Behold the Salvation of Your God

In that day you will say: "I will praise you, Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation." With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: "Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you." (Isaiah 12)   This short chapter follows on the heels of our devotion yesterday from Isaiah 11.  Death must come first.  It always comes first.  Before there is Easter, there is Good Friday.  But in God's story: new life always follows death.  And so it is here: after death and exile comes new life and the songs of the redeemed.  Isaiah 11 describes the reality that will come as new life is born from the stump of Jessee, Isaiah 12 describes the response of the redeemed to the new life they've been given. Anger turns to comfort.  Fear turns to trust.  Weakness becomes strength in the Lord.  The thirsty drink afresh from the well of salvation.  Once again God's people are reminded that their God is among them and that he is the one who gives the things that really matter in our lives, the things that we cannot get for ourselves. How hard it is to see hope in the pit of despair.  How hard it is to find comfort in the throes of fear.  Who can sing a song of joy in the dark valley of death?  And yet it seems that it is always in just these places—when we are spent, exhausted, deflated, discouraged, at the end of our strength, faith, and hope—that we discover that the only thing that we truly need is the thing that we've had all along: our God.  He meets us there in the dark valleys of our lives, reminding us that he is "among us."  And not only that, but that he is also still saving us, still giving us new life, new purpose, new callings to step into where we might live the resurrection life of his salvation more fully for the sake of the world. And that is why we sing.  We sing because he has done great and glorious things for us.  We sing because his name needs to be shouted out and shouted up—exalted to the highest place where it belongs.  We sing because all the world needs to hear—not just our apologetics and our teachings, but our songs of salvation!  They need to hear a good word of great joy that is for all the people, a word worth heralding out with the angels of Bethlehem.  It is not always the "believing" bits that catch people's wonder and draws them near—it is more often the "beholding" bits where we are caught up short in wonder and awe—where we are unable to articulate anything of response but a shout and a song.  It's moments like this: Behold, the virgin shall be with child… (Mt. 1:23) Behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove… (Mt. 3:16) Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen… (Mt. 12:18) Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. (Mt. 26:45) And on the day of resurrection: "Behold, Jesus met them, saying, 'Rejoice!'" (Mt. 28:9 – all from NKJV) Rejoice indeed.  What is the song of salvation that you've been given to sing?