Inclination Of The Mind
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: [a]We have a strong city; [the Lord] sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. 2 Open the gates, that the [uncompromisingly] righteous nation which keeps her faith and her troth [with God] may enter in. 3 You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. Isaiah 26:1-3
The chapter that precedes this is a chapter of praise where the prophet speaks of God’s deliverance for man over death and he prophecies the sacrifice of Jesus. Then we come to the first three verses of this chapter and verse one is saying that on that day when God becomes our city of salvation, we will sing a song of praise.
Well, that day is today for us. We should be singing songs of praise every day because we live in His deliverance. Isaiah only prophetically spoke of what was to come and we now live in that day he could only see and speak about.
This leads us to verse three which we all know and love. We have perfect peace when our minds are stayed upon Him! In context then, this is something we should be praising Him for because we live in the day that Isaiah could only foresee in faith. So we see the importance of praise and singing songs of praise to the Lord in this day of victory that we now live in. Praise is the lead in to perfect peace in our minds and lives. Praise leads us into the perfect peace and it positions us for all that He has for us.
Most of us have probably felt that perfect peace of God at various moments of our lives, but most of us would not say that it is a state in which we remain. We can however remain in that perfect peace of God no matter what issues life may throw our way. Praise leads us there and then we can remain in constant peace as we incline our minds to Him.
If we are honest with ourselves we must admit that it is too easy for our minds to be inclined to the world because that is what we think on and that is what we are inundated with. We constantly hear the news of the world and society. We are influenced by the compromises that are readily accepted by the world. We are fed a steady diet of all that is contrary to the Word of God and His standards. This is what are minds take in and what we put in into our minds. It then determines the “character” of our minds. When this character of our mind is at odds with the Word, perfect peace will be elusive to us.
Peace is ours. We should rejoice that we have is what Isaiah could only look ahead to prophetically. Praise Him, incline your mind to Him and develop the character of mind to walk in His perfect peace.
J Todd Hostetler