12:1  In that day you will say, I praise thee, O Lord. Although thou hast been angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou hast consoled me.

In that day is the same day as in 11:10.  In that day the sprig of Jesse… In that day my Lord will again raise his hand… and so on.  It’s all referring to the day of judgment.  At the same time that the king of Assyria is doing his scenario of destruction, that same day, the day of the Lord, the Lord’s servant will be doing his scenario of deliverance.  In that day you will say, I praise thee, O Lord.  Praise comes spontaneously after such deliverance. Read the Book of Psalms.  Although thou hast been angry with me, thine anger is turned away and thou hast consoled me.  Because for a time I suffered because of my sins.  The judgments of God were a consequence of the things I had done, of which I repented, so eventually the Lord’s anger was turned way from me, and I was consoled through his deliverance.  But the anger is also the king of Assyria, he personifies God’s anger, so he was turned away.  It implies that the king of Assyria has now lost power.  He has fallen.  He is no longer around.

12:2  In the God of my salvation I will trust without fear; for the Lord was my strength and my song when he became my salvation.

So God, himself, personifies salvation.  He is our salvation.  He became our salvation.  Remember those who wait for the Lord we saw earlier.  I will wait for the Lord who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and expect him.  Because we waited and we expected, he did come through for us.  Here he is.  I will trust in him without fear.  Without fearing, because if you fear you aren’t quite trusting, are you.  …for the Lord was my strength and my song…  When?  Well during the time of hardship, during the time of trial, during the testing of our faith he gave my strength, he strengthened me.  When I called upon the name of the Lord then he helped me and strengthened me.  You see that in other parts of Isaiah.  My song because I try to remain positive, I guess.  I try to be cheerful, and then that cheerfulness and that faith and that trust was rewarded, and now I can actually sing praise of him because his deliverance is a fact. 

12:3  Then shall you rejoice in drawing water from the fountains of salvation.

When Jesus says that he’s the fountain of everlasting life, the waters of life, that’s very much what Isaiah is saying here.  That’s a very peaceful scenario.

12:4  In that day you will say, Give thanks to the Lord; invoke his name. Make known his deeds among the nations; commemorate his exalted name.

Just as the Israelites coming out of Egypt became famous, the things that the God of Israel had done for his people became widespread.  The knowledge of those things became widespread throughout the ancient near east.  And so it will be again, only this time it’s a world wide scenario, that the Lord’s fame will spread among the nations of the world.  Who are they?  Well, the wicked ones are destroyed, right, through the Assyrian destruction and conquest of the world.  So the ones who survive are that little category again that will be out there.  What the Lord does for the elect will become known, particularly among them, so that they may have an example of what God could have done for them, too, if they had been included among the Lord’s people who repented.

12:5  Sing in praise of the Lord, who has performed wonders; let it be acknowledged throughout the earth!

Again, those are word links.  Wonders, the word wonder links to chapter 29, the marvelous work and a wonder, or the wonder upon wonder that the Lord does there.  It cross references 25:1 which is another song of salvation.

12:6  Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitants of Zion, for renowned among you is the Holy One of Israel.

So who are these people who are celebrating and praising God and thanking him, and spreading the news of him as a testimony throughout the world?  The people of Zion, the inhabitants of Zion.  These are the ones the Holy One of Israel is with.  The Holy One of Israel is also the exemplary title.  They are holy like he is holy.  Like Isaiah says in chapter 4, the ones who are spared destruction are called the Lord’s holy ones.  They will shout and sing for joy.  Well, do they always shout and sing for joy?  Have they always shouted?  Did this just happen to them by happenstance?  No.  35:10 says They shall have won joy and gladness when sorrow and sighing flee away.  First they go through sorrow and sighing.  That’s their trial, that’s their refiner’s fire.  And then it says the ransomed of the Lord shall return; they shall come singing to Zion, their heads crowned with everlasting joy.  So after the trial of their faith, after they become sanctified, after they have been through their refiner’s fire and qualified for this miraculous deliverance, then comes the joy.  They don’t need to go through the refiner’s fire a second time.  They qualify for the deliverance, whereas others who did not qualify will need to go through the actual time.