The church prays for the illustration of God's power, 1-3. Celebrating God's mercy, it makes confession of their natural corruptions, 4-8. It complains of their afflictions, 9-12.
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,/
so that the mountains might flow down at your presence—
2 As when the fire burns brushwood/
and the fire causes the waters to boil—/
to make your name known to your adversaries/
so that the nations may tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome things/
which we did not look for,/
you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard,/
nor perceived by the ear,/
neither has the eye seen, O God, besides you,/
what he has prepared for him who waits for him.
5 You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness,/
those who remember you in your ways./
Behold, you are angry, for we have sinned./
We continued in them, and we shall be saved.
6 But we are all as an unclean thing,/
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags./
And we all fade as a leaf./
And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is no one who calls upon your name,/
who stirs up himself to take hold of you,/
for you have hid your face from us/
and have consumed us because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, you are our father./
We are the clay, and you our potter,/
and we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be very angry, O LORD,/
neither remember iniquity forever./
Behold, see, we implore you, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities are a wilderness./
Zion is a wilderness,/
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house,/
where our fathers praised you,/
is burned with fire,/
and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
12 Will you refrain yourself for these things, O LORD?/
Will you hold your peace and grievously afflict us?
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 64[➚]
[v.4] - Quoted in 1st Corinthians 2:9.