Isaiah 26: Lament and Divine Response
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Paraphrasing from the HARPERCOLLINS BIBLE COMMENTARY: An extensive song of lamentation is followed by an assurance that judgment of the nations will be complete, and that the answers to prayers of Israel’s past will be answered. It expresses hope for a time of peace and for restoration. “Within this portrayal is a remarkable affirmation that ‘your dead will rise’ and that divine light will fall on the darkness of the realm of the shades of Sheol . . . The language is a hyperbolic expression of confidence that God will restore the nation of Israel [and] . . . leaves open the other possibilities for later readers who contemplate a more explicit conception of the restoration of the dead with the religious beliefs of Judaism and Christianity.” (Mays 509)
These words are particularly poignant as yesterday our family and friends formally marked the arrival and death of a little one. As individuals and as a community we raised our lament to the heavens; and just as surely we received our response. The words from Isaiah today bring us what we yearn to hear.
God humbles those in high places, and the lofty city God brings down . . .
No amount of wealth or power can protect us from the natural course of life which is to die in order that we rise again in full and eternal life.
The way of the just is smooth; the path of the just you make level . . .
Those who seek refuge in God alone when the storm of life descends on them will always find a secure sanctuary against the darkness; and they will rise again to join others in full and eternal life.
My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you . . .
Sinking into our loss, we cry out in our pain as the darkness descends; yet within us the Spirit kindles fresh hope and we know that we will rise again in full and eternal life.
O Lord, you mete out peace to us, for it is you who have accomplished all we have done . . .
Turning to the source of our being and looking to the goal of our journey we keep our eyes and hearts fixed on the One who alone calls us forward into full and eternal life.
Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth . . .
Recognizing that we are powerless, we turn to God, the source of goodness and mercy and light, knowing that we will rise again in full and eternal life.
But your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise; awake and sing you who lie in the dust . . .
We call out to our loved ones to join us, knowing that we will rise again in full and eternal life.
For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth . . .
God answers our wail of lament. With swift and unswerving fidelity our God reaches down to pull us up out of the darkness to bring us into the light of his full and eternal life.
Let us leave the darkness behind, let us drink in the newness of God’s morning dew and let us abide in the light that fulfills in us the promises of God’s full and eternal life. Amen.
A re-post from October 7, 2011.
Mays, James L., ed. HARPERCOLLINS BIBLE COMMENTARY. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988. 509. Print.
Images from: http://kbccmeteorology.pbworks.com/w/page/5507744/Dew%20and%20Frost
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