Sharper Iron — The Fifth Evangelist - Isaiah 26:1-21: Double Peace from the LORD

In response to the LORD’s feast of victory, His people sing His praises. He has given them a strong city in which He keeps His people secure with a double portion of peace. He makes His people walk upon the level path of His righteousness, while His enemies are consumed. When the LORD’s people cried out to Him under His discipline, there was no deliverance to be found in themselves. Instead, the LORD is the One who raises His people from death and gives us eternal life in great joy in Jesus.

Rev. Andy Wright, pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Topeka, KS, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Isaiah 26:1-21.

“The Fifth Evangelist” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through Isaiah 1-39. The prophet proclaims to the people of his day and throughout history that the Holy One of Israel alone is exalted. Those who put their trust in the strength of man will be brought low, but those who trust in the LORD will see that He is their Immanuel. Jesus is God with us who reigns over the kingdom of God forever and ever!

Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen. Submit comments or questions to: listener@kfuo.org

Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund, where your investments help support the work of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit lcef.org.

Isaiah 26:1-21

You Keep Him in Perfect Peace

26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;
    he sets up salvation
    as walls and bulwarks.
²Open the gates,
    that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
³You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.
⁴Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
⁵For he has humbled
    the inhabitants of the height,
    the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
    casts it to the dust.
⁶The foot tramples it,
    the feet of the poor,
    the steps of the needy.”

⁷The path of the righteous is level;
    you make level the way of the righteous.
⁸In the path of your judgments,
    O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
    are the desire of our soul.
⁹My 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.
¹⁰If 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 the Lord.
¹¹O Lord, 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 for your adversaries consume them.
¹²O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
    for you have indeed done for us all our works.
¹³O Lord our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
¹⁴They are dead, they will not live;
    they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
    and wiped out all remembrance of them.
¹⁵But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a whispered prayer
    when your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷Like a pregnant woman
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs
    when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
¹⁸    we were pregnant, we writhed,
    but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
¹⁹Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
    and the earth will give birth to the dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until the fury has passed by.
²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
    and will no more cover its slain.

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Rev. Timothy Appel

Although a mathematics degree may not be incredibly helpful to (proudly born-and-raised Texan) Rev. Timothy Appel while hosting Sharper Iron, his love of CFW Walther and the season of Easter will come in handy. His Call is shepherding the flock at Faith Lutheran Church in Godfrey, Illinois, and he’s also husband to wife Kristin and dad to their growing basketball team of children. When he’s not carrying out pastoral duties, you may find him reading “The Lord of the Rings,” snacking on Reese’s peanut butter cups, playing dominoes with his boys, or studying up on Texas history (including Sam Houston, of course).