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I. GOD HAS FORMED A PURPOSE OF MERCY TOWARD MANKIND. This is intended by the expression "the pleasure of the Lord." Notwithstanding the state to which mankind had been reduced by sin, a state in which God, with justice, might have abandoned them to hopeless punishment, that God has adopted towards them a far different mode of procedure. In these mysterious depths of eternity there was a Divine determination that a way of recovery should be opened for the guilty. This is styled "the eternal purpose of grace," "the good pleasure which the Father had purposed in Himself," "the good pleasure of His will," "the good pleasure of His goodness." The manifestation of this pleasure of the Lord began on earth as soon as the need of mercy existed. The new-economy, established at an ever-memorable era, has explained what might be ambiguous, has illuminated what might be dark, has supplied what might be deficient under preceding dispensations, and it lays open before us in substance the whole counsel of the Eternal. We now discern that the entire fabric of creation, and the entire system of Providence, are subordinated to the stupendous achievements of redemption, those achievements the attributes of the Divine nature being united in harmony to conduct and to perform.

II. THE FULFILMENT OF THIS PURPOSE OF MERCY IS COMMITTED TO THE LORD JESUS. "The pleasure of the Lord is in His hand," the hand of the Messiah, the Son of God, committed to Him to be by Him accomplished. That the Lord Jesus does sustain this momentous trust is obvious from the entire testimony of revelation. The Lord Jesus performs the purpose of His mercy, we observe more particularly, by His own atonement for sin, and by the communication of the Holy Spirit.

III. UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD JESUS, THE PURPOSE OF MERCY SHALL BE PERFECTLY AND TRIUMPHANTLY ACCOMPLISHED. "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."

1. The certainty of the accomplishment must appear from the mere existence of a Divine purpose to that effect. The supreme majesty of the perfections of God itself secures the fulfilment of whatever He has designed.

2. The certainty rests upon the inherent excellency of His own character and work. The proper deity of the Lord Jesus Christ renders failure in His work impossible.

3. We observe the Divine assurances solemnly pledged to that effect. Besides general declarations to which we might easily appeal there are recorded assurances addressed by the Father to the Son in His mediatorial capacity respecting the exaltation He was to receive as a specific recompense of the shame and suffering which on behalf of men He had endured.

(J. Parsons.)

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KJV: Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

WEB: Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand.