Isaiah 26:8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Context: Isaiah 26:4,7,9 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. 7The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous. 9My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
From the lexicon: Judgment=decision of a case. Waited=eagerly wait.
In other words: Isaiah 26:8 Lord, we wait for Your righteous decisions as we wait for You. Your Name and everything we know about You is what we desire—long for– more than anything else.
Pulling it together: Isaiah lived during the Babylonian captivity when Israel and Judah had followed other gods and incurred God’s judgment. Yet throughout the book of Isaiah there is hope. He talks about a return to the judgments of God and about a coming kingdom. He talks about the Messiah who would hold the keys of David indicating His right to rule.
In Isaiah 26:4, while the nation was still in captivity, Isaiah encourages the people to trust in the Lord. He is an everlasting rock and makes the way for the righteous (v.9). Here in verse 8, He reminds them to wait for God’s righteous judgments. And so we need to hear this today.
God’s judgments are righteous, yet we live in a world that shuns them, substituting its own rules that change according to whoever is in charge. The result leads to chaos and uncertainty such as what we have seen headlined on the front pages of our newspapers in recent times. The believer in Christ has the Truth inside him which the world needs to see. We look for God’s justice—a fearful thing for a fallen society—, and wait for it despite the circumstances all around us that indicate all is out of hand. In due time everything will be set right. We rest on this fact: Jesus is coming and will restore righteousness to this earth.
Lord, I pray for grace to be bold in sharing the Good News that we need not face God’s judgment if we place our trust in the Savior that bore our sins at Calvary.