The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
– Isaiah 35:1–4
Oh, I don’t know if you followed all of that, but the first couple of verses of Isaiah 35, just give this picture of wilderness and dry land, barren land deserts, rejoicing and blossoming, rejoicing with joy and singing. Why? Because they see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Verse two, how an understanding a sight, a glimpse of God and all of its glory brings joy to the most desert places, the most barren lands.
Isaiah 35:1–4 teaches us that contemplating God’s glory strengthens us.
And then you get to verses three and four, and God applies this to his people. Strengthen the weak hands. Make firm the feeble knees. Do you ever feel weak? Do you feel feeble in any way in your life right now? Say to those who have an anxious heart. Do you have an anxious heart? Is there any anxiety or worry in you? Then hear the word of God to you. Isaiah 35:4, be strong, fear not.
How do you be strong when you feel weak? How do you not fear when you have an anxious heart? Behold your God. See, understand, glimpse God and all of his glory, and behold your God. Verse four says, will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you. See God today.
If you have weak hands, feeble knees, or an anxious heart, I just want to encourage you today to see the glory of God and realize he is for you. He is for you. He is with you. God will come to you today and provide for you, protect you, lead you, guide you, and give you everything you need. And tomorrow he’ll do it all over again. And the next day and the next day, in ways that I pray and want to pray over you, will lead to joy and singing.
Isaiah 35:1–4 reminds us God will one day take away all sorrow.
I wish I had time to pray according to more verses in Isaiah 35. It’s so good. Verse 10 says, sorrow and sighing shall flee away and you shall obtain gladness and joy. What a picture of God who will one day take away all sorrow and all sighing. Just think of all the times you sigh in this broken, fallen world. God’s going to take away all your sighing one day and everlasting joy shall be upon your head.
So let’s pray according to these verses in Isaiah 35. God, we praise you for who you are in all your glory, in all your might, in all your love, in all your mercy, in all your justice. You are perfect in all your attributes. And God, I pray in my own life as well as in the lives of those who are listening and praying with me now, God help us to behold you right now. To behold who you are in all your glory and to believe based on your Word as we trust in you that you are all these things for us. That you are all these things with us. That we are not alone in this world where we feel weak, where our knees are feeble, where our hearts are anxious.
This verse is a calling to behold God in His glory.
So God, I just pray, Isaiah 35:4 over all of our lives. Help us to be strong in you. To fear not, for you are for us. To behold you and all your glory and to trust that you will come to us today in every way we need and you will provide for us. And not just today, but tomorrow and every morning new mercies will flow from your hand into our hearts, into our anxious hearts, that we might have peace into our weak hands, that we might have strength. Oh God, we praise you for your love for us, for your provision for us. Jesus, from making all these things possible for us and for the guarantee that one day everlasting joy shall be on our heads and sorrow and sighing will completely flee away. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. We hope in you.
And God we pray you help us to encourage others with these truths. Others around us are walking through hard times with anxious hearts and feeling feeble and weak. God, help us to strengthen them with your Word today.
Prayer for the Mamprusi People
And God, we pray for people who’ve never heard your Word, who don’t have this hope, who don’t have this joy and promise of everything they need. In Jesus, we pray specifically for the Mamprusi people of Ghana, almost half a million of them, hardly any followers of Jesus among them. God, we pray that the Mamprusi of Ghana would be reached with the good news of everlasting joy in Jesus of strength and freedom from fear that comes through knowing you and seeing your glory in the face of Jesus. We pray all this according to your Word, which we love in Isaiah 35, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
