Isaiah 26:1-12
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
"We have a strong city;
God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the LORD forever,
For in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength.
5 For He brings down those who dwell on high,
The lofty city;
He lays it low,
He lays it low to the ground,
He brings it down to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down—
The feet of the poor
And the steps of the needy."
7 The way of the just is uprightness;
O Most Upright,
You weigh the path of the just.
8 Yes, in the way of Your judgments,
O LORD, we have waited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
9 With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
11 LORD, when Your hand is lifted up, they will not see.
But they will see and be ashamed
For their envy of people;
Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.
12 LORD, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works in us.
When God judges the earth in righteousness we will sing with all God’s people of His salvation accomplished for us and not by us. Because of the righteousness of His truth and work we have that eternal strong city far surpassing the earthly Jerusalem of Israel. As a people in the new nation which is the kingdom of God in Christ, we find our righteousness in Him alone and our protection of salvation which cannot be taken from us once He has bestowed it forever upon the ones He has chosen for Himself. This mind set on Christ and His salvation bring us perfected peace which focuses our minds on His reconciling work foretold from the beginning as our sure foundation on the eternal Rock of ages, the eternally existing God (Micah 5:2). A house built on shifting sands does not have peace with God in Christ (Romans 5:1) and falls in the judgment with all the proud who deny and reject the only hope of deliverance from sin and death. They will be humbled as they are brought down to kneel to Him at last (Isaiah 45:23-24, Philippians 2:10-11) in subjection to the only righteous Lord and Sovereign. The Lord knows the way of the righteous because He draws them along the path to Himself and His saving grace, and we who are His patiently wait for Him as we desire to honor and glorify Him in ever willing obedience to His word. We desire Him and therefore seek to know Him more each day because of that unmerited salvation, though we are saddened that those who seek the wickedness of sinful disobedience who will never learn such righteousness is in Him alone and not by working to prove themselves to be good when none of us are. To see God’s majesty is to humbly accept our sinful state (Romans 3:23, 6:23) and His reconciling grace as our only deliverance from our just due (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Those rejecting this good news refuse to see Him and therefore will be ashamed in the end as they are devoured just as the enemies of Israel were then as verse 11 tells us by the revealed word given through Isaiah. Yes, it is the LORD who establishes peace for us because He alone has done the work of salvation for righteousness in and for us! He is our Rock of ages, the eternal solid foundation on which we stand in grace.
No comments:
Post a Comment