Isaiah 50 - Morning by Morning

Project of Love — one man, Xander Stok, working through a stated goal of setting every book of the Bible to music — doesn't paraphrase Isaiah 50 so much as sing it directly, verse by verse, with almost no added commentary. 'Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will' quotes Isaiah 50:4 nearly word for word, keeping the prophet's own image of being woken daily rather than converting it into more contemporary language.

'I offered my back to those who beat me... I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting' stays with the suffering-servant material at its most uncomfortable, not softened for a worship-song register. 'Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed' lifts Isaiah 50:7 directly, and the closing verse — 'if you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord' — extends the servant's own resolve outward as instruction, offering the same confidence to whoever's still in the dark rather than keeping it as a private testimony.