(Worship leader: A David psalm.)
I’m hiding behind you, Yahweh,
Please keep me from the shame
I dread.
I need your help here.
I’m so vulnerable right now.
Listen to me.
Come to my aid.
I need your strength.
I lean on you so much.
You’ve tied your reputation
To mine,
So help me out —
Or we both go down.
There are tricks
And traps set for me.
Keep them from snapping shut
On me.
My life is in the best place possible:
Your hands.
Help me avoid the snares, Yahweh
My always-sticking-with-me God.
I have no Plan B,
No back-up gods,
No tricks or tech.
I hate those do-it-yourself
Spiritualities.
I’m counting on you
And you alone.
I hate it when people hedge their bets with you.
But your relentless, never-stopping love
Is the source of my joy —
You saw my trouble,
My soul-distress.
Instead of handing me over
To my haters,
You disarmed their traps.
My life is wide open again,
Unfettered,
Spacious.
But I need some kindness now, Yahweh.
I’m in a dark, dark place.
I can hardly see,
My eyes blurry from crying.
My body aches from stress.
My soul shrinks from shame.
Sorrow devours me.
I’ve spent years
In tears.
I know it’s my own fault,
This sin-born sorrow
That’s left me lethargic
And limp.
Haters have played the gossip game
And won.
Now my neighbors
Treat me like trash;
My best friends
Sneer at me;
People on the street see me
And walk the other way.
They’re as interested in me
As in a corpse.
I’m tossed aside
Like a chipped teacup in a landfill.
The only time they talk about me,
They mock me as a lunatic,
They plot my downfall,
They wish me dead.
But I repeat one hopeful phrase
Like a mantra:
“Yahweh is my God.”
Every minute of my life is lived
In God’s hands,
Not their hands,
No matter how they grab at me.
I need your encouraging smile
And you swift, saving love-in-action.
I feel shame building up,
Puncture it please.
Let them be shamed instead!
Let them crawl away in it,
Die in it.
Slap duct tape
Over their lying lips,
Stifle those smirking mouths
That slander so easily.
You’ve got warehouses filled up
With the goodness
You’re preparing to pour out on people
Who stick to you.
You’ll call us all up front
So everyone can see us being honored
For rallying to you.
You’ll swat away like gnats
The plots against us.
You’ll turn our accusers
Into laughingstocks,
Embarassed by their own words.
Yahweh is so good, isn’t he?
He turned the tide.
When everything was going against me,
He piled up gift after gift
Of love.
I was so scared,
I thought,
“God doesn’t know what’s going on.
He can’t even see me.”
But I couldn’t have been more wrong.
You were there,
Hearing every word
Of every prayer.
Give yourself over to love
For Yahweh,
You true-hearted people.
Yahweh sticks with those
Who stick with him.
But the self-centered
Get a different kind of paycheck.
Be strong.
Take heart.
Have hope.
Yahweh won’t let you down.