Isaiah 25:1-5: Lord, You are my God;I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name
Isaiah 25:1-5 New American Standard Bible Song of Praise for God’s Favor 25 Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. 2 For You have turned a city into a heap, A fortified city into a ruin; A palace of strangers is no longer a city, It will never be rebuilt. 3 Therefore a strong people will glorify You; Cities of ruthless nations will revere You. 4 For You have been a stronghold for the helpless, A stronghold for the poor in his distress, A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; For the breath of the ruthless Is like a rain storm against a wall. 5 Like heat in a dry land, You subdue the uproar of foreigners; Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is [a]silenced.
It is a great comfort to know that God is not fulfilling His purposes and planning things as He simply goes. The plans and purposes God has were from long ago. They were from before the foundations of the earth. It is important to remember that God knows all. He knows the end from the beginning. It was always His plan and purpose to send His only begotten Son to this earth to die for the sins of humanity.
Isaiah praises God not only because God is revealing how He will deal with the wicked and the judgement to come on the nations that surround Israel. But ultimately because of God’s faithfulness to Israel to fulfill every plan and purpose. When discouragement, hopelessness, and doubt begin to try to creep in and fill our hearts, we must remember that God is in control. Time and time again throughout the pages of Isaiah the Lord shows that He is fully in control.
Great and mighty empires would often surround important cities with high and mighty walls. They often seemed invincible. When Israel had to take Jericho the wall surrounding Jericho was twenty feet high and eight feet thick. But it was brought down by the power of God. God called His people to march around the city for six days one time. On the seventh day they marched around seven times and on the seventh gave a mighty shout. In that might shout the power of God was released into the earth to bring down a wall that seemed invincible.
It is always important to remember that none rivals the Living God. He will destroy those who are seen mighty upon the earth. He will bring down their walls and bring their cities to nothing. He doesn’t take pleasure in this, but their arrogance and pride has brought this upon themselves. When God brings them to nothing it will not be rebuilt.
When Jesus rules the earth the strong and ruthless nations that stood in opposition to Israel and the God of Heaven will now praise and glorify Him. When it says that Jesus shall rule the earth with a rod of iron it means that the earth and all its nations and people will be submitted to His rule and reign. To those of Isaiah’s day this would be an astounding truth that the pagan and gentile nations would glorify the God of Israel. But through Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection, the way of salvation has been made available to all people.
There is a special place in the heart of God for the poor, the needy, the fatherless, the widow, and the helpless. On this earth there are those who are taken advantage of by the powerful. Today many are abused and abandoned because of human trafficking. Because of the love of money and the wickedness of greed, people are discarded and treated like trash by the powerful and the wicked.
But God is always a defense for them. Even in the midst of their pain and suffering the Lord is working. There are many testimonies of those who have been saved and delivered from this great evil of our day. But there awaits a time of great judgement for those who have taken advantage of the weak. They believe they are not accountable to anyone, but one day they will stand alone in judgement before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They will give an account of their wickedness and crimes against the helpless.
Jesus is our refuge from the storm and He is our shade from the heat. In the middle east often the storms that suddenly come and the heat that is experienced can be overwhelming. It can even be crippling. But this is a picture of life itself. There are things that we face in life that can seem very overwhelming and crippling. But when our hope and trust is in Jesus Christ, we have nothing to fear. For He is our shade and our refuge. This is why Isaiah praises the Living God. Because He is always faithful, even when we ourselves are not.
The greatness and majesty of God will silence the uproar of the foreigner and the alien. Right now it would seem like the wicked prosper and are unaccountable. But there is one they will not escape. He is the Living God who will hold all accountable. The Lord will silence the wicked and the mighty like heat in the shadow of a cloud. Their song and their revelry will be silenced. God will rightly deal with them and when He does, there will be no place to hide. The only way to escape the judgement of Almighty God is to surrender unto Him, repent of one’s wickedness, and make Him the Lord and Savior of one’s life.