O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. (Isaiah 25:1-5)
The LORD has done wonderful things! He has made a heap (of Ruins,rubble) of the vaunted “City of Man” ! Babyon is fallen, is fallen, and shall no more rise. The city which has long exalted itself, against the LORD and His Christ. She thought she was independent, and needed nothing, and she was sure that by her sorceries she would prevail. She would never be a widow or lose her children. But in one day both came upon her, on the day of the LORD.
The City of man was a heavily defended city. She employed her technology, and imagined she could achieve anything that came to mind. But there can be no defense against the LORD. Man thought He had achieved impregnability, But God shook the earth and the city of confusion fell.
This city is described as a city of foreigners (strangers). She had finally come close to undoing the “Babel effect”, and would have achieved a “one world” culture , Government and religion. Now she could make a name for herself, and build a tower and a city. She would finish the unfinished tower, with the new world wide unity. But as this Psalm of praise extols, “The city shall never be built”.
These advanced, heavily armed, and united people, laden with incredible , almost god-like technology, are now forced to admit, that the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ alone is worthy of glory, honor and all praise. “The Strong people will glorify you…”.
The “…city of terrible nations, “,(ie this refers to prowess in war), “will fear You!” After Armeggedon, the powerful war making nations of this world, who waged war without fear, and who had achieved the power to utterly obliterate their enemies, and were feared on this earth by the “inhabitants of the earth”, will be forced to concede, that they now fear God.
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? ( Revelation 6:14-17)
The Powerful, bold, valiant, accomplished, super rich, famous and mighty men of the earth, will tremble at the prospect of “the wrath of the Lamb of God”, they will literally beg the rocks and mountains to fall on them, to conceal and possibly crush them out of existence, rather than be summonsed up to face the “Lord’s Anointed” whom they have long opposed and resisted.
There is another class of people featured in this Psalm of Praise, the poor and needy.
This is not a designation of the financially or sociologically poor, (although many of them are included in this group.). The “poor and needy” of the Bible refer to those who have come to see that they need Good and his salvation, and long for it, knowing they have no real habitation in this fallen world, but seek a “better city”. They put all of their trust in God, He is their only true resource, their only defense against the powerful and oppressive of this earth, with it’s “New World Order”.
You have been a strength to the poor.
When they were being beaten down by the propaganda and outright persecution of a world that rejects Christ and Christianity, time and again they resorted to Him who is their strength. The poor waited upon the LORD, and He “renewed their strength”.They drank from a hidden fountain, and when they were starved out by the world, they ate a hidden manna.
When the Storm ( Great Tribulation) came and beat upon them, You Oh Lord were their refuge. When the real Heat broke out on them, The LORD was their shelter and shade. This is the song of those who went through the tribulation, with God.
The ” Terrible Ones” blasted at these, like a storm, and the needy crouched besides the unmovable wall, who is the LORD himself. The foreign invaders, made a din, a terrible noise, but the LORD brought down the noise at the brightness of his coming.
The LORD is called “the branch”, the shoot that comes out of Jesse, and is called glorious in Isaiah 4.
In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.(Isaiah 4)
The Terrible ones have their own”Branch”, an AntiChrist, called “the Branch of the terrible Ones”who exalted himself above the LORD and the Knowledge of God, but He shall be brought low. Lucifer himself is called the “abominable branch” and He too is destined to be “Cast out”.
But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.( Isaiah 14)
This is the song of Victory soon to be sung by God’s redeemed remnant after the Tribulation.
Pastor Bill Randles Blog 
A timely word . Praise God