For Sion's sake I will not cease

Verse 1
For Sion’s sake I will not cease (Isa. 62:1)
In agony of prayer to cry, (Col. 4:12)
No, never will I hold my peace, (Isa. 62:1)
’Till God proclaim salvation nigh: (Isa. 62:11, Isa. 56:1)

Verse 2
Worthy in her great Saviour’s worth (II Cor. 5:21)
’Till Sion doth illustrious shine, (Isa. 60:1-3)
And as a burning lamp goes forth
The blaze of righteousness divine. (Isa. 62:1)

Verse 3
Thy righteousness the world shall see, (Isa. 62:2)
The Gentiles on thy beauty gaze,
And all the kings of earth agree
In wond’ring at thy glorious grace.

Verse 4
Thy glorious grace what tongue can tell? (Eph. 1:6)
The Lord shall a new name impart,
Th’ unutterable name reveal, (Isa. 62:2, Rev. 2:17)
And write it on his people’s heart. (Jer. 31:33, II Cor. 3:3, Heb. 8:10)

Verse 5
Sion, for thee thy God shall care,
And claim thee as his just reward, (Isa. 62:11)
Thee for his crown of glory wear,
The royal diadem of thy Lord. (Isa. 62:3, Isa. 28:5, Zech. 9:16)

Verse 6
Outcast of God and man no more,
No more forsaken and forlorn,
Thy desolate estate is o’re, (Isa. 62:4, Isa. 62:12, Jer. 30:17)
For God shall comfort all that mourn. (Isa. 51:3, Isa. 61:2-3, Matt. 5:4)

Verse 7
The widow’d church shall married be, (Isa. 62:4, Isa. 54:4-5)
And soon a num’rous offspring bear:
Thy every son shall comfort thee, (Isa. 54:1, Gal. 4:26-27)
And cherish with a husband’s care. (Isa. 62:5, Eph. 5:29)

Verse 8
Thy duteous sons to thee shall cleave,
The barren woman that keeps house, (Ps. 113:9)
Nor ever more the bosom leave
Of their dear mother and their spouse. (Isa. 62:5)

Verse 9
The Lord himself thy husband is, (Isa. 54:5, Jer. 3:14, Hos. 2:19, II Cor. 11:2)
He bought, and claims thee for his own, (Acts 20:28, I Cor. 6:20)
Thy God delights to call thee his, (Isa. 62:4)
Flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. (Gen. 2:23, Eph. 5:30-32)

Verse 10
The joy that swells a bridegroom’s breast,
When glorying o’re his long-sought bride,
Shall swell thy God, of thee possest, (Isa. 62:5, Isa. 62:12, Rev. 19:7)
Of thee, for whom he liv’d and dy’d. (Eph. 5:25-27)

Verse 11
Prophets to thee thy Lord hath rais’d,
O holy city of our God, (Ps. 48:1, Isa. 52:1)
Hath on thy walls his watchmen plac’d, (Isa. 62:6, Isa. 52:8, Jer. 6:17, Ezek. 3:17, Ezek. 33:7)
And with a trumpet-voice endued. (Isa. 58:1)

Verse 12
They cry, and never hold their peace,
His promise day and night they plead, (Isa. 62:6)
’Till God from all thy sins release,
And make thee like thy glorious head. (Rom. 8:29, II Cor. 3:18, Eph. 4:15, Phil. 3:21, Col. 1:18, I John 3:2)

Verse 13
Call on him now, ye watchmen call,
Cry ye remembrancers divine, (Isa. 62:6)
Give him no rest, who died for all, (Isa. 62:7, II Cor. 5:14-15, I Tim. 2:6)
’Till all in his pure worship join: (Mal. 1:11)

Verse 14
’Till God appear the faithful God, (Deut. 7:9)
And make Jerusalem a praise, (Isa. 62:7)
And spread thro’ all the earth abroad,
And ’stablish her with perfect grace.

Verse 15
The Lord by his right-hand hath sworn,
The arm of his almighty power, (Isa. 62:8, Ps. 89:13)
No more shalt thou to sin return,
Thy en’my shall no more devour. (Isa. 62:8)

Verse 16
Satan, the world, and sin too long
Have robb’d the children of their bread, (Isa. 62:8, Matt. 15:26, Mark 7:27)
Poor lab’ring souls they suffer’d wrong,
Nor saw their legal toil succeed. (Rom. 9:31-32, Gal. 2:16)

Verse 17
They sow’d the ground, and did not reap,
Planted, and did not drink the wine: (Deut. 28:39, Amos 5:11, Mic. 6:15, Zeph. 1:13)
But I will comfort all that weep, (Isa. 61:2-3, Matt. 5:4)
And fill the poor with food divine. (Ps. 132:15, Isa. 55:1-2)

Verse 18
No more shall strange desires consume
Their holy, pure and constant joy, (Isa. 62:8, Isa. 35:10, Isa. 51:11)
The waster pride no more shall come,
Their gifts and graces to destroy. (Isa. 54:16)

Verse 19
Surely the faithful seed at last
The labour of their hands shall eat, (Ps. 128:2)
Shall praise the Lord, and more than taste (Isa. 62:9)
The heavenly everlasting meat. (Ps. 34:8, John 6:27, John 6:55)

Verse 20
They all shall sit beneath the vine, (I Kings 4:25, Mic. 4:4)
In calm inviolable peace,
And drink within my courts the wine,
My courts of perfect holiness. (Isa. 62:9)

Verse 21
Go thro’ the gates (’tis God commands) (Isa. 62:10)
Workers with God, the charge obey, (I Cor. 3:9, II Cor. 6:1)
Remove whate’er his work withstands,
Prepare, prepare his people’s way. (Isa. 62:10, Isa. 57:14)

Verse 22
Their even course let nothing stop, (Isa. 40:4)
Cast up the way, the stones remove, (Isa. 57:14)
The high and holy way cast up, (Isa. 62:10, Isa. 35:8)
The gospel-way of perfect love. (I John 4:18)

Verse 23
Lift up for all mankind to see
The standard of their dying God, (Isa. 62:10, Isa. 11:10, John 12:32-33)
And point them to the shameful tree,
The cross all-stain’d with hallow’d blood. (Gal. 3:13, Heb. 12:2)

Verse 24
The Lord hath glorified his grace, (Eph. 1:6)
Throughout the earth proclaim’d his Son, (Isa. 62:11)
Say ye to all the sinful race,
He died for all your sins t’ atone. (Isa. 62:11, I Cor. 15:3, II Cor. 5:14-15, Heb. 2:9, I John 2:2)

Verse 25
Sion, thy suffering God behold,
Thy Saviour and salvation too, (Isa. 62:11, Isa. 12:2)
He comes, he comes, so long foretold, (Acts 3:18)
Cloath’d in a vest of bloody hue. (Isa. 63:1-3, Rev. 19:13)

Verse 26
Himself prepares his people’s hearts, (Ps. 10:17)
Breaks and binds up, and wounds and heals, (Deut. 32:39, Job 5:18, Hos. 6:1)
A mystic death, and life imparts, (I Sam. 2:6, Rom. 6:4, Gal. 2:20, Col. 3:3)
Empties the full, the emptied fills. (Luke 1:53)

Verse 27
He fills whom first he hath prepar’d,
With him the perfect grace is given,
Himself is here their great reward, (Isa. 62:11, Gen. 15:1)
Their future and their present heaven.

Verse 28
They now the holy people nam’d,
Their glorious title shall express, (Isa. 62:2, Isa. 62:12)
From all iniquity redeem’d, (Ps. 130:8, Tit. 2:14)
Fill’d with the Lord their righteousness. (Jer. 23:6, Jer. 33:16, I Cor. 1:30)

Verse 29
A chosen, sav’d, peculiar race, (Deut. 14:2, Tit. 2:14, I Pet. 2:9)
Sion, with all thy sons thou art,
Elect thro’ sanctifying grace, (II Thess. 2:13, I Pet. 1:2)
Perfect in love, and pure in heart. (Matt. 5:8, I Tim. 1:5, I John 4:17-18)

Verse 30
A people glorious all within, (Ps. 45:13)
Now, only now, and not before,
Born from above thou canst not sin, (John 3:3, I John 3:9, I John 5:18)
And God can never leave thee more. (Isa. 62:4, Isa. 62:12, Deut. 31:6, Heb. 13:5)