A Prayer for God to Intervene

1a If only you would tear open the heavens andb come down,

so that the mountains would quake at your presence—

2c just as fire sets twigsd ablaze

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make known your name to your enemies,

yes, to your enemies before you,e

so that the nations might quake at your presence!

3When you did awesome deeds that we expected,f

you came down,

and the mountains shuddered before you.

4Sinceg ancient times no one has heard,

andh no ear has perceived,

andi no eye has seen any God besides you,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

5You come to the aid of those who gladly do what’s right,

To those who remember you in your ways.

See, you were angry,

and we sinned against them for a long time,

but we will be saved.

6All of us have become like one who is unclean,

andj all our righteous acts are like a filthy rag;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,

and like the wind, our iniquitiesk sweep us away.

7There is no one who calls on your name

or rouses himself to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

and have given usl into the controlm of our iniquity.

God, our Father, will Act

8But as for you,n O LORD, you are our Father;

ando we are clay,p

and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hands.q

9Don’t be angry beyond measure, LORD,

and don’t remember our iniquity for a season.r

Please look now, we are all your people.

10Your holy cities have become a desert;

Zion has become likes a desert,

Jerusalem a desolation.

11Our holy Temple and our splendor,

where our ancestors praised you,

have becomet a conflagration of fire,

and all our dearest places have becomeu ruins.

12 LORD, after all this, can you hold yourself back?

Can you keep silent and punish us so severely?