I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.

The salvation the Messiah will bring in, about which we have been reading in this chapter, is God’s work. Barry Webb points out that on the most natural reading of this text, it is Isaiah himself who is speaking: ‘He has been given a righteousness that is not his own, and he is assured that the same LORD who has set him right will one day set the whole world right.’ ‘Isaiah’, p.237. Webb also writes about how praise and thanksgiving are the most natural response to grace, ‘especially grace that has been personally received and experienced. But often,’ he says, ‘it takes a particularly inspired or gifted individual to give them voice for others. John Newton’s famous hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ and Wesley’s ‘And Can it be’ are classic examples. Both are intensely personal, but give such powerful expression to what we have all experienced in one way or another that they are our songs too. The same applies here.’ (p.236).

Isaiah speaks for every one who experiences God’s salvation.