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A Hymn of Praise

Isaiah 25.1-9

Good News Translation (GNT)

1  Lord, you are my God; I will honour you and
   praise your name. You have done amazing
   things; you have faithfully carried out the plans
   you made long ago.
2  You have turned cities into ruins and destroyed
   their fortifications. The palaces which our
   enemies built are gone forever.
3  The people of powerful nations will praise you;
   you will be feared in the cities of cruel nations.
4  The poor and the helpless have have fled to
   you and have been safe in times of trouble.
   You give them shelter from storms and shade
   from the burning heat. Cruel enemies attack
   like a winter storm, (a)
5  like drought in a dry land. But you, Lord, have
   silenced our enemies; you silence the shouts
   of cruel people, as a cloud cools a hot day.

God Prepares a Banquet
6  Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will
   prepare a banquet for all the nations of the
   world - a banquet of the richest food and the
   finest wine.
7  Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of
   sorrow that has been hanging over all the
   nations.
8  The Sovereign Lord will destroy death forever!
   He will wipe away the tears from everyone's
   eyes and take away the disgrace his people
   have suffered throughout the world. The Lord
   himself has spoken.
9  When it happens, everyone will say, "He is our
   God! We have put our trust in him, and he has
   rescued us. He is the Lord! We have put our
   trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful
   because he has saved us."

   Footnotes
   Isaiah 25:4 Probable text winter storm;
   Hebrew storm against a wall.

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'A Hymn of Praise'

Commentary taken from sermonwriter.com/biblical-commentary/
isaiah-25 1-10

This chapter begins with this very personal affirmation that Yahweh not only is God but is "my God". The prophet offers two reasons for praising Yahweh. The first reason is that He has done wonderful things that he "planned long ago" - beginning in a beautiful garden

The second reason for praising Yahweh is that he destroyed the evil city. The city represents cities in general - places where the rich live in luxury and the poor often live in miserable circumstances.

It stands to reason that ruthless nations should fear this powerful God who deals ruthlessly with evil, but we are surprised to see that strong peoples will glorify him. The implication seems to be that, some of those who might subject to Yahweh's wrath will repent of their evil and begin to worship Yahweh.

The people of that time and place were subject to the whims of nature and weather in ways that we are not.

Most of us are not genuinely threatened except in extreme circumstances such as hurricanes or tornadoes.

The rainstorm and heat in these verses is a metaphor for evil people. But Yahweh protects his own.

Verse 6 introduces an entirely new vision. First, Yahweh will rid the world of evil and then he will host a great banquet. He will invite "all peoples."

The basic idea is that Yahweh is Lord of all.

Unlike today, rich food was not an everyday staple in that time and place. People ate simply, and most people could enjoy meat only occasionally.

But the feast mentioned in this verse is not a banquet hosted by an ordinary family or hosted by a king. The Lord of hosts can afford to serve the finest foods and wines from beginning to end.

We might wonder about the meaning of "the covering that covers all peoples" and "the veil that is spread over all nations," but the third part of this verse explains. Yahweh of Armies "will swallow up death forever."

The book of Isaiah is centred on the exile of the Israelites in Babylon - a fifty-year exile in which they became vassals of the Babylonian conquerors. We should note that those things happened according to Yahweh's will. The people sinned, and He allowed them to be conquered and humiliated as the first step toward their redemption.

But now the prophet describes what the redemption will look like. This is the clincher. Yahweh has spoken these words, so we can be assured that the events pictured in these verses will come to pass.

The prophet doesn't specify who will say, "Behold, this is our God." At first reading, we would expect it to be Israel. However, we have been told that the Lord of hosts will welcome "all peoples" to his great feast, so surely all those who have been invited to the table will "be glad and rejoice in (Yahweh's) salvation" - Christians as well as Jews.

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