Isaiah

Hymn of Victory

On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city, he himself has set up walls and fortifications to protect us.

Open the gates! Let the righteous nation enter, she who is firm in faithfulness.

You keep in perfect peace the one of steadfast mind, the one who trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is an everlasting Rock.

He brought down those who dwell on high, he laid low the lofty city, he razed it to the ground, leveled it to the dust.

Now it is trampled the poor and the lowly tread upon it.

The Judgments of the Lord

Let the righteous walk in righteousness. You make smooth the path of the just,

and we only seek the way of your laws, O Lord. Your name and your memory are the desire of our hearts.

My soul yearns for you in the night; for you, my spirit keeps vigil. When your judgments come to earth, the world’s inhabitants learn to be upright.

But when a favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn to be just. He does evil in a land of righteousness and fails to see the Lord’s majesty.

The Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they fail to see that. Let them see your zeal for your people, that they may be put to shame. Let your enemies be burned in the fire of your anger.

Lord, please give us peace; for all that we accomplish is your work.

O Lord, our God, other lords besides you have ruled us, but it is your name alone that we honor.

Resurrection

They are now dead, never to rise again, for you have passed sentence on them. You have wiped out all remembrance of them.

You have enlarged the nation, O Lord; you have given glory to your name; you have widened the country’s borders.

For they sought you in distress, they cried out to you during their punishment.

As a woman in travail moans and writhes in pain, so are we now in your presence.

We conceived, we had labor pains, but we gave birth to the wind. We have not brought salvation to the land; the inhabitants of a new world have not been born.

Your dead will live! Their corpses will rise! Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust! For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits.

Come, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a moment until his wrath is over.

For look, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling; he will punish the earth’s inhabitants for their sins. The earth will reveal the bloodshed upon her and will not conceal her slain any longer.