(A prayer of someone who has reached the end of the rope and is barely hanging on, using the last breath to plead for help from Yahweh.)
Ah Yahweh,
I need your listening ear.
I need you to hear my prayer,
I hope you can make sense of my faltering voice.
Please don’t pretend you don’t hear me.
I’m hanging from a ledge,
Fingers slipping,
Strength failing.
Turn you full attention to me.
Help!
Come quickly!
Is this a life or
Is this a lie?
My days are a wasteland.
I’m fevered,
Burning up from the inside.
My soul has shriveled up like a raisin.
I’ve lost my appetite.
Sighs escape me.
My body sags,
Just a bag of brittle bones.
I turn circles,
A bird with no prey.
I haunt the night,
A sleepless owl
And all alone.
I toss and turn on my bed.
When I crawl out in the morning,
I’m faced with hater insults.
I’ve become the punchline
To their jabbing jokes.
Food has become tasteless as ash.
My beer is watered down
From the tears I’ve cried.
You’re fed up with me, aren’t you?
That’s why you tossed me in the trash,
Useless,
Unwanted.
I’m disappearing into nothing,
Like a shadow as night closes in.
I’m an empty bottle
Tossed to the side of the road.
Lifeless litter.
But you, Yahweh, are King
Without competition.
History is your story,
The resumé of your renown.
The time is coming
When you’ll get up from your throne
Out of tenderness toward Zion.
In fact, that time is now,
Time to help.
Your servants love Zion’s toppled buildings.
Their hearts are broken by the ashes
Of the burned out city.
Yes, the time is coming
When people who hadn’t heard of him before
Will make Yahweh their dearest thought,
When his glory will encircle the globe.
For the time is coming
When Yahweh will rebuild Zion,
When he will show up
For a show down.
It’ll be glorious!
For the time is coming
When those who are hanging on for dear life
Will have their prayers answered,
Will know that God wasn’t just ignoring them.
People in the future,
Pay attention to this.
These words are for you.
They’re written down so you’ll praise Yahweh.
Yahweh looked down.
From heaven’s sanctuary,
He scanned the earth,
Listening intently to the groans
Of those in shackles,
Lifting their death sentences.
Because of this,
Zion will echo with Yahweh’s name,
Jerusalem will reverberate with his praise
As people from all over earth
Show up to worship Yahweh.
There have been many times in my life
When God blew apart my plans.
He used up the best years of my life.
So, I said to him:
“You are my God,
You live forever,
Don’t cut short my few fast years.
You built the earth from scratch
And painted the skies.
Even they will eventually wear out
Like a pair of faded jeans,
But you never do.
Stars will burn out like bulbs
And mountains wear down under weather,
But you show no wear and tear.
You have no ending,
No expiration date.
We rely on your permanence,
For you guarantee the permanence of your people:
The children of your servants
Will always live in your Presence.
You are our forever home.”