TO CHEW ON: "You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because He trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3
If you've been around the Bible for a while, you probably have this little gem of a verse (Isaiah 26:3) safely tucked into your memory. Spending a few minutes this morning digging into its corners, I see again why it is so popular. For it is powerful in its delivery of four big truths:
1. We can have an all-encompassing peace - "You will keep him in perfect peace…"
Isaiah describes the peace God gives as "perfect." [What a rich word peace is: (shalom) bodily soundness, welfare, prosperity, contentment, peace of relationships and more.] My Bible's study notes explain: "Perfect peace is expressed in Hebrew as shalom, shalom. … You will keep him in everything the word implies: health, happiness, well-being" - Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible. p.901.
2. But this peace is promised only when our mind … - "… whose mind…"
The word for mind here is not the most common "mind" word. [Mind (yetser) means form, framework, creative imagination, intellectual framework.] What Isaiah is saying is that the person whose intellectual framework and creative imagination is founded on God will have the above peace. I like how the Amplified Bible clarifies this: "You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You" - Isaiah 26:3 AMP.
3. …assumes a necessary posture - "… is stayed on You…"
Having a mind stayed on God doesn't mean we're thinking about God all day long. Rather, stayed refers to the mind's posture. Some versions translate stayed as steadfast: "The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace …" NASB. [Stayed or steadfast (samak) means leans, lays, rests and braces oneself.] Therefore that mind of ours needs to lean, lay, rest, and brace itself on God (not public opinion, the news, the state of our health, not even our own common sense).
4. The result is care-less living - "…Because he trusts in You."
That peace we talked about in #1 results when we live a life of trust [trust (batach) have confidence, be secure, safe, careless] in God.
PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to lean on You so completely today that peace, not care, will fill my day. Amen.
MORE: Feast for All Faithful Departed
Today the church remembers those who have died in the "Feast of All Faithful Departed." The liturgy for the day begins with this collect:
"O God, the Maker and Redeemer of all believers: Grant to the faithful departed the unsearchable benefits of the passion of your Son; that on the day of his appearing they may be manifested as your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."
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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)
