[1] If only you would split open the heavens and come down! The mountains would quake at your presence. [2] Be like the fire that kindles brushwood and makes water boil. Come down to make your name known to your enemies. The nations will tremble in your presence. [3] When you did awe-inspiring things that we didn't expect, you came down and the mountains quaked in your presence. [4] No one has ever heard, no one has paid attention, and no one has seen any god except you. You help those who wait for you. [5] You greeted the one who gladly does right and remembers your ways. You showed your anger, because we've sinned. We've continued to sin for a long time. Can we still be saved? [6] We've all become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags. All of us shrivel like leaves, and our sins carry us away like the wind. [7] No one calls on your name or tries to hold on to you. You have hidden your face from us. You have let us be ruined by our sins. [8] But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are the work of your hands. [9] Don't be too angry, LORD. Don't remember our sin forever. Now look, we are all your people. [10] Your holy cities have become a desert. Zion has become a desert. Jerusalem is a wasteland. [11] Our holy and beautiful temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned to the ground. All that we valued has been ruined. [12] Despite these things, LORD, will you hold back? Will you be silent and make us suffer more than we can bear?
