Isaiah 26 · The Lantern

A Song of Salvation

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation he sets as walls and rampart.

(Chapter 26, Verse 1) On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: Our strong city, the Savior will set it as a wall and rampart. In that day, this song will be sung over the land of Judah: Behold, a strong city, our salvation will set up walls and bulwarks.

When Hezekiah, the king of Judah and son of Ahaz, was gravely ill and had learned of his coming death by the prophecy of Isaiah, he turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly. Immediately the Lord in his mercy not only averted the destruction of imminent death but also added fifteen years to the man's life. Then, at last, Hezekiah sang this song.

597. In that day. In this part, he gives thanks for the justification of the people, and it is divided into two parts: in the first, he foretells the state of the just; in the second, he shows the fruit of justice: the old error (Isa 26:3). Concerning the first, he does two things.

Open the gates, and let a righteous nation enter, one that keeps faithfulness.

A mind sustained you keep in peace, peace, because it trusts in you.

Trust in the LORD forever and ever, for in Yah, the LORD, is a rock of ages.

For he has brought down those dwelling on high, a lofty town; he lays it low, lays it low to the earth, makes it touch the dust.

A foot tramples it — the feet of the afflicted, the steps of the poor.

The path of the righteous is uprightness; upright, you level the track of the righteous.

Also on the path of your judgments, LORD, we have hoped for you; for your name and for your remembrance is the desire of the soul.

With my soul I have desired you in the night; also with my spirit within me I seek you at dawn. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

But, as I said, at the crowing of the cock their President comes, and gently touching the sleeper with his foot, rouses them all. For there are none sleeping naked. Then as soon as they have arisen they stand up, and sing the prophetic hymns with much harmony, and well composed tunes.

For this reason, as I have already said, you ought to read and listen to the sacred lessons with such eagerness that you may be able to speak about them and teach them to others in your own homes and elsewhere, wherever you are.

The constancy of the desire, for day and night, that is, at all times, or in prosperity and adversity, my soul has desired you: in my bed I sought him whom my soul loves (Song 3:1); O God, my God, to you do I watch at break of day (Ps 62:2[63:1]).

Let the wicked be shown favor — he does not learn righteousness. In a land of straightness he acts crookedly, and does not see the majesty of the LORD.

When, by such faith and knowledge, the Lord's people have embraced this true life, they surely receive the joy of heaven. The wicked, on the other hand, since they don't care about the Lord's life, are rightly deprived of its blessings.

In this human form the good will see him in whom they have believed; the wicked, him whom they have despised. But the wicked will not see him in the form of God in which he is equal to the Father, for as the prophet says, "The wicked shall be taken off that he may not see the glory of the Lord," and, on the other hand, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God."

604. Let us have pity. Here he excludes mercy, and concerning this, he does two things. First, the Lord proposes mercy interrogatively: let us have pity: the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord (Ps 32[33]:5).

LORD, your hand is lifted high and they do not see. Let them see and be ashamed of zeal for a people; indeed, let the fire of your adversaries devour them.

I know the glittering sword, and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to nothing, to make childless and to spare neither flesh nor marrow nor bones. I know him who, though free from passion, meets us like a bear robbed of her cubs, like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians, not only those of that day, but if anyone now is an Assyrian in wickedness.

Note that there are two kinds of zeal, one full of love, the other full of hatred. The former is indicated in the words, "The zeal of your house has devoured me"; the latter, in the words, "Zeal has taken hold of the senseless people, and now fire shall devour your opponents."

606. Second, the prophet responds: Lord, let your hand be exalted. 607. Third, the Lord determines the spiritual punishment: let the envious people see, and be confounded: every eye shall see him (Rev 1:7), in the glory of his humanity, not of his divinity; and the bodily punishment: let fire devour your enemies: they were cast alive into the pool of fire (Rev 19:20).

LORD, you will set peace for us, for also all our works you have done for us.

But I say all this now, and select all the histories that contain trials and tribulations, and the wrath of kings, and their evil designs, in order that we may fear nothing, save only offending God. For then also was there a furnace burning; yet they derided it, but feared sin.

"All have fallen." Anyone who refuses to seek out a strong foundation necessarily falls. "Together they became useless," namely, with regard to the work for which they were created. "There is none who does good." There was no one who would do good, because the Jews broke the commandments and the Gentiles spurned the law of nature.

608. Fourth, the prophet consents rejoicing, setting out two good consequences from these punishments: the peace of the people, therefore, Lord, this having been done, you will give us peace, and we hope for this from you: for all our works: it is God who works in you, both to will and to accomplish (Phil 2:13), you have wrought, the works, that is, the punishments, by which yo…

LORD our God, lords other than you have ruled over us; by you alone do we bring your name to mind.

For the Son of God indeed, being himself the Word, is Lord of all. But we once were subject from the first to the slavery of corruption and the curse of the law. Then by degrees fashioning for ourselves things that were not, we served, as says the blessed apostle, "them which by nature are no gods." Ignorant of the true God, we preferred things that were not to the truth.

Therefore Christ will hand the kingdom over to God and the Father when through him the Father will be known by sight, for his kingdom consists of those in whom he now reigns through faith.

Second, the praise of God: O Lord our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, and therefore we could not give ourselves to praise of you; only in you, to whom alone we give ourselves, having no other god: servants have ruled over us (Lam 5:8).

The dead do not live, the shades do not rise. Therefore you attended to them and destroyed them, and you made every remembrance of them perish.

(Verse 14) Those who are dying shall not live; the giants shall not rise again. Therefore You visited and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them. LXX: For the dead shall not see life; nor will physicians bring them back. Therefore You brought in, and destroyed, and took away all their males.

For hence it is said by the prophet, "The dead shall not live; the giants shall not rise up again." For whom does he call "the dead" except sinners, and whom does he designate "giants" except those who over and above take pride in sin.

614. Let not the dead live. Here the prophet asks that God not free those punished from further punishment. And first, he sets out the petition: let not the dead, sinners, live, in the life of glory, unless they repent; let not the giants, glorying in their own power, rise again, to glory: the wicked shall not rise again in judgment (Ps 1:5); the ancient giants did not obtain p…

You have added to the nation, LORD, you have added to the nation; you have been glorified; you have extended all the ends of the earth.

LORD, in distress they attended to you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.

Like a pregnant woman drawing near to give birth, who writhes and cries out in her pangs, so were we before you, LORD.

We were pregnant, we writhed, as it were we gave birth to wind. We have made no salvation in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

That there are also some souls that conceive offspring, the prophet made clear when he said: "from fear of you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed and gave birth to a spirit of salvation which you made upon the earth".

Even now let us rejoice somehow or other in this hope derived from the promises of one most faithful, until that richest of all possible joys arises, when "we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is," and our joy nobody shall take from us.

617. We have not wrought justice. Here he announces the procured peace, and concerning this, he does three things. First, the reason for the delay is shown: we have not wrought justice, so that he alludes to what is said in Deuteronomy 28:7: the Lord shall cause your enemies, that rise up against you, to fall down before your face.

Your dead will live; my corpses will rise. Awake and sing for joy, dwellers in the dust — for your dew is a dew of lights, and the earth will bring the shades to birth.

Then, too, Isaiah himself has plainly declared that there shall be joy of this nature at the resurrection of the just, when he says: "The dead shall rise again; those, too, who are in the tombs shall arise, and those who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew from Thee is health to them."

In the same way that the Lord becomes the light, the way, the truth, the bread, the vine, the fire, the shepherd, the lamb, the door, and many other things to believers, so also does he become the dew to us who are in need of his mercy and know ourselves to be feverish with sin, about whom Isaiah said, "The dew which is from you is their health."

618. Second, the promise of restoration of the people through resurrection is set out, either bodily resurrection on the last day or resurrection from the misery of captivity.

Go, my people, enter your chambers and shut your door behind you; hide for a brief moment until the indignation passes over.

All the generations from Adam to this day have passed away; but those who were made perfect in charity by the grace of God live among the saints; and they shall be made manifest at the judgment of the kingdom of Christ.

"The hairs of your head are numbered." If the hairs, I suppose the teeth would be more easily numbered. But there is no object in numbering them if they are some day to perish.

Second, the immunity of the people of God: go, my people; enter into your chambers, tombs, or literally, the fortifications in which they sometimes carefully kept themselves, below: in a moment of indignation have I hid my face a little while from you, but with everlasting kindness have I had mercy on you (Isa 54:8); and it was said to them that they should rest for a little ti…

For see, the LORD is coming out from his place to attend to the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth upon him; and the earth will uncover her blood, and will no longer cover over her slain.

Isaiah26

A Song of Salvation