Translation: ESV
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—
Praying for God's direct intervention is the right response in times of crisis.
▸'Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down'—an earnest prayer for a theophany.
'Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down'—an earnest prayer for a theophany. The people long for God to intervene directly, as at Sinai. This is the prototype of every eschatological petition for God's coming.
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Even human righteous deeds are insufficient before God—grace alone is the answer.
▸'All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment'—even humanity's best acts are insufficient before God.
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
We are the clay and God is the potter—this acknowledgment is where prayer begins.
▸'But now'—the turn after the confession of sin in verse 6.
Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?
Continuing to cry out before the silence of God is true prayer.
▸The closing of the prayer.