And it will be said:

‘Build up, build up, prepare the road!
    Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.’
15 For this is what the high and exalted One says –
    he who lives for ever, whose name is holy:
‘I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 I will not accuse them for ever,
    nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of me –
    the very people I have created.

In theological terms we affirm that God is both ‘transcendent’ and ‘immanent’. These are complementary truths, and need to be held together, although in tension. In His ‘transcendence’ the Lord is far above us; far, far removed from us. In His ‘immanence’ He is close to us. He is nearer than our nearest and dearest. He is everywhere present at the same time.

In these verses it is those who are ”contrite and lowly in spirit” who are addressed. They are the ones who will experience a road being prepared for them, and obstacles being removed out of the way (14); they are the very people who will experience God’s mercy (16).

Jesus taught:

”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

All these descriptions are true of the ”contrite”.

Tom Hale says: ‘The contrite are those who are repentant, who mourn for their sins (Matthew 5:4); they are the mourners mentioned in verse 19,” ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1062.

PRAYER: Lord God, please work in my heart so that it is soft, and malleable and shaped by you. May my heart be pleasing to you. I long to know your nearness. Help me Lord, I pray.