Isaiah 24-27 is sometimes called Isaiah’s “little Apocalypse.” These chapters widen the aperture from Judah’s more immediate troubles and pan out to see the wider judgment of God upon the great powers of the earth. In the midst of the shakings of this world, we read of the preservation of His people, which will end in final triumph. At the time of this writing, the Assyrian Empire dominated the Near East. Judah lived under a great shadow that seemed too strong to resist.
Chapter 24 is mostly a chapter of judgment. In chapter 25 musical notes begin to appear. Then in our chapter, we read:
> “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.”
This sets our text like a jewel in the diadem.
Sung by a people in the midst of trouble. An insignificant, minuscule nation. As worlds shake and cities fall, they shall sing.
What safety is there for the people of God in this troubled world?
Verse 3: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
What comes to mind when we read the words “perfect peace”?
We might think of perfect peace as some kind of oasis. A quiet, settled place. Where troubles are all over. When all is calm, and the skies are clear. Where every problem has been resolved, every question answered.
“There,” you might say, “there, I would have peace.”
Perfect peace.
But that is not the setting of the text, is it?
Neither is it the setting around our own little flock. Pitching our tents up against this Vanity Fair, we live in a nation of rancor and violence. We know that perfect peace is not always our present experience.
But take heart, dear one. Perfect peace is found amidst the shaking.
We mostly look for peace in all the wrong places. Or perhaps we expect to find perfect peace at the end of our troubles.
When my circumstances improve, then I will have it.
We say to ourselves:
I will have peace when this trial has passed.
I will have peace when my health improves.
I will find peace when my children are settled.
I will have peace once this relationship is fixed.
Most spend years anticipating peace, always looking at some future time.
But that is not the peace mentioned here.
That is not a kept peace at all.
That is a longing for peace.
Verse 3 is striking because what we translate “perfect peace”, the original is literally, shalom, shalom.
Double peace.
“Thou wilt keep him in shalom, shalom.”
This peace, dear one, begins with what God does.
He keeps.
The keeping power of God is how His own are kept.
This is important to understand because in the midst of trouble we often look inwardly at the strength or quality of our faith.
Why can’t I trust more?
Why does my mind wander so?
Why am I anxious again?
Why am I afraid?
Why can’t I control my own heart?
These are deeply soulish questions that emerge in the day of trouble.
We do need to take time for self-examination. Especially to discover that we have nothing in ourselves to trust or boast in.
At times you feel like you are holding on by your fingernails.
The truth is, the LORD is holding you, dear one.
We also read these words:
“whose mind is stayed on thee.”
What is the mind?
It is the disposition of the soul, the orientation of the soul. Your frame, purpose, inclination.
So the word “stayed” becomes a very important to this keeping.
It means the one whose inward frame is steadied upon God.
Like leaning against a stone wall.
Steadied.
The mind and heart are steadied in the midst of trouble by His Word and by the means of grace. He is kept by God in shalom, shalom because he leans upon Jehovah.
Now we almost have the full picture of this verse.
But it brings up one unspoken question.
When my soul is in trouble, where is my resting place?
We all rest on something.
Do you know when, where, and how we find out what we are resting on?
When we are troubled.
When we are undone, when our entire world around us collapses,, when life begins to shake, toward what does our soul reach?
Just here, we discover one of the more difficult ways the LORD loves His people.
He tries them.
Like Judah was tried.
Because in each one of us there are false peaces that we must be shaken from.
Judah had them. So do we.
Jeremiah warns that there is a cry of shalom, shalom when there is no shalom:
“Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”
There is a peace that comes from ignorance.
There is a peace that comes from distraction.
There is a deadness or leanness of soul which often feel like peace because sin has dulled the conscience.
But let the trial come.
And it will.
To a person, to a family, to a flock.
And suddenly the thing we leaned upon gives way.
What then?
Whatever it may be, Isaiah commands in verse 4:
“Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”
Everlasting strength.
Do you know what that is in the Hebrew?
I think you do, but perhaps you did not know you knew.
The Rock of Ages.
And our minds immediately go to Toplady:
“Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.”
Christ is the Rock of Ages.
Stable. Sure.
Before we were born, He was God.
Before this nation existed, He was God.
“Before the mountains were brought forth... even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
After everything of this earth has passed away, He will still be God.
David said:
“When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
Dear ones, that is where perfect peace is found.
Shalom, shalom is found in the Rock of Ages.
And the Rock of Ages was cleft for sinners.
The very One who cannot be shaken became the refuge of His people through His sufferings. The blood that flowed from His wounded side, answers the guilt that has made us seekers, but not finders to peace.
Do you hide yourself in Him?
Sin keeps us from peace with God.
And here we must distinguish carefully:
We must know peace with God before we can truly know the peace of God.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What disturbs your peace tonight, dear one?
Christ said to His disciples:
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.”
And again:
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”
The people who experience perfect peace experience it in the midst of trouble and uncertainty.
Under our own long shadows.
So, perfect peace can live alongside our tears.
It can live amidst unanswered questions.
Because underneath His people are His everlasting arms.
And underneath those everlasting arms is the Rock of Ages.
“Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”
Your friend and pastor,
J. Lewis