Lord, now thou lettest thy bondman go, according to thy word, in peace;
Simeon has spent a long life waiting for God's promised comfort for Israel. Now he holds the baby Jesus in his arms and asks his Master for permission to go.
Simeon does not use the ordinary word for "Lord." He uses a stronger one:
Verse 29 gives us a remarkable statement. Simeon says, "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace." The word "Lord" here is really "Despot." We see in it the effect of a man moving under the power of the Spirit of God. Simeon recognised that supreme power was with God, not with the Emperor. Only a person who has the advantage of the indwelling Spirit can understand where this world is heading.
Another writer follows the same word through the New Testament:
Notice that the word used here for "Lord" is not the usual one. The same term occurs in Luke 2:29, Acts 4:24 and Jude 4. It means the Lord as "sovereign master." It is also used in 2 Peter 2:1: "denying the Master who bought them." This is not the nearness in which we know Him as "our Lord." It is the general relation of authority in which the Lord is Master of the whole world — of all men, whether bad or good.
Simeon calls himself God's servant — older translations say "bondman", a slave. He does not walk out on his own. He asks his Master to release him.
The eyes of Simeon have seen God's salvation, and he begs of the sovereign Lord that he may go.
God had made Simeon a personal promise, and Simeon now points back to it:
He begins with what is personal to himself. God is acting in His sovereignty, and he can rejoice — for sovereignty with Him means sovereign goodness. He has fulfilled His word to him, and now he may depart in peace. What, indeed, could man have sought or imagined on God's part so blessed as what He has done? Who could have thought what the Babe in Simeon's arms meant for the heart that could take it in?
Everything around Simeon that day followed the law of Moses. His peace came from somewhere else:
He sees that in that babe there was One altogether above the law. In grace He might come under it, and His parents were of course right to honour every one of its rules. But Simeon "received Him into his arms, and blessed God." He said, "Lord, now You are letting Your bondman go according to Your word, in peace, for my eyes have seen Your salvation." The law of Moses never could let a sinful man depart in peace. So to speak, it never ought to. ... It was not imagination, but solid faith; it was "according to Your word." There is nothing so sure as the testimonies of God and His Word.
Simeon is holding a baby. He will not live to see what that baby will do. One writer explains why he was content anyway:
Here was this aged saint. He had spent a long life "waiting for the consolation of Israel." Now, just before his eyes must close in death, God lets him see as an infant the One who is the fulfilment of his hopes... He might well have complained about his hard lot, having to die just as the fulfilment of his hopes was in sight. Yet in fact he simply said, "Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace." He foresaw the approaching tragedy of the Cross, and more than that, his heart's love centred in the Christ of God. If the Christ is to go, he is content to go. He has no wish to live if Jesus is to die!
Others put the weight on what he already held: "All his desires were satisfied, every link with earth was broken as soon as he had God's salvation, and he was ready to depart in peace" (Edward Dennett).
One writer reads the verse as a pattern for the end of a believer's life:
Suppose a man walks with God and has finished his course. He knows that his work is done, and he is aware that the Lord's time has come. He has companionship and communion with the Lord he has walked with. If he only comes to a bed of sickness, he is not ready to go yet. He is not afraid; God is teaching him something else. But when God's time has come, all is joy and readiness. He feels like Simeon: Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace.
- Master. Simeon addresses God with the word for an owner of slaves — sovereign authority over all men, not the nearer title believers use for "our Lord."
- Servant. Because God is Master, Simeon speaks as His slave. He asks leave to go; he does not take it.
- Word. His release rests on a promise God made to him. God acts here in sovereignty, and sovereignty with Him means goodness.
- Peace. The law could never let a sinful man go in peace. That peace comes from the Child in his arms.
- Ready. Holding Christ satisfied him. The glory he would never live to see cost him nothing, and a believer knows that same readiness when God's time has come.
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
An old man in the temple takes a newborn into his arms and announces that he has now seen what God had promised him. His words raise the question that runs through the whole scene. How can anyone say he has seen salvation? The work is not done yet — no cross, no empty tomb, only a baby.
Simeon does not say he has seen a plan or a promise. He says he has seen God's salvation, and what he is holding is a child. One writer turns this into advice for anyone beginning the Christian life:
It is important, I think, to link salvation with the Lord Himself. We have it in present and enjoyed possession when we have Him. Simeon's words show this plainly. He held the infant Jesus in his arms and said, "My eyes have seen Your salvation." The Lord's words to Zacchaeus show it too: "Today salvation has come to this house." He was there, and He was salvation. I advise young Christians to spell salvation "H.I.M." and not "I.T."
The salvation had not yet been accomplished. Simeon's confidence rested on the One who would accomplish it, and the weakness of the infant did not shake him:
Simeon knew, at last, that here was God's salvation. The work was not yet done, but here was the Worker of it. His faith did not fail as he considered the weakness of those infant hands that now held the task. Already his eyes had seen this salvation. It might come from Israel, but it could not be shut up in Israel. No, God had prepared it before the face of all the peoples.
Another writer weighs the exact wording:
The whole tone here is not what we may call formal. It was not that the work was done. But in Christ there was, in principle, "God's salvation" ... The Spirit might not yet say "God's righteousness," but He could say "God's salvation." It was the person of the Saviour, seen according to the prophetic Spirit, who would in due time make everything good as to God and man.
Many people saw that baby. Only Simeon saw salvation in Him, and the difference was not in his eyesight:
Only the anointed eye could discern who He was, the eye of faith. The angels voiced the gladness of heaven and proclaimed the greatness of that Babe. Yet His lowly birth and deep humility made no appeal to people — except to men like Simeon, who had the eye of faith. He was an old man, unknown and perhaps poor in the world, but rich in heaven's reckoning, and highly favoured of God ... The old saint had waited for a sight of God's Salvation until his natural eyes grew dim. At last he looks on Him and knows Him.
Simeon asks to go, and he asks it in peace. Where does that peace come from?
But he sees that in that baby there was One altogether above the law. In grace He might become subject to it, and His parents were, of course, right in paying every respect to its rules ... The law of Moses never could let a sinful man depart in peace — so to speak, it never ought. For peace to be real and righteous, it must come from the God who gave the law. He is present in grace, present as man in this world, and present to suffer for sins, the Just for the unjust. And so He was, for such was Jesus.
With salvation in his arms, Simeon had nothing left to wait for:
As soon as he held God's salvation, all his desires were satisfied. Every tie to earth fell away, and he was ready to depart in peace ... With the holy Child in his arms, Simeon stood at the centre of God's purposes. From there he looked on to the time when the Gentiles would come into the light, and when Christ would be the glory of His people Israel.
Before Simeon says a word about nations or about himself, he blesses God. That order matters:
God's sovereign work is in view in what He told Simeon, and God has in mind to bring us into the good of these things. Has knowing these things produced in us the same effect it produced in Simeon? When he took the Babe up in his arms he "blessed God". Could there be a greater evidence of reconciliation than a company marked by blessing God?
- Seen — Simeon's eyes saw a baby; his faith saw God's salvation. The sight was given, not achieved.
- Personal — What he saw was not a system but a Saviour. Spell salvation "HIM," not "IT."
- Early — The work was not yet done, but the Worker was there, and that was enough for faith.
- Peaceful — The law could never send a sinner away in peace; holding God's salvation, Simeon could go.
- Worship — Simeon's first act after receiving Christ was to bless God — the surest mark of a reconciled heart.