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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 63

1 Who is this who comes from Edom, dressed in bright red, coming from Bozrah? Who is this one wearing royal attire, who marches confidently because of his great strength? “It is I, the one who announces vindication, and who is able to deliver!” 2 Why are your clothes red? Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat?⁠ 3 “I have stomped grapes in the wine press all by myself; no one from the nations joined me. I stomped on them in my anger; I trampled them down in my rage.⁠ Their juice splashed on my garments and stained all my clothes.⁠ 4 For I looked forward to the day of vengeance, and then payback time arrived. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help;⁠ I was shocked because there was no one offering support. So my right arm accomplished deliverance; my raging anger drove me on. 6 I trampled nations in my anger; I made them drunk in my rage; I splashed their blood on the ground.”⁠ 7 I will tell of the faithful acts of the Lord, of the Lord’s praiseworthy deeds. I will tell about all the Lord did for us, the many good things he did for the family of Israel, because of his compassion and great faithfulness. 8 He said, “Certainly they will be my people, children who are not disloyal.” He became their deliverer. 9 Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. The messenger sent from his very presence delivered them.⁠ In his love and mercy he protected them; he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times.⁠ 10 But they rebelled and offended his Holy Spirit, so he turned into an enemy and fought against them.⁠ 11 His people remembered the ancient times. Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea, along with the shepherd of his flock? Where is the one who placed his Holy Spirit among them,⁠ 12 the one who made his majestic power available to Moses, who divided the water before them, gaining for himself a lasting reputation,⁠ 13 who led them through the deep water? Like a horse running through the wilderness they did not stumble.⁠ 14 As an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest.⁠ In this way you guided your people, gaining for yourself an honored reputation.⁠ 15 Look down from heaven and take notice, from your holy, majestic palace!⁠ Where are your zeal and power? Do not hold back your tender compassion! 16 For you are our father,⁠ though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, Lord, are our father; you have been called our Protector from ancient times.⁠ 17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray from your ways and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance! 18 For a short time your special nation possessed a land, but then our adversaries knocked down your holy sanctuary. 19 We existed from ancient times, but you did not rule over them; they were not your subjects.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 63:15 and Psalm 102:19

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah 63 and Psalm 102 describe God looking down from heaven, treating it as a physical place above the earth. Both reflect ancient Near Eastern views of a three-level world with heaven above, earth in the middle, and the underworld below.

Passages

Isaiah 63:15

Hebrew Bible
13 who led them through the deep water? Like a horse running through the wilderness they did not stumble. 14 As an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest. In this way you guided your people, gaining for yourself an honored reputation. 15 Look down from heaven and take notice, from your holy, majestic palace! Where are your zeal and power? Do not hold back your tender compassion! 16 For you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, Lord, are our father; you have been called our Protector from ancient times. 17 Why, Lord, do you make us stray from your ways and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance!
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Psalm 102:19

Hebrew Bible
17 when he responds to the prayer of the destitute and does not reject their request. 18 The account of his intervention will be recorded for future generations; people yet to be born will praise the Lord. 19 For he will look down from his sanctuary above; from heaven the Lord will look toward earth, 20 in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners and to set free those condemned to die, 21 so they may proclaim the name of the Lord in Zion and praise him in Jerusalem
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... The motif “king of heaven” is not an indication that God was thought of here as the king in and of heaven only, simply that he is king of the earth but ruled as king from heaven. This explanation conforms with such phrases in Daniel as “God in heaven” (2:28) and with the fact that Nebuchadnezzar’s kingship and kingdom is subtly compared and contrasted with the Divine Kingdom and Kingship (e.g. 4:22, 25, 26). We may note, too, the association of Divine Kingship with “judgement, justice”. This verse has the distinction of being the first to locate the Divine Royal Presence explicitly in “heaven”. The term “heaven” (literally “heavens”) can mean both the dwelling place of God, “air” or “sky” and God himself, much like the word hwn “pasture” on occasion. Particularly when not in conjunction with “kingdom”, “heaven” is the uppermost world of the three-tiered Hebrew cosmos. It is literally a location in space to be distinguished from “earth” and “Sheol” or the underworld. This “heaven” was nothing less in some circles than the dwelling place of God (Particularly evident: where God is said to look down from heaven, e.g. Psalm 14:2, 33:15, 53:2, 80:14, 102:19, Isaiah 63:15, Lamentations 3:50; where God is said to descend from heaven to the earth, e.g. Genesis 11:5, 7, Exodus 19:11, 18, 20, Isaiah 64:1; and in the post-exilic title “God of heaven”, e.g. Ezra 1:2, Nehemiah 1:4,5, 2:4,20, Psalm 136:26) though as Psalm 139:7-10 testifies, that did not necessarily nullify God’s perceived ability to be anywhere ..."
Roderick R. Letchford, “Pharisees, Jesus, and the Kingdom: Divine Royal Presence as Exegetical Key to Luke 17:20–21” (PhD diss., Australian National University, 2001), 141.

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Isaiah 63:15 and Psalm 102:19

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