Isaiah 60:18
“Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor desolation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.”
What does Isaiah 60:18 mean?
Isaiah paints a vision of a future where peace replaces the constant threat of harm, and where a community's sense of security becomes so central to its identity that even the structures protecting it are renamed. Instead of walls that simply keep enemies out, they become symbols of God's rescue. Instead of gates that control access, they become expressions of gratitude. This image speaks to something many of us long for: a world where we don't live in fear, where our basic safety isn't something we have to fight for or wonder about. It's a promise that wholeness—both personal and communal—is possible, and that when it comes, our whole way of seeing ourselves changes. We stop defining ourselves by what we're protecting ourselves from and start recognizing ourselves by what we've been saved into.