Isaiah 64

A Prayer for the LORD to Come Down

1If only you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so the mountains would quake before you! 2As fire ignites brushwood,
as fire makes water boil,
make your name known to your adversaries,
so nations tremble before you. 3When you did awesome things we did not expect,
you came down, and mountains quaked before you. 4From ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived, no eye has seen
a God besides you
who acts for those who wait for him.

5You meet those who rejoice and do righteousness,
who remember you in your ways.
Look, you were angry, and we sinned;
we have long been in them—can we be saved? 6All of us have become like someone unclean;
all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual cloth.
All of us wither like a leaf,
and our offenses carry us away like wind. 7No one calls on your name
or stirs themselves to take hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
and made us melt under the power of our offenses. 8Yet now, LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, and you are our potter;
all of us are the work of your hand.

9Do not be so deeply angry, LORD;
do not remember guilt forever.
Please look: all of us are your people. 10Your holy cities have become wilderness;
Zion has become wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation. 11Our holy and glorious house,
where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned with fire;
all we treasured lies in ruins. 12In the face of all this, will you hold back, LORD?
Will you stay silent and afflict us so deeply?