Thursday, June 01, 2006

Psalm 27

Psalm 27 has been my favourite psalm for many years. When I started dealing with abuse issues, God gave me Psalm 27:10 "Though my mother and father forsake me, yet the Lord will receive me." Later I found another precious promise at the end of the psalm: "I will yet see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Anyway, this is an attempt to put it into my own words ..

THOUGHTS ON PSALM 27

All I need in the darkness, and the swift-descending terror,
Is Yourself.
All I need in the tempest, in the whirlwind of emotion
When the foundations move, and my whole world is re-fashioned
Is Yourself
In the face of utmost evil, with the hordes of hell against me
When war is declared on me
My need is You.

For you are my sufficiency, my all-in-all
My heart’s desire, my only need
Is to be with You forever:
To seek You and to find You, to be always in Your presence,
To be satisfied in You.
There, in the depths of You, utterly untouchable
In the place pain cannot master
Where no condemnation dwells.
You lift me up in the very midst of shaming
And I find triumphant worship
In the place I laid me down:
My whole heart becomes a song.

I need to know You hear me
For my hunger and thirst overwhelm me
I can only be satisfied in You.
Your face is all I seek
Your self all I desire
I cannot bear to live outside of You.
Be merciful, do not reject me, You are everything I have,
On You I have totally depended
And You have always come through for me.
When all human love failed me
And the dearest bonds were broken
You took me in and held me
And I knew that I was Yours.

Change me to become like You
Show me how to please You.
Transform me with integrity
So I may stand against the world.
Put Your whole truth within me
And no darkness can defeat me,
No falsehood overcome me.
I am safe inside Your love.

And my certainty is this,
Founded utterly on You
That even in earth’s brokenness
There are foretastes of Your heaven.
And I shall see your goodness
Even in this flesh.
Give me the faith and patience
To keep my hope in You.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hadn't noticed the verse saying "though my mother and father forsake me" before -- that is very meaningful to me, as well. Your poem touches me and lifts me up.