Isaiah 25:1

O Lord, thou [art] my God,.... Not by creation and providence only, but by covenant and grace.

O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 25 God glorious in his judgments on Babel, , and his people’ s salvation, . The prophet reflecting upon those great and glorious prophecies which he had delivered concerning the destruction of his enemies, and the protection and deliverance of his people, and the sending of the Messiah, and the establishment of his own kingdom in spite of all opposition, interrupteth the course of his prophecies, and breaketh forth into a solemn celebration of all these wonderful works. Thy counsels of old are faithfuless and truth; thy counsels, from which all thy works proceed, and which thou hast from time to time revealed to thy prophets and people, which were of old, being conceived from all eternity, and long since made known by thy threatenings and promises, are true and firm, and therefore shall certainly be accomplished,

Isaiah 25:1 O LORD, thou [art] my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful [things; thy] counsels of old [are] faithfulness [and] truth.Ver. 1. O Lord, thou art my God.] Sunt verba fidelium in regno Christi, saith Piscator. These are the words of the subjects of Christ’ s kingdom, who in the end of the former chapter are called his ancients or elders. See Revelation 4:4. But that of Oecolampadius I like better: More suo in iubilum et hymnum erumpit propheta. The prophet, as his manner is, breaketh forth into a joyful jubilation; and being ravished, and as it were rapt beyond himself with the consideration of such marvellous things, he first maketh a stop or breathing, and then sweetly celebrateth God’ s power, truth, justice, and mercy; the naked heart of it were seen, as it were in an anatomy, in the sending of his Son, and the benefits thereby; concerning which the apostles afterwards discoursing more plainly and plentifully, do yet make use of some passages in this chapter, as is to be seen. Thou art my God.] So to say ex animo is the very pith of true faith; the property whereof is to individuate God, and appropriate him to itself. I will exalt thee.] This we do when we bless and praise him for his blessings. But what a mercy is it of so great a Majesty that he should count himself thus exalted and magnified by such worthless worms as we are! And how should this excite and edge us to so holy a service! For thou least done wonderful things.] In the world’ s creation, but especially in the Church’ s preservation. Thy counsels of old.] Thy promises and threatenings are all fulfilled and verified; they are faithful and firm.

XXV. (1) O Lord, thou art my God.—The burst of praise follows, like St. Paul’s in Romans 11:33-36, upon the contemplation of the glory of the heavenly city. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.—It is better to omit the words in italics, and to treat the words as standing in the objective case, in apposition with “wonderful things.” The “counsels of old” are the eternal purposes of God made known to His prophets. The absence of a conjunction in the Hebrew, emphasises the enumeration.

CHAPTER XXV The short glance which the prophet gave at the promised restoration of the people of God and the Messiah's kingdom, in the close of the preceding chapter, makes him break out into a rapturous song of praise in this, where although he alludes to temporal mercies, such as the destruction of the cities which had been at war with Zion, the ruin of Moab, and other signal interpositions of Divine Providence in behalf of the Jews; yet he is evidently impressed with a more lively sense of future and much higher blessings under the Gospel dispensation, in the plenitude of its revelation, of which the temporal deliverances vouchsafed at various tines to the primitive kingdoms of Israel and Judah were the prototypes, 1-5. These blessings are described under the figure of a feast made for all nations, 6; the removing of a veil from their faces, 7; the total extinction of the empire of death by the resurrection from the dead, the exclusion of all sorrow, and the final overthrow of all the enemies of the people of God, 8-12. It does not appear to me that this chapter has any close and particular connexion with the chapter immediately preceding, taken separately, and by itself. The subject of that was the desolation of the land of Israel and Judah, by the just judgment of God, for the wickedness and disobedience of the people: which, taken by itself, seems not with any propriety to introduce a hymn of thanksgiving to God for his mercies to his people in delivering them from their enemies. But taking the whole course of prophecies, from the thirteenth to the twenty-fourth chapter inclusive, in which the prophet foretells the destruction of several cities and nations, enemies to the Jews, and of the land of Judah itself, yet with intimations of a remnant to be saved, and a restoration to be at length effected by a glorious establishment of the kingdom of God: with a view to this extensive scene of God's providence in all its parts, and in all its consequences, the prophet may well be supposed to break out into this song of praise; in which his mind seems to be more possessed with the prospect of future mercies than with the recollection of the past. - L. NOTES ON CHAP. XXV Verse 1. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.] That is, All thy past declarations by the prophets shall be fulfilled in their proper time.

1–5. The writer of the psalm, speaking in the name of the believing community, praises God for His wonderful providence (Isaiah 25:1) manifested in the overthrow of Israel’s enemies (2, 3) and in the mercy vouchsafed to the nation in a time of trouble (4, 5).

O Lord, thou art my God - The prophet speaks, not in his own name, but in the name of the people that would be delivered from bondage.

1, 2. He sings in words familiar to him from Psalms 118:28; Psalms 77:15; Psalms 72:12, etc.; also, from Exodus 15:11. For — Sufficient occasion is it that Babylon (as the vision gives it) is destroyed.