Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.
I think it speaks well for itself--especially the emphasis on the glorious goodness of God to His people, the "ransomed," whom He bought from the Way of Wicked Fools, mercifully placed on His Way of Holiness, whose clinging tatters of sorrow and sighing (and sickness and sin and death) he utterly vanquished, and whom he hounds with his gladness and joy ("goodness and mercy shall follow me all my days," says Psalm 23).
Mondays are supposed to be depressing and dreadful, but mine is full of a hope and joy borne of these precious words from a loving heavenly Father, and I pray yours is also.
I love the image of the last line, of "Gladness and joy" overtaking the believer. Thank you for posting this.