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In that day you will say: \u201cI 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.\u201d With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: \u201cGive 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.\u201d (Isaiah 12)

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This short chapter follows on the heels of our devotion yesterday from Isaiah 11.\xa0 Death must come first.\xa0 It always comes first.\xa0 Before there is Easter, there is Good Friday.\xa0 But in God\u2019s story: new life always follows death.\xa0 And so it is here: after death and exile comes new life and the songs of the redeemed.\xa0 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\u2019ve been given.

Anger turns to comfort.\xa0 Fear turns to trust.\xa0 Weakness becomes strength in the Lord.\xa0 The thirsty drink afresh from the well of salvation.\xa0 Once again God\u2019s 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.\xa0 How hard it is to find comfort in the throes of fear.\xa0 Who can sing a song of joy in the dark valley of death?\xa0 And yet it seems that it is always in just these places\u2014when we are spent, exhausted, deflated, discouraged, at the end of our strength, faith, and hope\u2014that we discover that the only thing that we truly need is the thing that we\u2019ve had all along: our God.\xa0 He meets us there in the dark valleys of our lives, reminding us that he is \u201camong us.\u201d\xa0 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.\xa0 We sing because he has done great and glorious things for us.\xa0 We sing because his name needs to be shouted out and shouted up\u2014exalted to the highest place where it belongs.\xa0 We sing because all the world needs to hear\u2014not just our apologetics and our teachings, but our songs of salvation!\xa0 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.\xa0 It is not always the \u201cbelieving\u201d bits that catch people\u2019s wonder and draws them near\u2014it is more often the \u201cbeholding\u201d bits where we are caught up short in wonder and awe\u2014where we are unable to articulate anything of response but a shout and a song.\xa0

It's moments like this:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child\u2026 (Mt. 1:23)
Behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove\u2026 (Mt. 3:16)
Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen\u2026 (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: \u201cBehold, Jesus met them, saying, \u2018Rejoice!\u2019\u201d (Mt. 28:9 \u2013 all from NKJV)

Rejoice indeed.\xa0 What is the song of salvation that you\u2019ve been given to sing?

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