To the Jew in Isaiah's time this promise doubtless bore reference to three things: the return from the seventy years' captivity; their ultimate restoration, first to their own land, and then to Christ; and God's way of dealing with each individual's own soul. To us it stands only in the last reference; to us the words are simply spiritual.
I. The "going out" appears to relate to that great moral exodus when a man emerges from a state of nature into a state of grace, from bondage to liberty, from darkness to light, from the world to Christ. This is indeed to be with joy. The being led forth denotes the further experiences of the Christian, God's conduct of him by the way; his future courses, and especially the manner in which he is brought out at last out of this life into a better; and all this is to be "with peace."
II. What is joy? (1) Novelty of perception. It is a wonderfully new feeling when a soul first tastes the promises and grasps its own interest in Christ. (2) Keenness of perception. Keen is the first sense of sin to a penitent, and keen is the first sense of pardon to a believer. In that early dawn the soul's atmosphere is so clear that every object stands out in its distinctness. (3) Sweetness of perception. Sweeter are those perceptions than they are keen. Are they not the touches of the Holy Ghost? They are all about beautiful things saints and angels, a holy heaven, and a perfect Jesus.
III. "And be led forth with peace." As we go on in the spiritual life the sense of sin grows deeper and deeper; and a deep sense of weakness, nothingness, and guilt, combining with a fuller sense of pardon and love, makes joy peace. To a mind led and taught of God all the changes and chances of life lend themselves to peace. A great affliction is a deep fountain of peace; the very agitation hushes, and it makes all troubles afterwards so very small. Another and another promise fulfilled every day is always enlarging the rock underneath our feet. Another and another answer to prayer is always strengthening the arguments for the future. Another and another new drop of the knowledge of Christ is always swelling the tide, till the "peace flows like a river," because we see the "righteousness of Christ" as the waves of the sea.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,4th series, p. 281.
References: Isaiah 55:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiv., No. 833; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xii., p. 20.