A prayer for God’s mercy and pardon

15 Yahweh, look down from heaven;

look down on us from your holy and glorious home.

You were [RHQ] previously very concerned about us, and you acted powerfully to help us.

But it seems that you do not act mercifully and zealously for us any more.

16 You are our father.

Abraham does not know what is happening to us,

and Jacob is not concerned about us, either,

but Yahweh, you are our father;

you rescued us long ago.

17 Yahweh, why did you cause us to wander away from your road [RHQ]?

Why did you cause us to be stubborn,

with the result that we no longer revere you [RHQ]?

Help us like you did previously,

because we are the people who serve you and belong to you.

18 We, your holy people, possessed your sacred temple for only a short time,

and now our enemies have destroyed it.

19 Now it seems as though we never were ruled by you,

as though we were never part of your family [MTY].

64 “Yahweh, I wish that you would tear open the sky and come down,

and cause the mountains to shake in your presence.

2 Be like a fire that burns twigs

and causes water to boil!

Come down in order that your enemies will know who you are,

and the people of other nations will tremble in your presence.

3 You have done awesome things which we were not expecting you to do;

the mountains shook when you came down at Horeb Mountain.

4 Since ◄long ago/the world began►, no one [SYN] has ever seen or heard about a God like you;

you help those who ◄depend on/trust in► you.

5 You help those who joyfully do what is right,

those who conduct their lives as you want them to.

But we did not do that; we continued to sin,

and so you became angry with us.

We have been sinning for a long time,

so only if we continually do what you want us to do will we be saved.

6 We have all become people who are not fit to worship you;

all of the good things that we have done are only like [SIM] filthy/blood-stained rags.

Because of our sins, we are like [SIM] leaves that dry up

and are blown away by the wind.

7 None of our people worships you,

and no one is completely dedicated to [IDM] you.

You have turned away from us.

It is as though you have caused us to be forced to continue our sinful behavior.

8 Yahweh, you are our father.

We are like [MET] clay,

and you created us, like [MET] a potter creates pottery.

9 Yahweh, do not continue to be angry with us;

do not keep thinking about our sins forever.

Do not forget that we are all your people.

10 All of your towns in Judah have become like [MET] deserts;

even Jerusalem has been destroyed.

11 Your glorious temple on Zion Hill, where our ancestors worshiped you,

has been destroyed by fire.

And all our other beautiful things have been ruined.

12 Yahweh, you see all those things, so we worry that you will refrain from helping us,

and that you will cause us to suffer much more.