Isaiah 64

Prayer for Mercy and Help

1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens and ¹come down, That the mountains might ²quake at Your presence -

2 As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil - To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the ³nations may tremble at Your presence!

3 When You did ⁴awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.

4 For from days of old ⁵they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of the one who ⁶waits for Him.

5 You ⁷meet him who rejoices in ⁸doing righteousness, Who ⁹remembers You in Your ways. Behold, ¹⁰You were angry, for we sinned, We continued in them a long time; And shall we be saved?

6 For all of us have become like one who is ¹¹unclean, And all our ¹²righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us ¹³wither like a leaf, And our ¹⁴iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7 There is ¹⁵no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have ¹⁶hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.

8 But now, O LORD, ¹⁷You are our Father, We are the ¹⁸clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the ¹⁹work of Your hand.

9 Do not be ²⁰angry beyond measure, O LORD, ²¹Nor remember iniquity forever; Behold, look now, all of us are ²²Your people.

10 Your ²³holy cities have become a ²⁴wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

11 Our holy and beautiful ²⁵house, Where our fathers praised You, Has been burned by fire; And ²⁶all our precious things have become a ruin.

12 Will You ²⁷restrain Yourself at these things, O LORD? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

Isaiah 64 Commentary

Chapter 64

The church prays that God's power may be manifested. (1-5) A confession of sin, and afflictions bewailed. (6-12)

Verses 1-5 They desire that God would manifest himself to them and for them, so that all may see it. This is applicable to the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. They plead what God had used to do, and had declared his gracious purpose to do, for his people. They need not fear being disappointed of it, for it is sure; or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient. The happiness of his people is bound up in what God has designed for them, and is preparing for them, and preparing them for; what he has done or will do. Can we believe this, and then think any thing too great to expect from his truth, power, and love? It is spiritual and cannot be comprehended by human understanding. It is ever ready. See what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious soul. We must make conscience of doing our duty in every thing the Lord our God requires. Thou meetest him; this speaks his freeness and forwardness in doing them good. Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has soon ended; but in his favour is life, which goes on and continues, and on that we depend for our salvation.

Verses 6-12 The people of God, in affliction, confess and bewail their sins, owning themselves unworthy of his mercy. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Our deeds, whatever they may seem to be, if we think to merit by them at God's hand, are as rags, and will not cover us; filthy rags, and will but defile us. Even our few good works in which there is real excellence, as fruits of the Spirit, are so defective and defiled as done by us, that they need to be washed in the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. It bodes ill when prayer is kept back. To pray, is by faith to take hold of the promises the Lord has made of his good-will to us, and to plead them; to take hold of him, earnestly begging him not to leave us; or soliciting his return. They brought their troubles upon themselves by their own folly. Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by the wind of their own iniquity; it withers and then ruins them. When they made themselves as an unclean thing, no wonder that God loathed them. Foolish and careless as we are, poor and despised, yet still Thou art our Father. It is the wrath of a Father we are under, who will be reconciled; and the relief our case requires is expected only from him. They refer themselves to God. They do not say, "Lord, rebuke us not," for that may be necessary; but, "Not in thy displeasure." They state their lamentable condition. See what ruin sin brings upon a people; and an outward profession of holiness will be no defence against it. God's people presume not to tell him what he shall say, but their prayer is, Speak for the comfort and relief of thy people. How few call upon the Lord with their whole hearts, or stir themselves to lay hold upon him! God may delay for a time to answer our prayers, but he will, in the end, answer those who call on his name and hope in his mercy.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 19:18; Psalms 18:9; Psalms 144:5; Micah 1:3, 4; Habakkuk 3:13
• 2. Judges 5:5; Psalms 68:8; Nahum 1:5
• 3. Psalms 99:1; Jeremiah 5:22; Jeremiah 33:9
• 4. Psalms 65:5; Psalms 66:3, 5; Psalms 106:22
• 5. 1 Corinthians 2:9
• 6. Isaiah 25:9; Isaiah 30:18; Isaiah 40:31
• 7. Exodus 20:24
• 8. Isaiah 56:1
• 9. Isaiah 26:13; Isaiah 63:7
• 10. Isaiah 12:1
• 11. Isaiah 6:5
• 12. Isaiah 46:12; Isaiah 48:1
• 13. Psalms 90:5, 6; Isaiah 1:30
• 14. Isaiah 50:1
• 15. Isaiah 59:4; Ezekiel 22:30
• 16. Deuteronomy 31:18; Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 54:8
• 17. Isaiah 63:16
• 18. Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9
• 19. Psalms 100:3; Isaiah 60:21
• 20. Isaiah 57:17; Isaiah 60:10
• 21. Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:18
• 22. Psalms 79:13; Isaiah 63:8
• 23. Isaiah 48:2; Isaiah 52:1
• 24. Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 6:11
• 25. 2 Kings 25:9; Psalms 74:5-7; Isaiah 63:18
• 26. Lam 1:7, 10, 11
• 27. Ps 74:10, 11, 18, 19; Isaiah 42:14; Isaiah 63:15

Footnotes

• [a]. Ch 63:19b in Heb
• [b]. Ch 64:1 in Heb
• [c]. Reading with the DSS and versions; M.T. "melted"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 64

The prayer of the church is continued in this chapter; in which she prays for some visible display of the power and presence of God, as in times past, Isa 64:1-3, and the rather, since unheard of and unseen things were prepared by the Lord for his people; and it was his usual way to meet those that were truly religious, Isa 64:4,5, and she acknowledges her sins and transgressions; the imperfections of her own righteousness, and remissness in duty, Isa 64:5-7, pleads relation to God, and implores his mercy, Isa 64:8,9, represents the desolate condition of Judea, Zion, Jerusalem, and the temple, and entreats divine commiseration, Isa 64:10-12.