64 If only You would rip open the heavens
    and come down to earth—
Its heights and depths would quake the moment You appear,
² Like kindling when it just begins to catch fire, or like water that’s about to boil.
    If only You would come like that so that all who deny or hate You
Would know who You are and be terrified of Your grandeur.

³ We remember that long ago You did amazing things for us
    that we had never dreamed You’d do.
You came down, and the mountains shook at Your presence.
⁴ Nothing like that had ever happened before—no eye had ever seen,
    and no ear had ever heard such wonders,
But You did them then for the sake of Your people, for those who trusted in You.
⁵ You meet whoever tries with sincerity of purpose to do what You want—
    to do justice and follow in Your ways.
But You became so angry when we rebelled and committed all sorts of wrongs;
    we have continued in our sins for a long time. So how can we be saved?
⁶ We are all messed up like a person compromised with impurity;
    even all our right efforts are like soiled rags.
We’re drying up like a leaf in autumn and are blown away by wrongdoing.
⁷ And it’s so sad because no one calls out to You
    or even bothers to approach You anymore.
You’ve been absent from us too long;
    You left us to dissolve away in the acrid power of our sins.
⁸ Still, Eternal One, You are our Father.
    We are just clay, and You are the potter.
We are the product of Your creative action, shaped and formed into something of worth.
⁹ Don’t be so angry anymore, O Eternal;
    don’t always remember our wrongs.
Please, look around and see that we are all Your people.