Is. 35:4, Say to those with palpitating heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the Arabah.
7 The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
9 No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
These will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will find gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.
In every other translation of the Bible including the updated version of the new American Standard that word “palpitating,” is translated as either anxious, or fearful, and yet, the Hebrew word that is used here carries the idea of hurry not fear, or anxiety. It is not the idea of “hurry up” in a fearful sense, but in a sense of expediance. In this verse it’s used in the sense of longing for something to happen soon; expediently. One of the meanings of this word is to “precipitate.” When you precipitate something it literally means that you cause something to happen suddenly. All of that is to say this; everything that follows from verse 4 through verse 10 is a description of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You see, God pours out his Spirit on a person, or on a people, or on a land, not because they are good, but because He is good, and the One who is love, responds expediently to a heart that is palpitating for His presence. It really is that simple. We’ve put a lot of religion, and formulas on how to get God to pour out His presence and power on our lives; but the simple truth is God wants to be wanted. He longs to be longed for. I believe that the woman at the well in John chapter 4, as messed up as her life was, had the most important thing of all going for her, that attracted her to Jesus. Her heart was palpitating for God.
