John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 38:11

"I said, I shall not see Jehovah, [even] Jehovah in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world." — Isaiah 38:11 (ASV)

I said, I shall not see God. Amid such earnest longing for an earthly life, Hezekiah would have gone beyond bounds if his grief had not been aggravated by the conviction of God’s wrath. Since, therefore, he is violently dragged away by his own fault, as if he were unworthy of enjoying the ordinary light of the sun, he exclaims that he is miserable, because from now on he will never see either God or man. Among believers, the statement would have been regarded as liable to this exception: that as long as we dwell on the earth, we wander and are distant from God, but that when the entanglements of the flesh have been laid aside, we will more closely see God.

In the land of the living. These words are indeed added as a limitation; but in this way, Hezekiah appears to limit the seeing of God to the present life, as if death extinguished all the light of understanding. We must therefore keep in view what I previously remarked: that when he received the message of God’s vengeance, it affected him in such a manner as if he had been deprived of God’s fatherly love. For if he was unworthy of beholding the sun, how could he hope for what was of higher value? It is not that hope was altogether erased from his mind, but because, with his attention fixed on the curse of God, he could not so quickly rise to heaven to soothe his present grief with the delightfulness of a better life.

Thus, it sometimes happens that godly minds are overclouded, so that they do not always receive consolation. This consolation, though suppressed for a time, still remains in their minds and afterwards manifests itself.

Yet it is an evidence of piety that, by focusing on the proper and lawful object of life, Hezekiah shows how grievous and distressing it is to be deprived of it. Even cattle find death unsettling, but their lives have almost no purpose except to feed and eat their fill. We, however, have a far more excellent object, for we were created and born on the express condition that we should devote ourselves to the knowledge of God.

And because this is the chief reason why we live, he twice repeats the name of God, thus expressing the strength of his feelings: I shall not see God, God in the land of the living.

If it is objected that here we do not see God, the answer is easy: God is visible in his works. For, through the visible workmanship of the world, as Paul says, his eternal power and Godhead are known. (Romans 1:20). Hence, the Apostle also calls this world a mirror of invisible things (Hebrews 11:3).

The more closely God manifests himself to be known by believers, the more highly Hezekiah valued that spiritual beholding. David also says that those who confirm their faith by the exercises of piety in the sanctuary see the face of God (Psalms 42:2; Psalms 63:2).

As for men, Hezekiah grieves that he is withdrawn from their society, because we were born for the purpose of performing mutual acts of kindness to each other.