1 If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!Mountains would quake before you
2 like fire igniting brushwood or making water boil. If you would make your name known to your enemies,the nations would tremble in your presence.
3 When you accomplished wonders beyond all our expectations;when you came down, mountains quaked before you.
4 From ancient times,no one has heard,no ear has perceived,no eye has seen any god but youwho acts on behalf of those who wait for him!
5 You look after those who gladly do right;they will praise you for your ways.But you were angry when we sinned;you hid yourself when we did wrong.
6 We have all become like the unclean;all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag.All of us wither like a leaf;our sins, like the wind, carry us away.
7 No one calls on your name;no one bothers to hold on to you,for you have hidden yourself from us,and have handed us over to our sin.
8 But now, Lord, you are our father.We are the clay, and you are our potter.All of us are the work of your hand.
9 Don’t rage so fiercely, Lord;don’t hold our sins against us forever,but gaze now on your people, all of us:
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a wasteland.
11 Our holy, glorious house,where our ancestors praised you,has gone up in flames;all that we treasured has become a ruin.
12 After all this, will you hold back, Lord?Will you keep silent and torment us so terribly?