Friday after Cantate Sunday
Posted on May 3, 2024 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 52:9-12 (NKJV)
52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
Devotion
“Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.”
As we begin the reading from today, we are told that the “waste places” are called forth to sing in joy to the Lord, for He has redeemed His people. As we discussed earlier in the week, God’s mercy is often tied closely with His justice. The waste places of Jerusalem here refer to the ruins of the city, themselves being regarded as mourning on account of the downfall of the city.
We can see this also in the sting of the Law, as the Holy Ghost convicts us of sin and shows us that no one can keep God’s Law in perfection. No one can earn righteousness by the works of the Law. And yet the Law is the schoolmaster that leads to the Good News that God has redeemed us through faith in Christ Jesus.
This is why the waste places of Jerusalem can sing. The same Jerusalem that fell and endured God’s justice is also the same Jerusalem that will be redeemed by God, not because of their own righteousness, but because of the righteousness that is given by faith alone.
Collect: O God, Who makest the minds of the faithful to be of one will: Grant unto Thy people that they may love what Thou commandest, and desire what Thou dost promise; that, among the manifold changes of this world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
