Isaiah 64:4

Let us scrutinize those who enjoy the good things of the world in this present life, I mean wealth and power and glory. Exulting with delight, they reckon themselves as no longer being on the earth. They act this way even though the things that they are enjoying are acknowledged not to be really good and do not abide with them but take to flight more quickly than a dream. And even if these things should even last for a little time, their favor is displayed within the limits of this present life and cannot accompany us further. Now if these things uplift those who possess them to such a pitch of joy, what do you suppose is the condition of those souls that are invited to enjoy the countless blessings in heaven, blessings that are always securely fixed and stable? And not only this, but also in their quantity and quality heaven's blessings excel present things to such an extent as never entered even the heart of the human being.

The divine is invisible in nature. "For no one has ever seen God," as it is written. But God can be seen by the eyes of faith from those things that happen without explanation and beyond speech. For the invisible things, since the foundation of the world, are clearly understood by the things that are made, that is, his heavenly power and godhead. For he is often recognized through those in whom he works the good and makes a sign of the serenity dwelling in him, marvelously saving those deprived of all hope, and he extends a saving hand from the ground to those lying on the earth. In like manner, they who make this prayer speak, "From the foundation of the world we have not heard nor have we seen such a God, except now for you and you alone. For you give mercy to those who wait for you and put their hope in you, refining and making them to fit together, those who work for your justice and who are mindful of your paths, that is, all who carry out the things you want. For we say that his commandments are the ways of the Lord."

In benefits, he sets out the greatness of his benefits: "from the beginning of the world they have not heard," for never has anything been seen or heard, like what God did for the Jews, and will do for the saints in glory: "eye has …

Waiteth - This may be taken with reference both to the state of grace and glory, those incomprehensible things that are exhibited through Christ in the mysteries of the gospel.

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,.... Not only the things unexpected, undesired, and undeserved, had been done for the Lord's people of old; but there were other things, unheard of and unseen, which God, in his secret counsels, had prepared for them; and for which reason his appearance in his providential dispensations was the more to be desired and entreated.

They confess themselves to be sinful and unworthy of God's favour, and that they had deserved the judgments they were now under,

Observe where the happiness of this people is bound up; it is what God has prepared for them, what he has designed for them in his counsel and is in his providence and grace preparing for them and preparing them for, what he has done or will do, so it may be read.

It is well for us that our hopes of salvation are built not upon any merit or sufficiency of our own (for in that there is no certainty, even Adam in innocency did not abide), but upon God's mercies and promises, for in those, we are sure, is continuance.

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard “For never have men heard” - St. Paul is generally supposed to have quoted this passage of Isaiah, 1Co 2:9; and Clemens Romanus in his first epistle has made the same quotation, very nearly in the same words with the apostle. But the citation is so very different both from the Hebrew text and the version of the Septuagint, that it seems very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile them by any literal emendation, without going beyond the bounds of temperate criticism.

These are partly past and present, and partly future; therefore Paul substitutes "prepared" for "doeth," though his context shows he includes all three.

For since the beginning of the world - This verse is quoted, though not literally, by the apostle Paul, as illustrating the effects of the gospel in producing happiness and salvation (see the notes at 1Co 2:9). The meaning here is, that nowhere else among people had there been such blessings imparted, and such happiness enjoyed; or so many proofs of love and protection, as among those who were the people of God, and who feared him. Men have not heard - In no nation in all past time have deeds been heard of such as thou hast performed. Nor perceived by the ear - Paul 1Co 2:9 renders this ‘neither have entered into the heart of man,’ ‘which,’ says Lowth, ‘is a phrase purely Hebrew, and which should seem to belong to the prophet.’ The phrase, ‘Nor perceived by the ear,’ he says, is repeated without force or propriety, and he seems to suppose that this place has been either willfully corrupted by the Jews, or that Paul made his quotation from some Apocryphal book - either the ascension of Esaiah, or the Apocalypse of Elias, in both of which the passage is found as quoted by Paul. The phrase is wholly omitted by the Septuagint and the Arabic, but is found in the Vulgate and Syriac. There is no authority from the Hebrew manuscripts to omit it. Neither hath the eye seen - The margin here undoubtedly expresses the true sense. So Lowth renders it, ‘Nor hath the eye seen a God beside thee, which doeth such things for those that trust in him.’ In a similar manner, the Septuagint translates it, ‘Neither have our eyes seen a God beside thee (οὐδὲ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἡμῶν εἶδον θεὸν πλήν σου oude hoi ophthalmoi hēmōn eidon theon plēn sou), and thy works which thou hast done for those who wait for mercy.’ The sense is, no eye had ever seen such a God as Yahweh; one who so richly rewarded those who put their trust in him. […]