Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

26. A Song of Praise

¹ 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, Or judgments
   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. The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
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.

16. O Jehovah, in tribulation they have visited thee. This might be explained as relating to hypocrites, who never flee to God but when they have been constrained by distresses and afflictions. But since the Lord instructs believers also by chastisements, as the Prophet formerly shewed, (verses 8 and 9,) I choose rather to refer it simply to them, that not only they may know that God has justly punished them, but that the bitterness of the afflictions may likewise be sweetened by the good result of the chastisement, and that they may be better instructed in the fear of the Lord, and may profit more and more every day. Isaiah therefore speaks in the person of the Church, that whenever godly men read this statement, they might acknowledge that amidst their distresses and afflictions they were nearer to God than when they enjoyed prosperity, by means of which almost always (such is the depravity of our nature) we become excessively proud and insolent. On this account we must be curbed and tamed by chastisements; and this thought will soften the harshness of punishments, and make us less ready to shrink from them if we think that they are profitable to us.

They poured out a prayer. The Hebrew word לחש (lăchăsh) ¹⁷⁹¹⁷⁹ {Bogus footnote} signifies a muttering. This word therefore must not be taken for a prayer pronounced in words, ¹⁸⁰¹⁸⁰ {Bogus footnote} but for that which indicates that the heart is wrung with sore pains, as those who are tortured by extreme anguish can hardly speak or express the feelings of their hearts. It therefore denotes, that calling upon God which is sincere and free from all hypocrisy; such as men will aim at when in sore affliction they utter groans as expressive of intense pain. In prosperity men speak with open mouths; but when they are cast down by adversity, they hardly venture to mutter, and express their feelings with the heart rather than with the tongue. Hence arise those unutterable groans of which Paul speaks. (Romans 8:26.) It is in reference to the godly, therefore, that Paul makes this declaration, and to them must this doctrine be limited; for wicked men, although some lamentations are extorted from them by pain, become more hardened and more and more obstinate and rebellious.