July 9, 2026 - Isaiah 60-62

In the book of Isaiah are so many words of judgment, terrible judgment.  God is a righteous God, and he disciplines even his own people when we disobey him.  But he is also a gracious God, and he just cannot help himself.  I do not type this meaning any irreverence; it’s just his nature to be gracious.  And aren’t we glad that is so!  If it were not so, as Isaiah could say, “If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9).  And so, as he concludes, the prophet instructs:

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

      and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,

      and thick darkness the peoples;

but the LORD will arise upon you,

      and his glory will be seen upon you.

And nations shall come to your light,

      and kings to the brightness of your rising (60:1-3).

How gracious is our God!

Hear what God the Lord hath spoken:

O my people, faint and few,

Comfortless, afflicted, broken,

Fair abodes I build for you.

Thorns of heartfelt tribulation,

Shall no more perplex your ways:

You shall name your walls salvation,

And your gates shall all be praise.

Ye no more your suns descending,

Waning moons no more shall see;

But, your griefs for ever ended,

Find eternal noon in Me.

God shall rise, and shining o’er you,

Change to day the gloom of night;

He, the Lord, shall be your Glory,

God your everlasting Light.   –William Cowper (1802)