Words of praise to the LORD
25
📚O LORD, you are my God.I will exalt you,
I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things. 📖
Your counsels of old 📖 are
faithfulness and truth.
25:1 Following the catastrophe described in chapter 24 there are two chapters of praise to God. When God in anger strikes a city, a country, or the earth as a whole, is this a reason for praise? Those in fellowship with God will grieve for the misery that comes to men (Isa 24:16-18), but may praise God that He is working His purposes out, faithfully and justly, judging wickedness, and saving and protecting His people in the midst of disaster (Isa 4:5. Compare Rev 18:20; 19:1-5). This is what we have here.⚜
2 📚For you have made a city 📖
a heap of rubble,
a fortified city a ruin,
a citadel of foreigners
to be a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
3 📚Therefore the strong people
will glorify you,
the city of the terrible nations
will fear you.
4 📚For you have been
a strength to the poor,
a strength to the needy
in his distress,
a refuge 📖 from the storm,
a shade from the heat,
when the blast of the terrible
ones was like a storm
against the wall.
25:4 God protects His own people in time of disaster, sometimes physically, always spiritually, sometimes both.⚜
5 📚You will subdue the noise
of foreigners,
which is like heat
in a dry place;
like heat by the shadow
of a cloud,
the song of the terrible ones
will be suppressed.
6 📚And in this mountain 📖 the LORD of hosts
will make for all people a feast
of choice things,
a banquet 📖 of aged wines,
of choice pieces full of marrow,
of refined aged wines.
7 📚And in this mountain
he will remove the presence
of the covering enveloping all people,
and the veil that is spread
over all nations.
25:7 The “covering”, and “veil” that covers all nations probably indicate spiritual ignorance and death. Compare 2 Cor 3:14-16; Eph 4:18. God will destroy the veil and fully enlighten “all people” on this mountain (v 6; Isa 2:14; 11:9).⚜
8 📚He will swallow up death 📖
in victory 📖;
and the Lord God will wipe away
tears 📖 from all faces;
and he will take away the rebuke 📖
of his people from
the whole earth;
for the LORD has spoken it.
25:6-8 God has greater purpose for earth than the destruction of wickedness. He is a God of love and grace. In these verses are revealed the wonderful things He prepares for redeemed mankind.⚜
9 📚And it will be said in that day,
“See, this is our God 📖.
We have waited for him 📖,
and he will save us.
This is the LORD.
We have waited for him;
we will be glad and rejoice 📖
in his salvation”.
10 📚For in this mountain the hand
of the LORD will rest,
and Moab 📖 will be trampled
down under him,
like straw is trampled down
for the refuse heap.
11 📚And he will spread out
his hands among them,
as the swimmer spreads out
his arms to swim.
And he will bring down
their pride 📖 together with
the plunder of their hands.
12 📚And he will bring down
the fortification of the high fort
of your walls,
lay it low,
and bring it to the ground,
to the very dust.