Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 26:9

"With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee earnestly: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness." — Isaiah 26:9 (ASV)

With my soul I have desired you in the night ... —Soul and spirit are joined together to express the fullness of personality. The “night” is the time of sorrow and expectation, in which the saints of God will “watch for the morning” of the great day of judgment and deliverance. They welcomed the judgments as the discipline by which those who had failed to learn before would at last, it might be, learn and acknowledge the righteousness of God.