A Prayer for God’s Power

1If only You would rend the heavens and come down,

so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

2as fire kindles the brushwood

and causes the water to boil,

to make Your name known to Your enemies,

so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

3When You did awesome works that we did not expect,

You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.

4From ancient times no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides You,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.a

5You welcome those who gladly do right,

who remember Your ways.

Surely You were angry, for we sinned.

How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?

6Each of us has become like something unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;b

we all wither like a leaf,

and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

7No one calls on Your name

or strives to take hold of You.

For You have hidden Your face from us

and delivered us into the handc of our iniquity.

8But now, O LORD, You are our Father;

we are the clay, and You are the potter;

we are all the work of Your hand.

9Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure;

do not remember our iniquity forever.

Oh, look upon us, we pray;

we are all Your people!

10Your holy cities have become a wilderness.

Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.

11Our holy and beautiful temple,

where our fathers praised You,

has been burned with fire,

and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

12After all this, O LORD,

will You restrain Yourself?

Will You keep silent

and afflict us beyond measure?