The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 390

. Ver. 16.-8<>'!1,gsfrom afar. "From the nttermost part of the earth have we beard songs, even glory to the righteous." Beautiful music that! For music has eften been set to unworthy ends-to the praise of pride and power, to war and wrong. It bas been said of one, "I care not who makes a nation's laws, if I may make their songs." A strong antithetical way of putting, in an exaggerated way, a great truth. The songs of a people are always with. them-in the field and at home, in toil and in rest. I. THE SUJIJECT OF THE BONGS. ." Glory to the righteous." How could this otherwise end, than in glory to God ? Fol' he is the righteous God, and there is no word by which the Psalms oftener describe him. Thus in praising the righteous we are led onward to.:pre.ise the rjght€ous Gpd, 3s the God who inspires righteousness in the h€arts of others. Thus we read that "in every nation he that worketh righteousness is a<:cepted of God.n No word reaches deeper. We may sing songs to the valiant, and the heroic, and the patriotic, and the brave ; but righteousness speaks, not only of courage, but of conscience too. II. 'l'HE DISTANCE FROM WHICH THEY COME. "From the uttermost parts of the earth." Prophecy of the time when all nations shall call Christ blessed, and when his praise shall be heard from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. We have this sound from tµe distant places, because in the end all true lovers of righteousness "'ill ha.it Christ, when he is revealed to them, as containing all the fulness of God. • III. THE GLORY. OF WHICH THEY BREATHE. There are divers kinds of glory. But God's glory is the glory of the cross I There is an empty glory of self-righteousness, but that is not the glory of the righteous. Far from it. The glory of strength is to help the weak. The glory of wisdom is to enlighten the ignorant. The glory of righteousness is to shape into order that which is wrong or "wrung," from which idea of being twisted and bent from the straight course the word "wrung" comes. Yes. Glory to the righteous! for they al'e the salt of the earth, the safety of the nation. 'fhe Lord our Righteousness is revealed in Christ, whose holy life was not for our admiration only, or for our honour and worship, but was "lived" for us and "laid dowu" for us, that we might be filled with his strength, and become holy as God is holy.-W. M. S. Vers. 1-12.-The charge and the calamity. These words give a. vivid and II terrible 111cture of calamity that should befall the people of God. It is snitably called "the curse" ( ver. 6), for it should prove an evil of the severest kind; and it would be other than a national misfortune-it would be the penalty of sin: therefore, because of the sins charged against the nation (ver. 6), these multiplied sorrows would overtake and overwhelm them; "for the Lord hnth spoken this word" (ver. 3). I. GoD's CHARGE AGAINST HIS PEOPLE. (Ver. 5.) This is threefold. 1. Disregard of his spoken Word. "They have transgressed the laws." Those plain statements of the will of God which had been revealed in" the Lawn had been deliberately disobeyed -requirements unfulfilled, prohibitions set at nought. 3. Peruersion of Divine truth. "Changed the' oroinnnce." The Jews were subtle and sinful enough to ttppe:ir to keep the Law when they were habitually breaking it. This they did by changin?: or perverting it, by making it mean something differtiut from the Divine intention, by takiu::; the he~rt 392 '1'iil!; BOOK OF THE PROl'HE1' ISAtAit. [olt. xi:.Iv. 1-28.