Isaiah 25:3 “Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. 4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. 5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.”
For our comfort and peace in times of turmoil and trouble, Isaiah gives us multiple reasons that “the strong people [faithful children of God] glorify” the Lord and “city of the terrible nations [enemies of God] shall fear” the Lord. As the Psalmist proclaimed, “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” (Psalms 18:2). First, Isaiah tells us that we do not depend upon our own “strength”; for, our merciful God is our “strength”; in particular when “the city of the terrible nations” launch their various assaults upon us. He is “a strength to the poor”; that is, He gives “strength” to those who have no ability nor means with which to defend themselves. He is “a strength to the needy in his distress”; that is, in times of “distress” when our situation is dire and we do not know what to do or how to respond, and we perceive ourselves to be helpless, He kindly empowers us with His “strength”. He is a blessed “refuge from the storm”; that is, when we can see no way to escape the enemies’ onslaught, our beloved Lord sends His Holy Spirit and takes us into His Almighty Arms and consoles and protects us until He has defeated our adversary. When it seems that we are about to be consumed by the adversaries’ hot anger against us; our Lord comes to us and stands before us as “a shadow from the heat” to give us relief. And, “when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall”; that is, when it seems that our “terrible” enemies are about to breach our protecting “wall” to overrun and destroy us, our Lord appears on the scene and stands between our adversaries and us as our defense! Paul explains that no matter how severe our troubles, we have reason to hope, “for when I am weak, then am I strong” (II Corinthians 12:10); that is, “God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2)! Our Lord puts it this way, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”; that is, just calm down, “the LORD JEHOVAH” will take care of this (Psalms 46:10)!