The Song Of Deliverance And The Strong City (Isaiah 26:1-4).
The first four verses of chapter 26 with their description of the strong city of God with its walls and bulwarks of salvation, which is for the righteous who hold the truth to enter, connect back to Isaiah 25:9, and are in contrast with Isaiah 25:10-12. But they may also be contrasted with the lofty city of Isaiah 26:5, which stands proudly on its summit but will be dragged to the ground. They thus connect the previous passage with what follows, and must be seen in the light of both.
‘In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah,
We have a strong city,
He will appoint salvation,
For its walls and bulwarks.
Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which keeps truth,
May enter in.
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on you,
Because he trusts in you.'
Trust in Yahweh for ever,
For in Yah Yahweh,
Is an everlasting rock (literally ‘a rock of ages').
In direct contrast we are now lifted in this song from the devastated fortress of Isaiah 25:12 to the strong city of Isaiah 26:1, from the dungpit to the glory. Here the city where Yahweh is reigning (Isaiah 24:23) is described. They had waited for Him and He had saved them (Isaiah 25:9). Its walls and bulwarks are Salvation, for it is the city of salvation. The righteous (those who are true believers) enter it and will be saved (Proverbs 18:10). In that city there is no more death (Isaiah 25:8). It epitomises all that Isaiah has previously spoken of, the future ideal. All the redeemed flow to it from among all peoples (Isaiah 2:2). It will be under Yahweh's wedding canopy and full of the presence of God Who will protect it from all harm (Isaiah 4:5-6). In New Testament terms it is Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22).
(We cannot too often reiterate that the prophets revealed heavenly truth in earthly terms. The conceptions that they presented were necessarily limited by their background and by the backgrounds of those to whom they spoke. They had no concept of life in Heaven. Thus they used picture language by which they said what they had to say. While we pride ourselves on the fact that we are above that, we too have to think in such pictures because the true reality is beyond us as well. That is why we speak of the city of gold with its pearly gates in Revelation 21. The reality is greater beyond all imagining).
‘In that day.' This refers back to ‘in that day' in Isaiah 25:9 and has in mind the glorious day when death will be defeated in Isaiah 25:8, and the future days of deliverance. ‘That day' begins with the time when Jesus Christ was on earth, when the King had come, and when through His death and resurrection sin and death were vanquished once for all, and He began to feast His people on good things. They had waited for Him and He had come. Those were the beginning of the days of deliverance. From then on those who entered under the Kingly Rule of God would be like those who entered the city of salvation. They would enter into the fold of God's protection and care. They would know that for them death had lost its sting. They would become a city set on a hill which cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14). This is thus a city that can be entered now by those who come in submission to the King Messiah. But its final fulfilment will be in the new heaven and the new earth, when death is no more, and when His people live in everlasting triumph.
‘We have a strong city (literally ‘a city of strength'), He will appoint salvation for its walls and bulwarks.' Compare Isaiah 60:18; Psalms 48:12-13. This city is in contrast with all others. Isaiah has described the ruin of the world in terms of a city. It is the city of wasteness, wasted and empty (Isaiah 24:10), a heap, a ruin, a ‘no city' (Isaiah 25:2). Babylon will be a wasted city never to be rebuilt (Isaiah 13:19-22; Isaiah 14:23), Philistia is a city that has melted away (Isaiah 14:31) (in contrast with Zion - Isaiah 14:32), Moab's cities are laid waste (Isaiah 15:1-2; Isaiah 25:12), the city of Damascus is a ruinous heap (Isaiah 17:1), all the glory of Kedar will fail (Isaiah 21:16), the earthly city of Jerusalem is helpless and defenceless (Isaiah 22:9), a harlot, the home of murderers (Isaiah 1:21); Tyre is a harlot city (Isaiah 23:17). Only God's city will triumph and be perpetually strong. It will be the city of deliverance, the city of salvation. It is the hope of the world. But as salvation is ‘its walls and bulwarks' it is clearly not too literal a city, it is the place where the redeemed are, wherever they are, God's stronghold. From this point of view Jesus Christ is God's city and all who are truly ‘in Him' are saved.
‘Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps truth may enter in.' Compare Psalms 118:19; Revelation 22:14. The city has been prepared by God. Man has had no part in it. But now the gates are flung open so that ‘the righteous nation that keeps truth' may enter in. None can enter who are unrighteous, none can enter who do not hold to the truth, there will in no wise enter in anything that defiles (Revelation 21:27). But the redeemed can enter, for they have been ‘put in the right' by God (2 Corinthians 5:21). They have been vindicated. They have been accounted righteous because of the sacrifice of their representative, the Servant of God (Isaiah 53:11). The ‘righteous nation' represents the holy seed (Isaiah 6:13), purified and refined (Isaiah 4:3-4), but it also incorporates God's own people from all nations, for they too can enter in (Isaiah 2:2-3). This is the ‘ideal', the spiritual, the heavenly Jerusalem, entered now by those who come under the Kingly Rule of God, and which one day they will enjoy in its perfection everlastingly. And for them death will have been swallowed up for ever (Isaiah 35:8).
‘You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.' It is a city entered by faith. All who truly respond to God march in. They are transferred from the ‘powerful rule of darkness' to being under ‘the Kingly Rule of His Beloved Son' (Colossians 1:13). And those who dwell in that city have their minds stayed on God, their trust is fully in Him, and thus they enjoy perfect peace while they are in such a state, because God Himself will keep them in it. If we do not enjoy perfect peace we must look to what our hearts are stayed on, and to what we trust in. For if our hearts are stayed on Him we will enjoy perfect peace, whatever the world throws at us, the ‘peace which passes all understanding' (Philippians 4:7).
When the troops of Assyria surrounded Jerusalem Isaiah could afford to laugh and rejoice. For he knew that they could never enter it. God had made it a temporary ‘city of deliverance'. But many in that city were terror-stricken and distraught. They were just as safe as Isaiah was, but because they did not believe it they walked in fear. If you are a Christian and remember that your life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:4) you too will be able to rejoice in the face of the Enemy. For there he cannot touch you. All he can do is yell at you over the wall and sink your spirits. So your peace and your strength will depend on whether you trust God.
‘Trust in Yahweh for ever, for in Yah Yahweh, is an everlasting rock.' His people are now urged to trust Yahweh for ever because He is an everlasting, unfailing rock, He is a firm foundation on which to build, and firm and strong in the day of trouble. The city with walls and bulwarks of salvation is founded on the everlasting rock.
The picture of the ‘rock of ages' might also remind Israel of how God had twice provided them with water from a rock in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11). Thus the rock also spoke to them of a source of life-giving water (Isaiah 48:21; Psalms 78:15-16; Psalms 78:20; Psalms 78:35; Psalms 105:41).
But here the symbol of the rock primarily indicates firm dependability (Deuteronomy 32:4), strength (Isaiah 17:10; Psalms 31:2-3; Psalms 62:7), shelter (Isaiah 32:2) and permanence (it is a ‘rock of ages'). It is an idea regularly used of God elsewhere (Deuteronomy 32:15-31; 1 Samuel 2:2; 2Sa 22:2-3; 2 Samuel 22:32; 2 Samuel 22:47; 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 18:31; Psalms 18:46; Psalms 28:1; Psalms 42:9; Psalms 62:6; Psalms 71:3; Psalms 89:26; Psalms 92:15; Psalms 94:22; Psalms 95:1) although rarely by the prophets other than Isaiah.
Note again the use of Yah Yahweh, emphasising that He is their covenant God. The repetition stresses the significance of the name. He will be everything to His people.