1 Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your Ex. 19:18; Ps. 18:9; 144:5; Mic. 1:3, 4; (Hab. 3:13) presence—
2 As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil— To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
3 When Ex. 34:10 You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world Ps. 31:19 Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
5 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned— Mal. 3:6 In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.
6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all (Phil. 3:9) our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all Ps. 90:5, 6; Is. 1:30 fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
7 And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O Lord , You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our Is. 29:16; 45:9; Jer. 18:6; (Rom. 9:20, 21) potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.
9 Do not be furious, O Lord , Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!
10 Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful temple, Where our fathers praised You, Is burned up with fire; And all Ezek. 24:21 our pleasant things are laid waste.
12 Is. 42:14 Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O Lord ? Ps. 83:1 Will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?