WHY WE SING
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.
Meditate
Imagine this: ‘… the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive … will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord.’1
Think Further
The first house we ever bought was a terrace house in West Philadelphia. It had been abandoned for a time and needed a lot of work. The neighborhood was run down and crime was an ever-present reality. The church we attended was falling apart too, with a dwindling congregation, but we loved worshipping there because listening to God’s Word and singing about the great truths of faith each week became our refuge. That’s like what’s happening in this chapter. Isaiah is keenly aware that the people of the Earth, including God’s people, are holding on during a difficult situation. He knows they’ve sinned and are enduring the consequences of their actions (vv. 20, 21). And yet, he sings. Why?
The answer is in verses 16–19: Isaiah realizes that the difficulties were in fact the discipline of a loving God. Even better, Isaiah was confident of a truth that Jesus taught centuries later: that God would respond powerfully, even to the faintest expression of faith (v. 16).2 Notice that the gateway to God’s presence and deliverance is something we work hard to avoid: distress (v. 16). Read Psalm 107, noting the phrase, ‘Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.’3
The great truth that emerges from this chapter is that God can transform the worst-case scenarios in our lives into a best-case opportunity for deepening our relationship with him. Wholehearted worship during the time of trial is often the vehicle God uses to accomplish this. As Isaiah continues singing, he is moved to consider the ultimate worst-case scenario, death (v. 19). By faith, he envisioned a resurrection in the Lord. Today we can celebrate the empty tomb and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why we sing.
Apply
Have you ever been so overwhelmed you could ‘barely whisper a prayer’ (v. 16)? Remember and thank God for times when he helped you in your distress.
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.
1 1 Thess 4:16–18 2 Matt 17:20, 21 3 Ps 107:6
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