The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
     he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.
He will be the sure foundation for your times,
     a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
     the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.  (Isaiah 33:5-6 NIV)

This is a word from the prophet Isaiah we all need. It’s a message I need. His words are worth memorizing, reciting in prayer, and preaching. Read them carefully.

You afraid these days? We live in turbulent times. Will Kim Jung-Un and President Trump meet? Will our president be prepared? Can he be trusted? What will happen? Will Putin’s hackers wreak havoc in our country? There is plenty to fear.

On a more personal level, for so many, life has lost meaning; morality has lost mooring. What is right and wrong anyway? In schools, moral absolutes are gone; kids are taught “values clarification.” (Each student must construct his own morality, his own values.) “What is right and wrong for you? Only you can decide.”

“Values clarification” simply expresses the culture, where the individual determines what is right. Society has turned away from traditional standards. Sexuality has been divorced from morality. Anything goes.

Mainline denominations bend under the pressure. Evangelicals have also struggled. Our culture pressures us to conform to the changing standards it deems “progress.” Christians holding on to absolute truth and biblical standards of sexual morality are out of date, “on the wrong side of history,” out of step.

Isaiah thunders and speaks to our day! God, Yahweh, is the exalted One, high above all—the Holy One of Israel, the Lord of the nations. God is the exalted Judge, just, righteous, holy, awesome. He is the unquestioned sovereign. “All the peoples of the world are like grasshoppers” (Isaiah 40:22). It is our God who sets up rulers, and takes princes down. Kim Jung-Un, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump–and all leaders–are in his hand. They have authority only as the Lord of all grants it to them. We can sleep in peace in spite of threats and tweets.

Isaiah says of God: “He will be the sure foundation for your times.” This is what we need! We need a foundation, a place to stand—One whose word we can trust. God’s every word is flawless, like gold refined seven times (Psalm 12:6). Not one word that God has spoken will fail. In troubled times, here is our foundation. The Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s hope, is our Rock, our Cornerstone.

The Lord, Isaiah continues, is “a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge.” (The Hebrew word for “salvation” is plural, perhaps an intensive plural.) In our God we find deliverance in every need, ultimate salvation. In our God is wisdom and knowledge. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” “Fear the Lord, and turn from evil,” we learn. As Paul wrote, “in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

Our God guides us in turbulent times of international politics, when moral standards are in decay and confusion.

Isaiah wrote a long time ago. He still speaks to me today.