Isaiah 57:15 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For thus saith the high and lofty One The omnipotent and supreme Ruler of the universe; that inhabiteth eternity Who is from everlasting to everlasting, without beginning of days, or end of life, or change of time; who only hath immortality, hath it of himself, and that constantly; who inhabits it, and cannot be dispossessed of it; whose name is Holy Who is perfectly and essentially holy in his nature, his works, his words, and his ways; and therefore both can and will deliver his church and people, as he has promised to do. I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also, &c. Although my throne is in the highest heavens, where nothing impure can have place, yet I do not disdain graciously to visit, and familiarly converse with, those sinners of mankind, whose spirits are broken by affliction, and humbled under a sense of their sins, for which they were afflicted; which doubtless was the case with many of the Jews in the Babylonish captivity: whom, therefore, he here implies, that God would pity and deliver out of their distresses, as also all others in similar circumstances. To revive the spirit of the humble To support and comfort them amidst their afflictions and troubles, of whatever kind. For I will not contend for ever I will not proceed to the utmost severity with sinful men. For the spirit should fail before me For then their spirits would sink and die under my stroke, and I should do nothing else but destroy the work of my own hands: therefore I consider their infirmity, and spare them. See Psalms 78:38-39; and Psalms 103:9-14; which passages Bishop Lowth thinks contain the best and easiest explication of this clause.