Isaiah 26:1

In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah,.... When great things shall be done: for the church and people of God; and when antichrist and all their enemies are destroyed, as mentioned

In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 26 A song of praise and confidence in God, for the blessings of righteousness, judgments on their enemies, and favour to his people: their chastisement, repentance, and hope. In that day, when God shall do such glorious works for the comfort of his people, and for the ruin of his and their enemies, as he hath described in the foregoing chapter. In the land of Judah; in the church of God, which in Scripture is oft signified by the titles of Judah, and Jerusalem, and Zion, or the like. A strong city; Jerusalem, or the church, which is oft called or compared to a city, as 11:2 21:2. Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks; God’ s immediate and saving protection shall be to his church instead of walls, &c. But I conceive, with submission, the words may very fitly be thus rendered, He will send, or put, or make her walls and bulwarks salvation, i.e. as safe as salvation itself; or, in safety, there being only a defect of the preposition, which is very frequent in Scripture.

Isaiah 26:1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will [God] appoint [for] walls and bulwarks.Ver. 1. In that day.] Before the morrow, and while the mercy was yet fresh. We are not to take day for return of thanks, but to do it forthwith. In that same day shall this song be sung.] As an evidence and effect of their spiritual joy and security, mentioned Isaiah 25:9. "Is any man merry? let him sing psalms," and so set an edge upon his praises and thanksgivings. Thus Israel sang, "Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it." Thus, in the apostles’ times, and afterwards Justin, Tertullian, Athanasius, others, voce praeiverunt, they go before with voices, gave the note. Constantine and Theodosius ever sang psalms with their soldiers before they gave battle. They knew that it is a good thing to sing praises to our God; it is pleasant, and praise is comely. We have a strong city.] The Church is invincible; hell gates cannot demolish it, whatever become of Moab’ s munitions. Salvation will God appoint.] All manner of health, help, and safety. Satan cannot have so many means to foil and spoil the saints as Jesus - to whose sweet name our prophet here and elsewhere oft alludeth, as much delighted therewith - hath means to keep and hold them up. For walls and bulwarks.] Pro muris et antemurali, for walls and rampart, or counterscarp. So Scipio was said to be fossa et vallum, the wall and trench to the Romans against Hannibal. If salvation itself cannot save Jerusalem, let her enemies triumph and take all. If her name be Jehovahshammah, as Ezekiel 48:35, "The Lord is there," let her enemies do their worst. Socrates, lib. vii. cap. 22.

XXVI. (1) In that day shall this song be sung . . .—The prophet appears once more, as in Isaiah 5:1; Isaiah 12:4, in the character of a psalmist, and what he writes is destined for nothing less than the worship of the new city of the heavenly kingdom. Salvation will God appoint for walls.—Better, salvation He appoints. The walls of the heavenly city are not of stone or brick, but are themselves as a living force, saving and protecting. The same characteristic thought appears in Isaiah 60:18.

CHAPTER XXVI This chapter, like the foregoing, is a song of praise, in which thanksgivings for temporal and spiritual mercies are beautifully mingled, though the latter still predominate. Even the sublime and evangelical doctrine of the resurrection seems here to be hinted at, and made to typify the deliverance of the people of God from a state of the lowest misery; the captivity, the general dispersion, or both. This hymn too, like the preceding, is beautifully diversified by the frequent change of speakers. It opens with a chorus of the Church, celebrating the protection vouchsafed by God to his people; and the happiness of the righteous, whom he guards, contrasted with the misery of the wicked, whom he punishes, 1-7. To this succeeds their own pious resolution of obeying, trusting, and delighting in God, 8. Here the prophet breaks in, in his own person, eagerly catching the last words of the chorus, which were perfectly in unison with the feelings of his own soul, and which he beautifully repeats, as one musical instrument reverberates the sound of another on the same key with it. He makes likewise a suitable response to what had been said on the judgments of God, and observes their different effects on the good and the bad; improving the one, and hardening the other, 9-11. After this, a chorus of Jews express their gratitude to God for past deliverances, make confession of their sins, and supplicate his power, which they had been long expecting, 12-18. To this God makes a gracious reply, promising deliverance that should be as life from the dead, 19. And the prophet, (apparently alluding to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt,) concludes with exhorting his people to patience and resignation, till God sends the deliverance he has promised, 20, 21. NOTES ON CHAP. XXVI Verse 1. We have a strong city] In opposition to the city of the enemy, which God hath destroyed, Isaiah 25:2. See Clarke on Isaiah 25:2. Salvation - for walls and bulwarks] חומת וחל chomoth vachel, walls and redoubts, or the walls and the ditch. חל chel properly signifies the ditch or trench without the wall; see Kimchi. The same rabbin says, This song refers to the time of salvation, i.e., the days of the Messiah.

1, 2. These verses might almost have been written for a dedication of the fortifications of Jerusalem. Cf. Psalms 48:12 f.

In that day shall this song be sung - By the people of God, on their restoration to their own land. We have a strong city - Jerusalem.

1. In that day — Continuous with, or immediately successive to, the period spoken of Isa 25:9-12. This song — This joyous acclaim.