Praise to God

25 O Lord, You are my God.
(A)I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
(B)For You have done wonderful things;
(C)Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
For You have made (D)a city a ruin,
A fortified city a ruin,
A palace of foreigners to be a city no more;
It will never be rebuilt.
Therefore the strong people will (E)glorify You;
The city of the [a]terrible nations will fear You.
For You have been a strength to the poor,
A strength to the needy in his distress,
(F)A refuge from the storm,
A shade from the heat;
For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
You will reduce the noise of aliens,
As heat in a dry place;
As heat in the shadow of a cloud,
The song of the terrible ones will be [b]diminished.

And in (G)this mountain
(H)The Lord of hosts will make for (I)all people
A feast of [c]choice pieces,
A feast of [d]wines on the lees,
Of fat things full of marrow,
Of well-refined wines on the lees.
And He will destroy on this mountain
The surface of the covering cast over all people,
And (J)the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will (K)swallow up death forever,
And the Lord God will (L)wipe away tears from all faces;
The rebuke of His people
He will take away from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.

And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
(M)We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
(N)We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

10 For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest,
And (O)Moab shall be trampled down under Him,
As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
11 And He will spread out His hands in their midst
As a swimmer reaches out to swim,
And He will bring down their (P)pride
Together with the trickery of their hands.
12 The (Q)fortress of the high fort of your walls
He will bring down, lay low,
And bring to the ground, down to the dust.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 25:3 terrifying
  2. Isaiah 25:5 humbled
  3. Isaiah 25:6 Lit. fat things
  4. Isaiah 25:6 wines matured on the sediment

25 Eternal One, You are my God.
    I will lift You up and praise Your name.
Because You have made wonders marvelous and beautiful
    the most ancient designs holding strong and sure.
Your power is awesome. You have brought down whole cities,
    turned fortresses and strongholds into piles of sticks and rubble.
A citadel of foreigners is no longer even a city.
    Those structures are gone forever.
This is why nations strong and mighty will glorify You;
    the cities of ruthless people will fear and respect You.

Because You stand up for the poor and weak,
    You comfort and empower them in their distress,
Giving them safe harbor and cool shade when it’s hot;
    You shelter them from their oppressors’ blows
As a strong wall holds back the driving rain.
You shelter from the relentless heat of the desert.
    You quiet the clamor of outsiders, ease them to stillness.
Like a full, dark cloud relieves the heat,
    You silence the arrogant song of the violent.

The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, is preparing a feast,
    a feast for everyone on this mystical mountain
With aged wine and good food, the finest wine and choicest meat.
And God will swallow up the oppression that weighs us down.
    He will take away the heavy shroud
    that is draped over all peoples of the world.
God will swallow up death forever.
    The Lord, the Eternal, will wipe away the tears from each and every face
And deflect the scorn and shame His people endure from the whole world,
    for the Eternal determined that it should be so.
And in that moment, at that glorious time, people will say,

People: This is our God! We put our hope in him.
        We knew that He would save us!
        This is our God, the Eternal for whom we waited.
    Let us rejoice and celebrate in His liberation.

10 For on this mountain, the powerful hand of the Eternal abides.
    He will smash and tread Moab like straw on manure.
11 And God will reach out, like a swimmer pulling water,
    and drag down their arrogance and everything that made them proud.
12 God will bring down their strongest walls, their impenetrable defenses,
    and grind them to the ground until they are only dust.