I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with the priestly turban, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61 ends in song. One voice speaks up and thanks God for a change of clothes: salvation as a garment, righteousness as a robe, a bridegroom's headdress, a bride's jewels. Who is singing, who did the clothing, and is this only for the future?
One writer marks a shift here: prophecy about a whole people drops into the words of a single heart.
In the two verses that close this chapter the prophet himself speaks. He voices the glad response that will spring from the redeemed and restored Israel in the thousand-year reign to come. At last they will know the LORD their God and glory in Him with joy. At Sinai and under the law, their ancestors feared and trembled before Him. Everything then depended on what they could do. Now they are joyfully alive to what God has done for them and with them. Notice how at this point the prophetic strain drops down to the personal and individual. It is not "clothed us," but "clothed me." Not "covered us," but "covered me."
God does all the dressing here. One writer sees the scene acted out in Zechariah's vision of Joshua the high priest, where a clean turban replaces filthy clothes — the same headdress this verse gives the bridegroom.
In the coming day of glory all will be changed. The filthy rags of human righteousness will be thrown away… Zechariah 3 gives us a picture of this. Joshua the high priest stands before the angel of the LORD in filthy garments, a picture of Israel's condition before God. Then the filthy garments come off, a change of clothing comes on, and a clean turban goes on his head… So here we have a picture of how God will bring Israel to know the blessing of full justification. They will stand before God, not in human righteousness, but in the righteousness that is of God by faith.
One writer asks plainly what this righteousness is. He answers with the robe the father gave the son who came home in Jesus' story.
In chapter 61, Jerusalem's righteousness goes out. What is righteousness? In verse 10 it seems to be full acceptance according to the mind of God, in a righteous way, like the best robe given to the prodigal son… We are the righteousness of God. We are accepted and acceptable according to God's own mind, according to what He is. Christ is the ground; only in Him does it become known and visible. This favour is not only enjoyed. It is also reflected and displayed in fruit and in the state of soul of those who enjoy it.
The same writer adds that there is only one way in, and it is empty-handed.
No one can have a place in this righteousness until he submits to it. That means a man knows he has no ground at all on which to meet God. Self stands wholly condemned. Sovereign grace alone accepts him through Christ; "grace reigns through righteousness."
The bridegroom's ornaments are not a new idea at the end of the chapter. One writer traces the word back to the promise of beauty in verse 3. (Older translations read "ornaments" where the ESV has "a beautiful headdress".)
Raised up by grace into this new and holy position, we can say the words of verse 10 — and the word "ornaments" there is the same word as "beauty" in verse 3.
The singer rejoices in the LORD before naming a single gift. One writer keeps the focus there: the giver is Himself the joy, and what He gives does not stay private.
The LORD Himself becomes the centre of all joy and the giver of all beauty, causing righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
The writers read this song first of Israel's future. Yet one of them puts Christian salvation on the same ground today, with one difference: we take the robe by faith, not by sight.
There is a wide difference between Israel's earthly blessing and the church's heavenly portion. Yet the basis on which both rest is clearly the same. For them salvation is to be founded on righteousness, and so it is for us today… The gospel is the power of God to salvation because in it God reveals His righteousness. That righteousness does not act against us but on our behalf, through the sacrificial death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The believer today stands before God in a righteousness that God has worked, and faith takes hold of it, though there may be nothing visible to sight except the new kind of life he lives.
- Given — God does the dressing. The singer never claims to have put on one garment himself.
- Received — you enter that place empty-handed. Self is condemned, and grace alone accepts, like the best robe for the son who came home.
- Beautiful — the ornaments carry back to the beauty promised in verse 3. God's covering is bridal, not just legal.
- Joyful — the joy lands on the LORD Himself, the centre of joy and giver of beauty, not on the gifts alone.
- Visible — the righteousness that clothes one heart springs up before all the nations. It rests on the same ground the gospel offers today.
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as a garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah 61 is a chapter about comfort for mourners. It closes with a picture from the soil: what God plants comes up, and it comes up where everyone can see it. So whose righteousness is this? When does it appear? And why are all the nations watching?
Righteousness does not grow on its own here. God causes it to spring up. Reading the verse with the one before it, one writer identifies the speaker as Jerusalem, wearing a robe she did not make.
Then there is another word in Isaiah 61:10-11, and in Isaiah 62, "righteousness." That the Lord is their righteousness, as ours, is clear. The prophet speaks in the person of the people and of Jerusalem: "He has covered me with the robe of righteousness." Then "the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations."
A garden yields in its own season. One writer names the season Isaiah has in view.
This takes us into millennial times. It will be the time of fruit bearing and glory for Him in the fields, in the vineyards, among all the nations of the world. ... "Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase" (Psalm 85:11-12).
Right now, righteousness is a matter of faith, not sight. In the day Isaiah describes, that changes.
The believer today stands before God in a righteousness that God has worked out, and his faith takes hold of this. There may be nothing outward for the eye to see, except the new kind of life he lives as the fruit of his conversion. But here too there is a contrast. Outward and visible things will be shown, as the robe of righteousness and garments of salvation wrap around the sons and daughters of Israel in that day. ... The righteousness will blossom out in a way that all the nations will see, to the praise of the Lord, who has brought it about.
The verse names righteousness and praise together. One writer shows which of the two comes first, and why the praise goes where it does.
So whether it be for the saint of today, called by the gospel to a heavenly portion, or whether for the renewed Israelites of the future — salvation stands securely based upon righteousness. And because righteousness will be established, praise also will "spring forth before all the nations." It will be so obviously the work of God that the glory of it and the praise will be His.
The chapter began with a message of good news to Zion. Its last verse widens the frame: the comforted become the display.
Christ takes up the character of messenger of glad tidings to Jerusalem, to Zion. He is anointed by the Lord God for this purpose, to comfort the mourners in this way. We know that the Lord Jesus quotes this as far as "acceptable year of the Lord." He could not yet say "the day of vengeance of our God." ... All the results of this message, and of this stepping in with grace, are told here, so as to make "righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations." All will have seen that they are "the seed which the Lord has blessed" — these mourners, now more than comforted, instruments of praise.
None of this has happened yet. One writer warns against reading such prophecy as merely a beautiful ideal.
They look on to Israel restored in the land when Christ reigns publicly. The claim that prophecy gives us no more than a forecast of what was already at the door is a daring lie against inspired prophecy. Most of that prophecy is about the magnificent and holy reign of the Messiah, which has not yet begun. So comes the desire to treat it as an "ideal." So comes the indifference to the bright and assured prospects of Israel under Him and the new covenant — not in principle only, but in its fulfilled terms, to the joy and blessing of all the nations and of the earth itself.
- Cause. The growth is not automatic. God causes it, just as He supplies the robe of righteousness worn in the verse before.
- Gift. Righteousness comes first. Salvation rests on it — the same ground for the believer today as for restored Israel in the future.
- Growth. What is now held by faith with little to show outwardly will one day be as visible as a garden in bloom.
- Reach. All the nations watch. Those who once mourned become the proof — the people the Lord has blessed.
- Result. Because the work is so plainly God's, the praise that springs up goes to Him and not to those who wear the robe.