1 If only you would split open the heavens and come down! The mountains would quake at your presence.

2 Be like the fire that kindles brushwood and makes water boil. Come down to make your name known to your enemies. The nations will tremble in your presence.

3 When you did awe-inspiring things that we didn't expect, you came down and the mountains quaked in your presence.

4 No one has ever heard, no one has paid attention, and no one has seen any god except you. You help those who wait for you.

5 You greeted the one who gladly does right and remembers your ways. You showed your anger, because we've sinned. We've continued to sin for a long time. Can we still be saved?

6 We've all become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags. All of us shrivel like leaves, and our sins carry us away like the wind.

7 No one calls on your name or tries to hold on to you. You have hidden your face from us. You have let us be ruined by our sins.

8 But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are the work of your hands.

9 Don't be too angry, LORD. Don't remember our sin forever. Now look, we are all your people.

10 Your holy cities have become a desert. Zion has become a desert. Jerusalem is a wasteland.

11 Our holy and beautiful temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned to the ground. All that we valued has been ruined.

12 Despite these things, LORD, will you hold back? Will you be silent and make us suffer more than we can bear?