Psalm 26—I Have Laughed Loud and Late with Them When Their Razor Words Were the Only Jokes Around.

Psalm 26—I Have Laughed Loud and Late with Them When Their Razor Words Were the Only Jokes Around.   God, mark me. Try me. I have wagered with you and wavered. Prove me against the whetted edge  Of your unfailing love.    I have cast my lot with yours, Yet kept the company of villains When…

Psalm 24—Who Hoped Her Way Through Long Years, Black and Bird-Boned as the Limbs of Winter

The earth and all its fullness is the Lord’s: The landed pillars of the deep, The thrumming, captured seas, The rivers rising from the holy ground— Are all still his.   Who can find a home on your mountain? Who can stand inside your holy place With head high and a whole heart? The one who …

Psalm 7—Make Our Weary, Waning Days Into a Refiner’s Fire

Lord, I am on the run. This has all gone farther  Than I could have imagined. I’m in the wind.  I have seen what hunts my trail And crouches at my door And it scares me. If my enemies have their way, They’ll swallow me whole.   I am not innocent. I have repaid evil for good. I have broo…

Psalm 21—Their Mighty Plans Have Brittle Seams

Lord, you made a king from clay, And set a crown upon his head. Before a need was on his lips, You knew it. He asked for life,  And you lengthened his days. You breached the levee of your love And your ways flooded through him. He became a hollow hand,  raised and waiting, and you filled it…

Psalm 20—We’ll Know the Silent Sky Can Speak, and Holy Heaven Ring Like Struck Bells

May the Lord hear you And answer with strong wings Beating on gale winds. May your help come  Even before the need is raised— Swift as hunting hawks, fleet as falcons . May he send you every help you ask, Bigger than heart hoped, dream guessed,  Or mind ever tried.   Then we will watch yo…

Psalm 14—Every Fool Knows God Is Gone

Every fool knows God is gone, So they give themselves to things They can’t come back from; Feed themselves on limelight; Live by the hope of moving on. Like everyone who has sold themselves, They insist it was worth it.   The Lord looks down to see If anyone has yet let Goodness creep up …

Psalm 46—No rage, nor waves can rise higher than God

When trouble days came, I rooted and waited for God. Though the walls of the world give way, And the mountains are upended, And the foaming waves climb  As high as the sky; I will stay settled here.  I looked a fool, but my shelter stood.   Father, sweep me into your high hold And seal the…

Psalm 28—You are there when the grace gathers around the table at dinner, in the hallowed halls of the real world.

Psalm 28—You Are There When the Grace Gathers Around the Table at Dinner, in the Hallowed Halls of the Real World.   I forget how to begin, Lord. Wait for me. It’ll take a minute To find my way from here To somewhere else.   I’ve been digging ditches all summer,  Sweating through my gravecl…

Psalm 30—No night tears can stop the birds and bells of dawn singing every morning

    I ran scared for a long time, Wanting to be safer than I was. I made narrow escapes but couldn’t  Quite shake what hounded me. I cried for help, for healing, For answers, for anything. You heard me. You gave me My life back. You hid me  In a quiet place only because I asked— But it w…

Psalm 62—It took a long time, but I found my quiet again

It took a long time, But I found my quiet again. I wrap it around me and wait for God alone. He is my fastness, quick keep, faith’s fort, My rest and release.   How many of my battered days Slipped soundlessly to nothing? How long was I a man of strings Pushing through a hedge without end?…