Text:The Songs of the Prophet Isaiah: Chap. XXVI

323. The Songs of the Prophet Isaiah: Chap. XXVI

1 A city of exceeding strength
Doth henceforth unto us belong,
And the decreed salvation shall
Like walls and bulwarks, keep it strong.
2 Set open then the city gates,
That so the righteous nation
That keeps the truth, may enter in,
And of it take possession,

3 In perfect peace thou wilt him keep,
Whose thoughtful mind is on thee staid,
And that because his confidence
On thee alone is ever laid.
4 Put then your trust upon the Lord
Throughout eternal ages length:
Because the Lord Jehovah is
A rock of everlasting strength.

5 For he brought down high seated ones.
The haughty city he laid low,
He laid it level with the ground,
And it into the dust did throw.
6 The feet of the afflicted man
Triumphing trampled it upon,
And it ly'th prostrate under foot,
Foot of the poor and needy one.

7 Uprightness is the king's high-way,
The very road the just do take:
The path-way of the righteous man
Thou dost for him most even make.
8 Moreover in thy judgment's way,
Thee, Lord, we longing look'd to see;
Our soul's desire was to thy name,
And to the memory of thee.

9 In ev'ning and in morning pray'r
My soul thee earnestly desir'd.
Yea with my spirit in midst of me
I day and night for thee inquir'd.
For when thy judgments are display'd
On earth, the world's inhabitants
Will lay to heart thy righteous works,
And learn the righteousness of saints.

10 Though for a wicked man there should
Bowels of heav'nly pity yearn,
Yet he the way of righteusness
By no means will be brought to learn;
In land of righteousness he will
Still work perverse iniquity.
He will not well conslder of
Jehovah's glorious majesty.

11 Lord, when thine hand was lifted up
In exaltation very high,
Lest they should see thine hand, they did
Perversely turn away their eye.
But they with blushing shame shall see
The zeal thou for thy people hast,
And the consuming fire that shall
Thine adversaries wholly waste.

12 Jehovah, thou for ever wilt
Safety and peace for us ordain:
For our affairs thou manage didst,
And for us all our works maintain.
13 O Lord our God, thou only art
Our Lord, yet others besides thee
Have lorded it, and over us
Have exercised tyranny.

But notwithstanding henceforth we
No other Lord save thee will take,
And of no other name but thine,
From this time will we mention make.
14 Those that opprest us now are dead,
So dead that they shall live no more.
Their ghosts from hence departed are,
And none shall them to life restore.

Because thou hast them visited,
And them hast utterly destroy'd,
For ever they are perished.
And of all memory made void,
15 Jehovah thou the nation
Hast very much increast, increast
Hast thou the nation very much
Thy glory is made manifest:

That nation which thou hast remov'd,
And far away didst send it forth,
By dissipating it unto
The utmost ends of all the earth.
16 O Lord, when they were in distress
They did thee visit with their cries,
And secret pray'r they poured out,
When as thou diddest them chastize.

17 Like as a pregnant woman when
Approaching child-birth comes apace
Is pain'd, and in her pangs cries out,
So were we, Lord, before thy face.
18 We have conceiv'd, and have been pain'd,
Yet, as it were, have brought forth wind;
The world's inhabitants fall not,
On earth we no deliverance find.

29 Thy dead shall surely live again,
With my dead body rise they must;
Awake out of the sleep of death
And sing ye who dwell in the dust:
Because the dew that falls on thee
Is like the dew that makes herbs grow
And out from thence with violence
The earth the Rephaims shall throw,

20 Come then my people enter in
To chambers that most secret are,
And after thee shut thou the doors,
And fallen them with utmost care:
There do thou hide thy self a-while,
It shall but as a moment be,
And all the indignation will
Be wholly passed over thee.

21 Behold the Lord is coming forth
Out of his habitation
To punish their iniquity
The earth's inhabitants upon.
The earth shall then disclose and show
The bloods in her lay buried,
Her slain shall be expos'd to view,
And be no longer covered.

Text Information
First Line: A city of exceeding strength
Title: The Songs of the Prophet Isaiah: Chap. XXVI
Language: English
Publication Date: 1742
Scripture:
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