Song of the Strong City
26 1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; he makes salvation its walls and ramparts. 2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter — the nation that keeps faith. 3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in our Father forever, for our Father is the everlasting Rock. a a v4 The Rock is one of the earliest poetic names for our Father in Scripture. Solid, immovable, faithful — he is the unshakable ground beneath every life that trusts him. 5 For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it down to the dust. 6 The foot tramples it down — the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. 7 The path of the righteous is level; you make smooth the way of the righteous. 8 In the path of your judgments, our Father, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. 9 My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 10 If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of our Father. 11 Our Father, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed. Let the fire reserved for your adversaries consume them. 12 Our Father, you will establish peace for us, for you have indeed accomplished all our works for us. 13 Our Father, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we remember. 14 They are dead, they will not live; they are departed spirits, they will not rise; for you brought destruction on them and wiped out all remembrance of them. 15 You have made the nation grow, our Father, you have made the nation grow; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land. 16 Our Father, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them. 17 Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her labor pains when she is about to give birth, so were we before you, our Father. 18 We were pregnant, we writhed, but we gave birth only to wind. We have brought no deliverance to the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not been born. 19 Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing for joy, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is the dew of dawn light, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. b b v19 The Father's promise of resurrection breaks open here — "your dew is a dew of light." Death cannot hold the children he loves; the dust itself will give them back. The promise reaches its full fulfillment in Jesus, the firstborn from the dead, in whom every child of our Father will rise. 20 Come, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath has passed by.
21 For look, our Father is coming out from his place to punish the people of the earth for their sins, and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon it and will no longer cover those slain in it.