Two things are here promised to Jerusalem: -

I.Plenty of the means of grace - abundance of good preaching and good praying (Isa 62:6, Isa 62:7), and this shows the method God takes when he designs mercy for a people; he first brings them to their duty and pours out a spirit of prayer upon them, and then brings salvation to them. Provision is made,

1.That ministers may do their duty as watchmen. It is here spoken of as a token for good, as a step towards further mercy and an earnest of it, that, in order to what he designed for them, he would set watchmen on their walls who should never hold their peace. Note, (1.) Ministers are watchmen on the church's walls, for it is as a city besieged, whose concern it is to have sentinels on the walls, to take notice and give notice of the motions of the enemy. It is necessary that, as watchmen, they be wakeful, and faithful, and willing to endure hardness. (2.) They are concerned to stand upon their guard day and night; they must never be off their watch as long as those for whose souls they watch are not out of danger. (3.) They must never hold their peace; they must take all opportunities to give warning to sinners, in season, out of season, and must never betray the cause of Christ by a treacherous or cowardly silence. They must never hold their peace at the throne of grace; they must pray, and not faint, as Moses lifted up his hands and kept them steady, till Israel had obtained the victory over Amalek, Exo 17:10, Exo 17:12.

2.That people may do their duty. As those that make mention of the Lord, let not them keep silence neither, let not them think it enough that their watchmen pray for them, but let them pray for themselves; all will be little enough to meet the approaching mercy with due solemnity. Note, (1.) It is the character of God's professing people that they make mention of the Lord, and continue to do so even in bad times, when the land is termed forsaken and desolate. They are the Lord's remembrancers (so the margin reads it); they remember the Lord themselves and put one another in mind of him. (2.) God's professing people must be a praying people, must be public-spirited in prayer, must wrestle with God in prayer, and continue to do so: "Keep not silence; never grow remiss in the duty nor weary of it." Give him no rest - alluding to an importunate beggar, to the widow that with her continual coming wearied the judge into a compliance. God said to Moses, Let me alone (Exo 32:10), and Jacob to Christ, I will not let thee go except thou bless me, Gen 32:26. (3.) God is so far from being displeased with our pressing importunity, as men commonly are, that he invites and encourages it; he bids us to cry after him; he is not like those disciples who discouraged a petitioner, Mat 15:23. He bids us make pressing applications at the throne of grace, and give him no rest, Luk 11:5, Luk 11:8. He suffers himself not only to be reasoned with, but to be wrestled with. (4.) The public welfare or prosperity of God's Jerusalem is that which we should be most importunate for at the throne of grace; we should pray for the good of the church. [1.] That it may be safe, that he would establish it, that the interests of the church may be firm, may be settled for the present and secured to posterity. [2.] That it may be great, may be a praise in the earth, that it may be praised, and God may be praised for it. When gospel truths are cleared and vindicated, when gospel ordinances are duly administered in their purity and power, when the church becomes eminent for holiness and love, then Jerusalem is a praise in the earth, then it is in reputation. (5.) We must persevere in our prayers for mercy to the church till the mercy come; we must do as the prophet's servant did, go yet seven times, till the promising cloud appear, Kg1 18:44. (6.) It is a good sign that God is coming towards a people in ways of mercy when he pours out a spirit of prayer upon them and stirs them up to be fervent and constant in their intercessions.

II.Plenty of all other good things, Isa 62:8. This follows upon the former; when the people praise God, when all the people praise him, then shall the earth yield her increase (Psa 67:5, Psa 67:6), and outward prosperity, crowning its piety, shall help to make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Observe,

1.The great distress they had been in, and the losses they had sustained. Their corn had been meat for their enemies, which they hoped would be meat for themselves and their families. Here was a double grievance, that they themselves wanted that which was necessary to the support of life and were in danger of perishing for want of it, and that their enemies were strengthened by it, had their camp victualled with it, and so were the better able to do them a mischief. God is said to give their corn to their enemies, because he not only permitted it, but ordered it, to be the just punishment both of their abuse of plenty and of their symbolizing with strangers, Isa 1:7. The wine which they had laboured for, and which in their affliction they needed for the relief of those among them that were of a heavy heart, strangers drank it, to gratify their lusts with; this sore judgment was threatened for their sins, Lev 26:16; Deu 28:33. See how uncertain our creature-comforts are, and how much it is our wisdom to labour for that meat which we can never be robbed of.

2.The great fulness and satisfaction they should now be restored to (Isa 62:9): Those that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord. See here, (1.) God's mercy in giving plenty, and peace to enjoy it, - that the earth yields her increase, that there are hands to be employed in gathering it in, and that they are not taken off by plague and sickness, or otherwise employed in war, - that strangers and enemies do not come and gather it for themselves, or take it from us when we have gathered it, - that we eat the labour of our hands and the bread is not eaten out of our mouths, - and especially that we have opportunity and a heart to honour God with it, and that his courts are open to us and we are not restrained from attending on him in them. (2.) Our duty in the enjoyment of this mercy. We must gather what God gives, with care and industry; we must eat it freely and cheerfully, not bury the gifts of God's bounty, but make use of them. We must, when we have eaten and are full, bless the Lord, and give him thanks for his bounty to us; and we must serve him with our abundance, use it in works of piety and charity, eat it and drink it in the courts of his holiness, where the altar, the priest, and the poor must all have their share. The greatest comfort that a good man has in his meat and drink is that it furnishes him with a meat-offering and a drink-offering for the Lord his God (Joe 2:14); the greatest comfort that he has in an estate is that it gives him an opportunity of honouring God and doing good. This wine is to be drunk in the courts of God's holiness, and therefore moderately and with sobriety, as before the Lord.

3.The solemn ratification of this promise: The Lord has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, that he will do this for his people. God confirms it by an oath, that his people, who trust in him and his word, may have strong consolation, Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18. And, since he can swear by no greater, he swears by himself, sometimes by his being (As I live, Eze 33:11), sometimes by his holiness (Psa 89:35), here by his power, his right hand (which was lifted up in swearing, Deu 32:40), and his arm of power; for it is a great satisfaction to those who build their hopes on God's promise to be sure that what he has promised he is able to perform, Rom 4:21. To assure us of this he has sworn by his strength, pawning the reputation of his omnipotence upon it; if he do not do it, let it be said, It was because he could not, which the Egyptians shall never say (Num 14:16) nor any other. It is the comfort of God's people that his power is engaged for them, his right hand, where the Mediator sits.

Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence - The faithful, and in particular the priests and Levites, are exhorted by the prophet to beseech God with unremitted importunity (compare Luk 18:1, etc.) to hasten the redemption of Sion. The image in this place is taken from the temple service; in which there was appointed a constant watch, day and night, by the Levites: and among them this seems to have belonged particularly to the singers, see Ch1 9:33. Now the watches in the east, even to this day, are performed by a loud cry from time to time of the watchmen, to mark the time, and that very frequently, and in order to show that they themselves are constantly attentive to their duty. Hence the watchmen are said by the prophet, Isa 52:8, to lift up their voice; and here they are commanded, not to keep silence; and the greatest reproach to them is, that they are dumb dogs; they cannot bark; dreamers; sluggards, loving to slumber, Isa 56:10. "The watchmen in the camp of the caravans go their rounds crying one after another, 'God is one, he is merciful:' and often add, 'Take heed to yourselves.'" Tavernier, Voyage de Perse, 54:1 chap. 10. The hundred and thirty-fourth Psalm gives us an example of the temple watch. The whole Psalm is nothing more than the alternate cry of two different divisions of the watch. The first watch addresses the second, reminding them of their duty; the second answers by a solemn blessing. The address and the answer seem both to be a set form, which each division proclaimed, or sung aloud, at stated intervals, to notify the time of the night: -

First Chorus

"Come on now, bless ye Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah;

Ye that stand in the house of Jehovah in the nights;

Lift up your hands towards the sanctuary,

And bless ye Jehovah."

Second Chorus

"Jehovah bless thee out of Sion;

He that made heaven and earth."

"Ye who stand in the place of the watch, in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord; and ye praise through the nights;" - says the Chaldee paraphrase on the second line. And this explains what is here particularly meant by proclaiming, or making remembrance of, the name of Jehovah: the form, which the watch made use of on these occasions, was always a short sentence, expressing some pious sentiment, of which Jehovah was the subject; and it is remarkable, that the custom in the east in this respect also still continues the very same; as appears by the example above given from Tavernier.

And this observation leads to the explanation of an obscure passage in the Prophet Malachi, Mal 2:12.

"Jehovah will cut off the man that doeth this;

The watchman and the answerer, from the tabernacles of Jacob;

And him that presenteth an offering to Jehovah God of hosts."

ער וענה er veoneh, the master and the scholar, says our translation, after the Vulgate: the son and the grandson, says the Syriac and Chaldee, as little to the purpose: Arias Montanus has given it vigilantem et respondentem, "the watchman and the answerer;" that is, the Levite and "him that presenteth an offering to Jehovah," that is, the priest. - L. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence. Is not this clause an address to the ministers of Christ, to continue in supplication for the conversion of the Jewish people? Kimchi seems to think that the watchmen are the interceding angels!

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem,.... Not angels, as Jarchi; nor kings, as Kimchi; nor princes and civil magistrates, as others; nor the mourners in Zion, as Aben Ezra; but ministers of the Gospel; as the prophets of the Old Testament are called watch men, Isa 21:11, so ministers of the New, Isa 52:8 who are to watch in all things over themselves, and for the souls of men; for their good, and to guard them against that which is evil, pernicious, and dangerous, both in principle and practice, Ti2 4:5. The allusion is to watchmen on the walls of cities, whose business is to keep their place and stand, and not move from it; to look out diligently, and descry an enemy, or any approaching danger, and give notice of it; and to defend the outworks of the city, and repel the enemy; all which requires courage, constancy, vigilance, and sobriety. The church is a city, and a walled one; God himself is a wall about her; salvation by Christ is as walls and bulwarks to her; and ministers of the Gospel are set for the defence of her: this is an ordinance and appointment of God; these watchmen are not of men's setting, nor do they take this office to themselves; but are placed in it by the Lord, who makes them able ministers, qualifies them for watchmen, and enables them to perform their work; and which is an instance of the love of God to his church, and of his care of it:

which shall never hold their peace day nor night; as the living creatures in Rev 4:8, which are an emblem of Gospel ministers; who are always to be employed, and to be continually praying or preaching; the two principal branches of their ministry, Act 6:4, they are not to be silent, but either praying in private or in public for direction and assistance in their meditations; for supply of the gifts and graces of the Spirit in their ministration, and for success in their work; and that all blessings of grace might descend on those to whom they minister: or else preaching the Gospel; being constant in season, and out of season; frequently inculcating the doctrines of Christ; constantly affirming these things; ever informing, instructing, and exhorting the people. It was Austin's wish that death might find him either praying or preaching:

ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence; some take this to be an address to the same persons; and they may be described as such that make mention of the Lord in their ministrations; of the grace and love of God the Father; of the person, office, and grace of Christ; and of the operations of the Spirit: or, "as the remembrancers of the Lord" (i), as it may be rendered; that put men in mind of the Lord; of what he has done for them, and is unto them; of the doctrines of the Gospel respecting him, and of their duty to him, and to one another, and to all men; and who put the Lord in mind of his promises to his people, and prophecies concerning them, to fulfil them: but I rather think another set of men are meant, even members of churches, as distinct from ministers; who make mention of the Lord to one another, in private conference with each other; of his gracious dealings with them, and favours bestowed upon them; and who make mention of him in their prayers to him, and praises of him; and who should not keep silence, but pray without ceasing, even always, and not faint, Luk 18:1.

(i) "qui Deo estis a memoriis", Gataker; "qui facitis ut alii reminiscantur Domini", Forerius.

I--Isaiah speaking in the person of the Messiah.

watchmen upon . . . walls--image from the watches set upon a city's wall to look out for the approach of a messenger with good tidings (Isa 52:7-8); the good tidings of the return of the Jewish exiles from Babylon, prefiguring the return from the present dispersion (compare Isa 21:6-11; Isa 56:10; Eze 3:17; Eze 33:7). The watches in the East are announced by a loud cry to mark the vigilance of the watchmen.

ye that . . . mention . . . Lord--Hebrew, "ye that are the Lord's remembrancers"; God's servants who by their prayers "put God in remembrance" of His promises (Isa 43:26); we are required to remind God, as if God could, which He cannot, forget His promises (Psa 119:49; Jer 14:21).