Thy Strong Word

Hosted by Rev. Will Weedon, LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain.

With guest Rev. John Lukomski of St. Paul/Trinity Lutheran Churches in Southern Illinois.

Lutheran Heritage Foundation - Underwriter of Thy Strong Word — Underwriter of Thy Strong Word

Isaiah 26

You Keep Him in Perfect Peace

26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;
    he sets up salvation
    as walls and bulwarks.
²Open the gates,
    that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
³You keep him in perfect peace
    whose mind is stayed on you,
    because he trusts in you.
⁴Trust in the Lord forever,
    for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
⁵For he has humbled
    the inhabitants of the height,
    the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
    casts it to the dust.
⁶The foot tramples it,
    the feet of the poor,
    the steps of the needy.”

⁷The path of the righteous is level;
    you make level the way of the righteous.
⁸In the path of your judgments,
    O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
    are the desire of our soul.
⁹My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰If favor is shown to the wicked,
    he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
    and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
    Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
¹²O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
    for you have indeed done for us all our works.
¹³O Lord our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
¹⁴They are dead, they will not live;
    they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
    and wiped out all remembrance of them.
¹⁵But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a whispered prayer
    when your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷Like a pregnant woman
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs
    when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
¹⁸    we were pregnant, we writhed,
    but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
¹⁹Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
    and the earth will give birth to the dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until the fury has passed by.
²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
    and will no more cover its slain.

Rev. William Weedon

We have the distinct privilege of borrowing LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain Rev. William Chancellor Weedon for an hour a day to add Host of Thy Strong Word to his list of titles. Native to the central Maryland area just outside of Washington D.C., he enthusiastically enjoys his coffee, playing piano, and singing heartily, as well as spending time in the pool with his wife Cindi, three children and their spouses, and seven grandchildren. He’s one of those people that listens to Christmas music year-round, but we still let him in our studios. You may find him reading a good murder mystery or some writing by Johann Gerhard, Joseph Ratzinger, or Alexander Schmemann while eating a chocolate torte made by his wife Cindi. When he’s read all the books he can manage, he escapes outside to hike, bike, or even run in his Vivobarefoot shoes that Andy Bates, his favorite famous person, told him to buy.