Horns cut off.
"All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off." A lifted horn well represents the insolent boasting of Rabshakeh, the Assyrian officer (see Isaiah 36:1-22). The Divine answer was the cutting off of Rabshakeh's uplifted horn. God dealt in this way with proud Rabshakeh: "Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land" (Isaiah 37:7). Or, if Sennacherib be chiefly in mind, we may see that his vain confidences of capturing Jerusalem were destroyed, his "purposes were broken off," his horn was brought low. "So Sennacherib returned," a humiliated and disgraced man; "and it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword" (Isaiah 37:37, Isaiah 37:38). Some think that Antiochus Epiphanes is in the mind of the psalmist; and, certainly, further illustration may be taken from his case (Daniel 8:9). The confidence Hezekiah has in God's deliverance enables him to declare that he shall humble the pride of his foes. And God's intervention would confirm the king in his regular work of humbling the wicked and exalting the righteous, in the exercise of his authority.
I. GOD'S HUMBLING OF THE WICKED. The wicked here are more especially those who scorn his claims and insult his majesty, as did the Assyrian general, saying, "Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria." God is jealous of the honour of his Name. "The lofty looks of man must be bowed down, and the Lord alone exalted." Show what state of mind and heart is indicated by the offering of such insult to Jehovah. That state of mind and heart is ruin to any man.
II. GOD'S HUMBLING, ENCOURAGING GOD'S PEOPLE TO HUMBLE THE WICKED. Hezekiah will do it, in his official position, because God does it. Apply to all positions of authority. But there is no more difficult duty committed to us than this humbling the proud. It has to be done. It is both right and kind to do it. But we may harden, not humble. We may act in passion rather than in the calmness of holy love. We should humble because God does. But we must only humble as God does; wounding in the hope of healing.—R.T.