ESOCS Devotional 17 May 2026 – God: Our Rock and Fortress
MEMORY VERSE: “Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the Eternal Rock.” Isaiah 26:4 NLT
TEXT: ISAIAH 26:1-21
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
4 Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
5 For He brings down those who dwell on high,
The lofty city;
He lays it low,
He lays it low to the ground,
He brings it down to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down—
The feet of the poor
And the steps of the needy.”
7 The way of the just is uprightness;
O Most Upright,
You weigh the path of the just.
8 Yes, in the way of Your judgments,
O Lord, we have waited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
9 With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, they will not see.
But they will see and be ashamed
For their envy of people;
Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works in us.
13 O Lord our God, masters besides You
Have had dominion over us;
But by You only we make mention of Your name.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
They are deceased, they will not rise.
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And made all their memory to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have expanded all the borders of the land.
16 Lord, in trouble they have visited You,
They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.
17 As a woman with child
Is in pain and cries out in her pangs,
When she draws near the time of her delivery,
So have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain;
We have, as it were, brought forth wind;
We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
Nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Your dead shall live;
Together with my dead body they shall arise.
Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust;
For your dew is like the dew of herbs,
And the earth shall cast out the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.
21 For behold, the Lord comes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her blood,
And will no more cover her slain.
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Deuteronomy 32:4 refers to the Lord our God as the Rock. To King David in Psalms 18:2, “The Lord is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer, my God, my Strength …, my High Tower.” In Matthew 16:18b, upon this Solid Rock, Jesus would build His Church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In many other Old Testament scriptures, God is often called a Rock, implying that He is the way to stability and safety. God, the Rock is a most secure place of refuge, and a protective stronghold for His people in the midst of the storms of life. Because He is our Rock, we can have confidence that we can look up to Him for strength and reliability. He is worthy of all our trust – and in Him we will never be shaken.
In the New Testament, these same qualities are attributed to Christ. Christ is the Rock that God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4). He is the solid foundation or the chief corner stone of the Church. The Church has been built on Christ, and on what He revealed to the apostles. The Church, which is built on Christ – the Solid Rock, is the pillar and foundation of truth. Moreover, Christ Himself as our Rock, is our source of security and the unshakable underpinning or groundwork of our lives.
Like the children of Israel in Exodus 14:31, we should put all our trust and confidence in this Rock. When the Hebrew people saw the mighty power that the Lord unleashed against Pharaoh and his hosts in the Rod Sea, they were filled with awe before God. In Proverbs 3:5, we are admonished to trust in the Lord (our Rock) at all times, with all our heart. It follows therefore that, as believers, we need not lean unto our own understanding or perceived strength. It is needful to trust in the Lord God of Israel always – the very bedrock of our existence.
Reflections
- With God as our Rock and Fortress, we need not be shaken – come what may.
Prayer
- Lord my Rock, teach me to always repose confidence in you.
Further Reading: Exodus 15:13-21; John 20:11-31; Ephesians 1:15-23
ESOCS Devotional 17 May 2026
