Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 57:15-21

I. A contrite heart does not merely mean a broken heart; it means more. It means literally a heart crushed, a heart ground to powder. You can have no stronger word. It was this heart which God wished to breed in these rebellious Jews. A heart like Isaiah's, when he said, after having seen God's glory, "Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell among a people of unclean lips." A heart like Jeremiah's, when he said, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears." A heart like Daniel's, when he confessed before God that to him and all his people belonged shame and confusion of face.

II. With God one day is as a thousand years. In one day of bitter misery He can teach us lessons which we could not teach ourselves in a thousand years of reading and studying, or even of praying. In sorrow, He is making short work with our spirits. He grinds hearts to powder, that they may be broken and contrite before Him; but only that He may heal them; that out of the broken fragments of the hard, proud, self-deceiving heart of stone He may create a new heart of flesh, human and gentle, humble and simple. And then He will return and have mercy. He will show that He does not wish our spirits to fail before Him, but to grow and flourish before Him to everlasting life. He will show us that He was nearest when He seemed farthest off; and that just because He is the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, for that very reason He dwells also with the humble and contrite heart, because that heart alone can confess His height and its own lowliness—confess its own sin and His holiness; and so can cling to His majesty by faith, and partake of His holiness by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit.

C. Kingsley, Town and Country Sermons, p. 302.

References: Isaiah 57:15.—J. Oswald Dykes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 52 (see also Old Testament Outlines, p. 237; C. Kingsley, The Good News of God, p. 370; Pulpit Analyst, vol. iii., p. 592; C. Molyneux, Penny Pulpit, Nos. 280, 281; G. Brooks. Outlines of Sermons, pp. 43, 142; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, 1st series, p. 74; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. x., p. 147. Isaiah 57:16.—D. Moore, Penny Pulpit, No. 3087; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 142. Isaiah 57:16-18.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1490. Isaiah 57:18.—Ibid., vol. xxii., No. 1279; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 245. Isaiah 57:19.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1558; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 143. Isaiah 58:2.—Ibid., p. 262.