Chapter 64
1 Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down
so that the mountains would quake in your presence,
2 as when fire sets brushwood ablaze
or causes water to boil.
Thus your name would be known to your adversaries
and the nations would tremble at your presence.
3 When you descended to perform awesome deeds
that we did not anticipate,
the mountains quaked when you appeared.
4 Throughout the ages no ear has ever heard,
nor has any eye ever seen,
any other god except you
performing such deeds for those who trust him.
5 You welcome those who lead an upright life
and rejoice to imitate your ways.
When we sin, you become angry,
but when we follow your ways,
we know that we will be saved.
6 All of us have become unclean,
and all of our righteous deeds are like filthy rags
We all become withered like leaves,
and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
7 There is no one who invokes your name
or attempts to hold fast to you.
For you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered us up because of our sins.
8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay and you are our potter;
all of us are the work of your hands.
9 Do not let your anger go to extremes, O Lord,
and do not remember our sinfulness forever.
Look upon us all,
for we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a desert;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolate waste.
11 Our holy and glorious temple
in which our ancestors praised you
has been burned to the ground,
and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
12 After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
Will you remain silent
and punish us beyond our endurance?
