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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Isaiah 57:15 - 57:15
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The primary ground for this voice being heard at all is, that the Holy One is also the Merciful One, and not only has a manifestation of glory on high, but also a manifestation of grace below. “For thus saith the high and lofty One, the eternally dwelling One, He whose name is Holy One; I dwell on high and in the holy place, and with the contrite one and him that is of a humbled spirit, to revive the spirit of humbled ones, and to revive the heart of contrite ones.” He inflicts punishment in His wrath; but to those who suffer themselves to be urged thereby to repentance and the desire for salvation, He is most inwardly and most effectually near with His grace. For the heaven of heavens is not too great for Him, and a human heart is not too small for Him to dwell in. And He who dwells upon cherubim, and among the praises of seraphim, does not scorn to dwell among the sighs of a poor human soul. He is called râm (high), as being high and exalted in Himself; נִשָּׂא (the lofty One), as towering above all besides; and עַד שֹׁכֵן. This does not mean the dweller in eternity, which is a thought quite outside the biblical range of ideas; but, since עַד stands to שׁכן not in an objective, but in an attributive or adverbial relation (Psa 45:7, cf., Pro 1:33), and שָׁכַן, as opposed to being violently wrested from the ordinary sphere of life and work (cf., Psa 16:9; 102:29), denotes a continuing life, a life having its root in itself, עַד שֹׁכֵן must mean the eternally (= לָעַד) dwelling One, i.e., He whose life lasts for ever and is always the same. He is also called qâdōsh, as One who is absolutely pure and good, separated from all the uncleanness and imperfection by which creatures are characterized. This is not to be rendered sanctum nomen ejus, but sanctus; this name is the facit of His revelation of Himself in the history of salvation, which is accomplished in love and wrath, grace and judgment. This God inhabits mârōm veqâdōsh, the height and the Holy Place (accusatives of the object, like mârōm in Isa 33:5, and merōmı̄m in Isa 33:16), both together being equivalent to φῶς ἀπρόσιτον (1Ti 6:16), since qâdōsh (neuter, as in Psa 46:5; Psa 65:5) answers to φῶς, and mârōm to ἀπρόσιτον. But He also dwells with (אֶת as in Lev 16:16) the crushed and lowly of spirit. To these He is most intimately near, and that for a salutary and gracious purpose, namely “to revive ... .” הֽהֱיָהe and הִיָּה always signify either to keep that which is living alive, or to restore to life that which is dead. The spirit is the seat of pride and humility, the heart the seat of all feeling of joy and sorrow; we have therefore spiritum humilium and cor contritorum. The selfish egotism which repentance breaks has its root in the heart; and the self-consciousness, from whose false elevation repentance brings down, has its seat in the spirit (Psychol. p. 199).