Song of the Strong City
Trust in our Father is not a mood here but a walled city with open gates. The singers admit their labor produced only wind, no deliverance for anyone. So they wait, told to shut the door till wrath passes, and promised their dead will sing from the dust.
26 1That day this song will be sung in Judah's land: We have a strong city; he sets salvation as walls and outworks. 2Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter—the nation that keeps faith. 3You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on you, because he trusts in you. 4Trust in our Father forever, for our Father is the everlasting Rock. a a v4 The Rock is one of the earliest poetic names for our Father in Scripture. Solid, immovable, faithful — he is the unshakable ground beneath every life that trusts him. 5For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it down to the dust. 6The foot tramples it down—the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. 7The path of the righteous is level; you make smooth the way of the righteous. 8In the path of your judgments, our Father, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. 9At night my soul longs for you; within me my spirit seeks you eagerly. For when your judgments reach the earth, those living in the world learn what is right. 10If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of our Father. 11Our Father, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed. Let the fire reserved for your adversaries consume them. 12Our Father, you will establish peace for us, for you have indeed accomplished all our works for us. 13Our Father, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we remember. 14They are dead, they will not live; they are departed spirits, they will not rise; for you brought destruction on them and wiped out all remembrance of them. 15You have made the nation grow, our Father, you have made the nation grow; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land. 16Our Father, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them. 17Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her labor pains when she is about to give birth, so were we before you, our Father. 18We were pregnant, we writhed, but we gave birth only to wind. We have brought no deliverance to the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not been born. 19Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing for joy, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is the dew of dawn light, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. 20Come, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath has passed by.
21For look, our Father is coming out from his place to punish the people of the earth for their sins, and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon it and will no longer cover those slain in it.
