Isaiah 63:7-64:11 is actually a prayer recited by an assembly that rises from an evaluation of a situation in the light of that assembly's conviction about itself and its relationship with God. The situation is post-exilic, characterized the poor condition of Jerusalem and by divisions in the community of Israel, the rejection of this particular assembly (are they the Levites that were supplanted by the Zadokite priests?) by the leaders of the community and the experience of the distance and silence of God Himself.
The whole prayer can be divided into three parts. The first part (Isaiah 63:7-14) is a review ("we recall", "they remembered") of the favors and deeds that God performed in behalf of his people. It is an expressed conviction that all these have been wrought because of the mercy and lovingkindness of God. God's acts are expressed in the verbs of "saving" "redeeming" "carrying" and "lifting". These latter two verbs (Isaiah 63: 8-9) remind one of the words in Deuteronomy 32:11 where God is compared to an eagle that grasps her young by her pinions, lifting them up in flight and carrying them on wings outspread. In vv. 11-14, relative clauses highlight the identity of Him who has saved them from the Sea, and in a description that reminds one of the aftermath of a mythological struggle where God is victor, and led them forth to freedom.
This narrative part is immediately followed by a brief transitional section that is worded as a protest (Isaiah 63:15-19). It is a protest about God's distance, the withdrawal of His care as testified by his wandering people, of their hardened hearts and their lack of fear of God. It too is a protest about the present condition of the Temple, and of the memory of foreigners trampling it down.
The protest then becomes a petition that is expressed in three prayers in a rising crescendo. The first prayer is for God to "rend the heavens and come down." The heavens is like the buffer zone that separates the people from God. The assembly asks God to destroy this separating wall and "come down." Those who have read Mark's account of the baptism of the Lord would immediately recognize in that account an echo of this Isaianic phrase (cf. Mark 1:10).
The second prayer is for God to see His people doing good deeds and mindful of His ways. Accompanying this prayer is a confession of sins, an admission of guilt (Isaiah 64:4-6), and a reiteration of the conviction that they belong to God (v. 7, referring back to Isaiah 63:16).
The third prayer is a direct appeal to the compassion of God -- "Be not so very angry with us" -- and a petition regarding the holy places and the Temple.
Your holy cities have become a desert,
Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a waste.
Our holy and glorious temple
in which our fathers praised you
Has been burned with fire
all that was dear to us is laid waste.
This prayer ends with a question that expresses hope in God's mercy: "Can you hold back..? Can you remain silent...?" (v.11)
The pattern of this prayer is characteristic of the Old Testament. Prayers of petition are rooted in a concrete situation that is grasped in the light of God's relationship with His people. Even in liturgical prayers and especially those in the Mass, there is always the element of a narration (remembrance of the saving acts of God) which constitutes the basis of an invocation for a particular need.
Selections of passages from this prayer is used as the first reading in Year B of Advent. The selection highlights the penitential aspect of the Season and the intense feelings of a people waiting for its redemption. The prayer "Rend the heavens and come down" sets the tone for the expectation.
Finally, a note about the Holy Spirit. One of the unifying elementsof the narrative part of in 63:7-14 is the role of the Spirit. In v. 10 it is said that in rebelling against God, the people "grieved the Holy Spirit." And in recounting how God saved His people from the Sea (vv.11-14), it is said that God "put his holy spirit in their midst" and that this spirit of the Lord guided His people.
Paul echoes the expression in Is 63:10 when he tells the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), in a context where he admonishes his community to live no longer as the Gentiles do and in fidelity to their new life in Christ (Eph. 4:17). The expression in Isaiah is paired with "rebellion" and therefore includes an understanding of the Spirit's place in the relationship between God and His people. This is evident in the description of how God saves His people in vv. 11-14. Here references to the "Spirit" begin and end the mythical description of God saving His people from His archrival the Sea. In Genesis 1, we also find the Spirit hovering over the Waters as if poised over it. Since the Genesis account can be dated to exilic times, and since this prayer in Isaiah is priestly in origin (a tradition allied to the first verses of Genesis), I wonder whether the references to the Spirit of God in this chapter of Isaiah indicates a current of thought about the Holy Spirit of God as known in Israel that presages the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament and its relationship to the New Covenant wrought in the Blood of Christ?
