that Messiah.
Not only have there been countless sermons preached on this passage. It has also been the inspiration for numerous hymns. Among them is “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted,” written in 1804 by Thomas Kelley (1769-1855), one of the 765 hymns that he composed. It is drawn especially from Isaiah 53:4. “We considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.” The theology contained in this phrase, let alone in this entire passage, is foundational to a true biblical theology of the person and work of Christ. That will be more evident in the analysis of the four stanzas in the latter part of this hymn study.
Thomas Kelly (1769-1855) wrote his hymns over a period of 51 years, including this one in 1804. He was born in Dublin on July 13, 1769 and was educated at Dublin’s Trinity College. Kelly planned to be a lawyer and served as a judge for the Irish Court of Common Pleas. But after a very marked spiritual change following his conversion, the Irishman decided to enter the ministry. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1792, but later seceded from the established church and became a “dissenting” minister. His earnest evangelical preaching in Dublin led Archbishop Fowler to inhibit him and his companion preacher, Rowland Hill, from preaching in the city. For some time he preached in two unconsecrated buildings in Dublin, Plunket Street, and the Bethesda, and then, having seceded from the Established Church, he erected places of worship at Athy, Portarlington, and Wexford, in which he conducted divine worship and preached. He died on May 14, 1854. Here is a link to a more substantial biography of Kelly.
One hymnologist has written this about Kelly.
“Mr. Kelly was a man of great and varied learning, skilled in the Oriental tongues, and an excellent Bible critic. He was possessed also of musical talent, and composed and published a work that was received with favour, consisting of music adapted to every form of metre in his hymn-book. Naturally of an amiable disposition and thorough in his Christian piety, Mr. Kelly became the friend of good men, and the advocate of every worthy, benevolent, and religious cause. He was admired alike for his zeal and his humility; and his liberality found ample scope in Ireland, especially during the year of famine.”
It was as a hymn-writer that Kelly was most successful. As a rule, his strength appears in hymns of praise and in meters not generally adopted by the older hymn writers. His “Come, see the place where Jesus lay” (from “He’s gone, see where His body lay”); “From Egypt lately come”; “Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious”; “On the mountain’s top appearing”; “The Head that once was crowned with thorns”; “Through the day Thy love has spared us”; and “We sing the praise of Him Who died,” rank with the highest quality of hymns in the English language.
We could easily concur with many who count this particular hymn as perhaps the greatest hymn about the atonement that has ever been composed. Think carefully and meditate prayerfully about the words, asking God to stir your heart to new levels of devotion as you look by faith at Jesus, the Lamb of God, slain for you.
Stanza 1 identifies Jesus as the divinely-appointed and heaven-sent Messiah who was rejected by those He came to save. He should have been recognized from such clear prophecies as Isaiah’s suffering servant songs. The words “stricken, smitten, and afflicted” come straight from Isaiah as emotionally powerful descriptions of what Jesus was experiencing as He was dying on the cursed tree. Kelly recalls the passage in Matthew 22:41-46 where Jesus confounded the Pharisees by asking how the scripture could speak of David’s Son as also being David’s Lord. Jesus is “the true and faithful Word” of John 1 and Hebrews 1, by whom God has now in these last days spoken.
Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, See Him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ by man rejected, Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet, David’s son, yet David’s Lord.
By His Son God now has spoken, ‘Tis the true and faithful Word.
Stanza 2 addresses us as we sing, asking if we have ever witnessed such a sight, such groaning, such grief. Kelly correctly connects us with three things that the Scriptures tell us about those who were the causes of this anguish. First, it was Jesus’ friends, the apostles who disowned Him and His cause as He was arrested in the garden. Second, it was Jesus’ foes who not only insulted Him by ridiculing Him in His distress during His trial as well as while he hung on the cross. Third, it was Jesus’ Father who Isaiah wrote was pleased to put Him to death. Who crucified Jesus? Not Caiaphas and the Jewish leaders. Not Pilate and the Roman soldiers. No, “the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that Justice gave,” the horror of the Father not only turning from Him (“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”), but even worse. pouring out His wrath on the Son in our place. Here is propitiation, which J. I. Packer in his book “Knowing God” rightly identifies as the heart of the gospel.
Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning, Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning, Foes insulting His distress.
Many hands were raised to wound Him, None would interpose to save.
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him Was the stroke that Justice gave.
Stanza 3 challenges us to examine our own hearts as we recognize that it was for our sin that the Savior suffered. Seeing the enormous cost paid to redeem us, how can we ever “think of sin but lightly?” As one 17th century said, “Since it was my sin that was the dagger that pierced His heart, how could I ever hold that dagger in my hand as something of no great significance, much less cherish it and toy with it; how could I not hate it with the utmost hatred? How could I not hate my sin for what it did to my Savior?” And in this stanza, Kelly calls us not only to look at the “awful load” of that sacrifice, but also recall who it was who suffered in my place. This was “the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of man and Son of God!”
Ye who think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed, See who bears the awful load;
‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.
Stanza 4 brightens the mood as Kelly writes about what marvelous things this atoning sacrifice has accomplished for us. We now have a foundation that will sustain us throughout all the hardships of this life as well as the final judgment, a judgment which will not touch us. We now have a refuge, a place of safety to protect us from the wrath of the Lamb which will be revealed on the last day. Because of Christ, “the Rock of our salvation,” our guilt has all been cancelled. For all of us who have placed our faith in Christ, who have built our hope on Him, we will not ever be confounded, we will not ever be separated from the love of Christ. (Romans 8:31-39)
Here we have a firm foundation, Here the refuge of the lost;
Christ, the Rock of our salvation, His the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded; Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded Who on Him their hope have built.
We most often sing Kelly’s lyrics to the music of the German chorale O MEIN JESU, ICH MUSS STERBEN (“O my Jesus, I must die”), first published in the 1850 “Geistliche Volkslieder.”
Here is a recording of the hymn, with the lyrics on the screen, as sung at a conference with 13,000 pastors and church leaders in attendance, led by Bob Kauflin (Sovereign Grace).