God

Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.

We have become like those You never ruled, like those not called by Your name.

If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.

From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?

No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!

After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

“I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call My name, I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’

All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people who walk in the wrong path, who follow their own imaginations,

to a people who continually provoke Me to My face, sacrificing in the gardens and burning incense on altars of brick,

They say, ‘Keep to yourself; do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ Such people are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all day long.

Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will pay it back into their laps,

both for your iniquities and for those of your fathers,” says the LORD. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and scorned Me on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their former deeds.”

This is what the LORD says: “As the new wine is found in a cluster of grapes, and men say, ‘Do not destroy it, for it contains a blessing,’ so I will act on behalf of My servants; I will not destroy them all.

And I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and heirs from Judah; My elect will possess My mountains, and My servants will dwell there.

Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for My people who seek Me.

But you who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,

I will destine you for the sword, and you will all kneel down to be slaughtered, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen; you did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit.