Isaiah 62

Read Isaiah 62

God will not keep silent. He is going to speak about His love. His speech will make His Jerusalem lovely with holiness and salvation. She was once “Forsaken” and “Desolate,” but now her shame has been removed by her loving Husband. She now has the Hebrew name “Hephzibah,” for “the Lord delights in her.”

How could sinners be in an assembly that has such a happy name? Only through the merit and mediation of the Son of God Himself. We may have an impulse rising up within us that we want to have a beauty that is based on our own achievements with no reference to the work of a perfect substitute on our behalf. If we were to face the gaze of God without the covering of Christ's goodness we would be condemned. With the perfection of Christ as our recommendation we are forever “Hephzibah.”

God has appointed us as watchmen and we are to watch for His coming. He invites us to pray to Him about His promises. We are told to put the Lord “in remembrance” and to give Him “no rest.” If we will approach Him with this fervor, our faith will grow.

The Lord Himself has come in the person of Jesus Christ and has already accomplished our complete redemption. He has worked signs of divine power and demonstrated mercy to the poor and the outcast. His words ring true in our hearts because of the further gift of the Holy Spirit. All of these great accomplishments of God have given us more assurance that the promises of God are true.

We have salvation, yet like Israel of old, it is obvious that everything is not yet complete. We need Jesus to come and to claim His bride.

As watchmen we not only speak to the Lord; we also move the people of God toward the obedience of faith. If we believe that the Lord hears and answers prayer, then we move out in the confidence that He will completely accomplish His holy will. We say to the Lord’s church, “Behold, your salvation comes.” We remind ourselves that we are a holy people, set apart from what is common as the special possession of God. We are the redeemed of the Lord, no longer wandering away from the watchful protection of our beloved Husband. We are a “city not forsaken.”

We must believe these promises today and always. Let us watch and wait for the Lord, working as those who know that the Master can return at any hour.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

In You, O God, we live and move and have our being. We have heard that we are a crown on Your head, and Your delight. What a blessed condition, that our God should rejoice over us! We thank You, O Lord. For You will establish Your Jerusalem above, and we shall praise You in the courts of Your sanctuary. We who were once not Your people have now been called the daughter of Zion, a city not forsaken.