Ezra 9:15

LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.

From Background Notes [BN] for February 4^th/5^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

His prayer of intercession appeals to the righteousness of God — that dynamic quality in God that wants to make things right once again, and not leave, in this case, His broken people, yet a broken people.

Or, as Ezra continues in his prayer, “We are left this day as a remnant.” That is, Israel is a small, highly fragile shadow of its former self, back in the land wholly by the mercy and grace of God. Ezra intercedes for God’s people solely on the basis of that righteous mercy, since otherwise “Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.” That is yet another remarkable observation! Ezra means that by all accounts Israel has no legal ground to stand on at all, since Israel stands before God in its guilt. Yet — and this is crucial — Israel does, in fact, stand before God by His loving permission. “We shouldn’t be standing here,” Ezra concedes, “But we are standing here! Can you believe it?” Actually, he does believe it, since Yahweh is that kind of God, who is slow to anger, full of compassion, and showing mercy (Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; and elsewhere).  [BN,6]

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