Tear Open the Heavens
This is a prayer that our Father would tear the sky open and come down. It does not defend the people, calling their best deeds a filthy garment and admitting nobody takes hold of him. The temple is burned. It ends on an unanswered question.
64 1Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down, that the mountains would quake at your presence, 2as fire sets brushwood ablaze and causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations would tremble at your presence! 3When you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains quaked at your presence. 4Since ancient times, no one has heard or perceived by ear, no eye has seen any besides you, who acts for the one who waits for him. 5You welcome those who gladly do what is right, who remember you as they walk in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; we have long been in our sins—can we be saved? 6We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. We all wither like a leaf, and our sins, like the wind, sweep us away. 7There is no one who calls on your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have handed us over to our sins.
8But now, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9Do not be so terribly angry, our Father, and do not remember our sin forever. Look, please—we are all your people. 10Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 11Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured has become a ruin. 12After all this, will you hold back, our Father? Will you keep silent and afflict us so terribly?
