1: God, it seems you've been our home forever;
2: long before the mountains were born, Long before you brought earth itself to birth, from "once upon a time" to "kingdom come"--you are God.
3: So don't return us to mud, saying, "Back to where you came from!"
4: Patience! You've got all the time in the world--whether a thousand years or a day, it's all the same to you.
5: Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass
6: That springs up gloriously with the rising sun and is cut down without a second thought?
7: Your anger is far and away too much for us; we're at the end of our rope.
8: You keep track of all our sins; every misdeed since we were children is entered in your books.
9: All we can remember is that frown on your face. Is that all we're ever going to get?
10: We live for seventy years or so (with luck we might make it to eighty), And what do we have to show for it? Trouble. Toil and trouble and a marker in the graveyard.
11: Who can make sense of such rage, such anger against the very ones who fear you?
12: Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!
13: Come back, GOD-how long do we have to wait?- and treat your servants with kindness for a change.
14: Surprise us with love at daybreak; then we'll skip and dance all the day long.
15: Make up for the bad times with some good times; we've seen enough evil to last a lifetime.
16: Let your servants see what you're best at--the ways you rule and bless your children.
17: And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!