Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 5

Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

You and I, dear friends, are placed in a position where we have very choice opportunities of glorifying our God; we are like "a vineyard in a very fruitful hill," most favourably placed for fruitfulness. The Well-beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill—

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

Is that my case? Is it your case, dear friend? Has even our religion been a false thing? Has it been like wild grapes or poisonous berries? Have we been at times right only by accident, and have we never carefully and diligently sought to serve our Lord, or to bring forth fruit to his praise? O Lord, you know!

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My Well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

The Song of the Vineyard is by no means a joyful song. It is, indeed, quite the reverse. It is pitched in the minor key and has a painful theme.

This is sufficient to prove that all our hymns need not consist, as some affirm, of direct praise to God. Such a notion is not according to Scripture, for many of the Psalms are not of that character.

There are songs that can be sung to the edification of one another, and that is, in part, the design of sacred song. We speak to ourselves, as well as to God, in Psalm and hymns and spiritual songs.

My Well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. The members of the Church of God are placed in a position where they have very choice opportunities of glorifying God; they are like a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, most favorably placed for fruitfulness.

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

The vineyard was well chosen in its situation; the vine was carefully selected. Everything was done, by walling it, to protect it from intruders. Every preparation was made for the gathering in of the fruits. The winepress was there; yet, when the time came for grapes sweet and luscious, it brought forth wild grapes. You know what that means. Has it been so with us? Have we rewarded the Well-beloved thus ungratefully for all his pains?

Have we given him hardness of heart instead of repentance; unbelief instead of faith; indifference instead of love; idleness instead of holy industry; impurity instead of holiness? Is that my case? Is it your case, dear friends? Has even our religion been a false thing? Has it been like wild grapes or poisonous berries? Have we been at times right only by accident, and have we never carefully and diligently sought to serve our Lord, or to bring forth fruit to his praise? O Lord, you know! Let us judge ourselves in this matter that we may not be judged.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?

wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

O you who profess to be his people, what more could Christ have done for you? What more could the Holy Spirit have done? What richer promises, what wiser precepts, what kinder providences, what more gracious patience? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? From where did this come? The stock was good, the husbandry was wise. From where did these wild grapes come?