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God’s Mercy Remembered

⁷ I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
   the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
because of all that the Lord has done for us,
   and the great favour to the house of Israel
that he has shown them according to his mercy,
   according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
⁸ For he said, ‘Surely they are my people,
   children who will not deal falsely’;
and he became their saviour
⁹   in all their distress.
It was no messenger^* or angel
   but his presence that saved them;^*
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
   he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰ But they rebelled
   and grieved his holy spirit;
therefore he became their enemy;
   he himself fought against them.
¹¹ Then they^* remembered the days of old,
   of Moses his servant.^*
Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea
   with the shepherds of his flock?
Where is the one who put within them
   his holy spirit,
¹² who caused his glorious arm
   to march at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them
   to make for himself an everlasting name,
¹³   who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert,
   they did not stumble.
¹⁴ Like cattle that go down into the valley,
   the spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
Thus you led your people,
   to make for yourself a glorious name.

A Prayer of Penitence

¹⁵ Look down from heaven and see,
   from your holy and glorious habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
   The yearning of your heart and your compassion?
   They are withheld from me.
¹⁶ For you are our father,
   though Abraham does not know us
   and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our father;
   our Redeemer from of old is your name.
¹⁷ Why, O Lord, do you make us stray from your ways
   and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you?
Turn back for the sake of your servants,
   for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.
¹⁸ Your holy people took possession for a little while;
   but now our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
¹⁹ We have long been like those whom you do not rule,
   like those not called by your name.

64O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
   so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
^{2 *}as when fire kindles brushwood
   and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
   so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³ When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
   you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴ From ages past no one has heard,
   no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
   who works for those who wait for him.
⁵ You meet those who gladly do right,
   those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
   because you hid yourself we transgressed.^*
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
   and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
   and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷ There is no one who calls on your name,
   or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
   and have delivered^* us into the hand of our iniquity.
⁸ Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;
   we are the clay, and you are our potter;
   we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
   and do not remember iniquity for ever.
   Now consider, we are all your people.
¹⁰ Your holy cities have become a wilderness,
   Zion has become a wilderness,
   Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹ Our holy and beautiful house,
   where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned by fire,
   and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
¹² After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
   Will you keep silent, and punish us so severely?