Isaiah 26:1. In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah;
God would have his people to be a singing people. They often sigh; they should oftener sing. God makes their songs, and appoints the song for the day, and so helps them to cheer the darkest day with some melodious music.
Isaiah 26:1. We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Jerusalem may fall, her walls may be destroyed till not one stone is left upon another; but still, «we have a strong city.» In the salvation of God, we live and are safe. Our place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks. The eternal purposes of God shall guard the safety of his people.
Isaiah 26:2. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
This city is for the righteous, for those who keep the truth of God. They are to dwell in this city; not fighting in the open, not wandering in the plains, but dwelling at ease behind the massive walls and bulwarks which God himself has appointed in his salvation.
Isaiah 26:3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
This is our city; by faith, we enter into the purposes and promises of God, and there we dwell in perfect peace. The adversary may thunder outside the walls; but what of that? He may threaten that he will capture the city; but how can he do so when the Lord is there? This is a sweet, sweet verse; may you all get the very marrow of it! «Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.»
Isaiah 26:4. Trust ye in the LORD for ever:
Not sometimes, but always; not for a certain number of days during your season of trial, but if the trial should last a lifetime, «trust ye in the Lord for ever.»
Isaiah 26:4. For in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
If he could fail you, you would do well to be looking out for another shelter; but since his strength is everlasting, let your faith be also everlasting. Lives there a man who has fully trusted in God, and yet has been confounded? Is there one anywhere who has really relied upon the invisible power of Jehovah, and yet has found him fail in the hour of need? It cannot, and it shall not be.
Isaiah 26:5-6. For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
This is always God's way,-overturning the great and the proud, and casting down the mighty works of men, so that he who trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, soon finds himself in a pitiful condition. All the proud, who glory in their own power, shall be as when a city is battered down, and the very dust is trodden by «the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.»
Isaiah 26:7. The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
God makes a plain path for his own people; and he, knowing their way, forms a right estimate of it. Let them never fear for a moment that he will condemn them because of the condemnation of their fellow men; he takes care himself to weigh the path of the just, and his scales cannot err.
Isaiah 26:8-9. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
You notice that the song given to us in this chapter is all concerning God. We are bidden to trust in him, we are told how safe are they that do so, we are shown how futile is all strength apart from him, and now the desire of his saints is set forth as being toward him, and toward him alone.
Isaiah 26:10. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
Until men are changed in heart, and renewed in nature, they will not see God. If you could transport them to the land of uprightness, where there would be no sin to tempt them, yet even then they would not know the Lord. Still is our Saviour's message true, « Ye must be born again.» O unconverted men and women, we look upon you through our tears, because you are incapable of everything that is good and right until the Lord in covenant mercy renews your hearts, and brings you to know him! Of the ungodly man it is truly declared, «In the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.»
Isaiah 26:11. LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
There are some people who will not see; and, as the old proverb hath it, there are none so blind as those that will not see; but they will one day be made to see, if not to their salvation, then to their everlasting shame and confusion. They shall he made to see that, after all, there is a God, and that he is strong to punish the ungodly, and to overthrow his adversaries. I pray that no one of you may refuse to see by the light of the gospel until he is forced to see by the blaze of the judgment-day; yet, alas! there will be such.
Isaiah 26:12. LORD, those wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
That is a delightful verse. Here is an ordination spoken of; for God has ordained peace for his people, and they must have it, and they shall have it. On the other hand, his people ordain glory for him, for they declare, «Thou also hast wrought all our works in us.» Thus we also sing,-
«And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are his alone.»
Isaiah 26:13. O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
«O Lord, how sadly, how long, how grievously, did those other lords domineer over us; but from this time forth we will know no name but thine; and, when we mention it, it shall be by thy grace, and by thy power alone, that we even put our trust in thy wondrous name!
Isaiah 26:14. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they, shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
Yes, our lusts are all dead; they will never live again, thank God. The Sword of the Spirit has slain them: «they are deceased.» We want to have nothing more to do with them, we desire that the very memory of them should perish.
Isaiah 26:15. Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified:
God is always glorified in the increase of his people, therefore, we should, above all other reasons, pray for the increase of the Church because God will be thereby glorified.
Isaiah 26:15-16. Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
That is true of hypocrites; but it is also sweetly true of some whom God is bringing to himself. Child after child has died, loss after loss has broken down the business; now they turn to God. Oh, it is a blessed loss that makes us find our God! What we gain is infinitely more than what we have lost. What a mercy that God is willing to hear us in the time of trouble, that all our putting-off and rejection of him do not make him put us off! I remember one who wished to hire a conveyance to go to a certain town, and he went to the place where he could hire it, and asked the price; he thought that it was too much, so he went round the town to other people, and found that he could not get it any cheaper; but when he came back to the place visited first, the man said to him, «Oh, no, no! I will not let my horses to you. You have been round to everybody else, and now you come back to me because you cannot get what you want elsewhere; I will have nothing to do with you.» That is man's way of dealing with his fellow man; but it is not the Lord's method of dealing with us. When you and I have gone round to everybody else, the Lord still welcomes us when we come back to him. Yes, just as harbours of refuge are meant for ships in distress that would not have put in there except for the storm and danger, such is the mercy of the Lord God in Jesus Christ. If you are forced to accept it, you are still welcome to it. If you are driven to it by stress of weather, you may come in, for the harbour was made for just such as you are.
Isaiah 26:17-18. Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pain; so have we been in thy sight O LORD. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Ah, no! all the agonies of a mind, all the troubles of a soul, cannot save it. This is the work of grace; this is the gift of God. What a mercy it is that such a cheering promise as this next verse contains comes in just here
Isaiah 26:19. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.
That note of resurrection comes in as a word of comfort to the most dispirited, the most despairing. As the dead shall live because of Christ, even so is there hope for you who are driven to a very death of despair. You cannot live by your own power; your hopes are all gone, dead and buried, and you yourself lie helpless and lost; but as the Lord will raise the dead from their graves, so will he give you hope, and bless and save you, if you come and trust in him.
Isaiah 26:19-21. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
The blood of the murdered shall cry to God from the ground, as did Abel's. The slain in battle shall not be forgotten. God will come and punish the earth for its iniquities. Blessed are they that bide themselves in Christ, till the indignation be over past.