THROUGH TURMOIL TO PEACE
Opening Prayer
As I come to Scripture today, Lord God, open my eyes to see you, to find new reasons to trust you, and to give you praise. Bring yourself glory through me as I live for you.
Read ISAIAH 26
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
A Song of Praise
26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
5 He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.
6 Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.
7 The path of the righteous is level;
you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,[a]
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.
10 But when grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.
12 Lord, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
13 Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.
14 They are now dead, they live no more;
their spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.
15 You have enlarged the nation, Lord;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.
16 Lord, they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.[b]
17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, Lord.
18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
and the people of the world have not come to life.
19 But your dead will live, Lord;
their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.
20 Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.
21 See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling
to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;
the earth will conceal its slain no longer.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 26:8 Or judgments
- Isaiah 26:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
If asked how you would describe God, what comes to mind first?At points this chapter feels just like a psalm giving glory to God (e.g., v. 9); at other points (e.g., vv. 20, 21) we receive the full blast of God’s power and wrath. Again, we modern Christians are reminded that the same God can be at once terrifying and our trusted friend. Notice how frequently the material world is stirred in with the spiritual realm. Whether these gates, cities, footsteps, and pathways are literal or symbolic is surely not the most important thing. However, a key in grasping the significance of these verses for us is the lead-in phrase: ‘In that day.’ Isaiah had in mind a time—or perhaps more accurately, an eternal reality. In that day, the Lord will finally resolve all the struggles of both ancient Israel and the twenty-first century.
We can glean remarkable details here about God’s coming and forever kingdom. It is strong, yes, but why? Because of his salvation! The city is at peace because those who dwell there have minds fixed forever on the Lord. Isaiah was a realist. As many harrowing images show us, he was fully engaged with the pain and turmoil of the times in which he lived. He was also a godly prophet: he could readily envisage the ultimate victory for which he waited. And so, his mind was steadfast (v. 3).
Apply
Verse 8 describes people waiting for God: ‘we wait for you.’ Set aside some time to do this yourself.
Closing prayer
Father, keep me ready to have your perspective in my life so that I might rise above my day to day challenges and worries. Help me to trust in the ways you have chosen and that your good intentions are far beyond what I can imagine.
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