Isaiah 63:17

The people may seem to be blaming God for their troubles. Such an attitude is not uncommon in the *Old Testament. People considered that God was the cause of even bad events (see Job 2:10; Amos 3:6). But at the same time, Isaiah’s people did realise their own failures (see Isaiah 64:6-7).

• We think it impossible to hold opposite opinions at the same time. But see the struggle between God and the Pharaoh (king of Egypt) in Exodus Chapter s 10 and 11. Many times God makes the king’s heart hard (see, for example, Exodus 10:1). But many times the king makes his own heart hard (see, for example, Exodus 10:11). (A ‘hard heart’ means attitudes that are unwilling to change. It is as if the person’s heart has become like stone, without normal feelings or reactions.)

Clearly, the people are praying this prayer because they are desperate. They have remembered how the *Lord acted to save their nation in the past. And now they need his help again. So they confess their wrong attitudes. And they urge him to rescue them.