Thou meetest him {d} that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy {e} ways: behold, thou art angry; for we have sinned: in {f} those is continuance, and we {g} shall be saved.

(d) You showed favour toward our fathers, when they trusted in you and walked after your commandments.

(e) They considered your great mercies.

(f) That is, in your mercies, which he calls the ways of the Lord.

(g) You will have pity on us.

Wesley's Notes

64:5 Meetest - As the father the prodigal. Worketh - That rejoices to work righteousness. Continuance - To those that work righteousness. Be saved - In so doing, in working righteousness.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. meetest-that is, Thou makest peace, or enterest into covenant with him (see on [869]Isa 47:3).

rejoiceth and worketh-that is, who with joyful willingness worketh [Gesenius] (Ac 10:35; Joh 7:17).

those-Thou meetest "those," in apposition to "him" who represents a class whose characteristics "those that," &c., more fully describes.

remember thee in thy ways-(Isa 26:8).

sinned-literally, "tripped," carrying on the figure in "ways."

in those is continuance-a plea to deprecate the continuance of God's wrath; it is not in Thy wrath that there is continuance (Isa 54:7, 8; Ps 30:5; 103:9), but in Thy ways ("those"), namely, of covenant mercy to Thy people (Mic 7:18-20; Mal 3:6); on the strength of the everlasting continuance of His covenant they infer by faith, "we shall be saved." God "remembered" for them His covenant (Ps 106:45), though they often "remembered not" Him (Ps 78:42). Castellio translates, "we have sinned for long in them ('thy ways'), and could we then be saved?" But they hardly would use such a plea when their very object was to be saved.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

64:1-5 They desire that God would manifest himself to them and for them, so that all may see it. This is applicable to the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven. They plead what God had used to do, and had declared his gracious purpose to do, for his people. They need not fear being disappointed of it, for it is sure; or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient. The happiness of his people is bound up in what God has designed for them, and is preparing for them, and preparing them for; what he has done or will do. Can we believe this, and then think any thing too great to expect from his truth, power, and love? It is spiritual and cannot be comprehended by human understanding. It is ever ready. See what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious soul. We must make conscience of doing our duty in every thing the Lord our God requires. Thou meetest him; this speaks his freeness and forwardness in doing them good. Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has soon ended; but in his favour is life, which goes on and continues, and on that we depend for our salvation.