(Worship leader: Use a string quartet in a minor key with this David poem.)
Listen up, please, God.
Don’t pretend to be deaf.
I know you can hear me,
So please answer.
I’m a tangled mess inside.
Thoughts and fears bang around in me,
Because of the things I’ve overheard,
Plots and schemes to do me harm
Out of their angry hearts.
Those words have cut me up inside.
I’m a death-haunted mess,
A mass of anxieties.
I can’t get out of my head,
So filled with horrors,
My imagination turned against me.
I wish that I could grow wings
And fly away.
I’d find some uninhabited corner of the world
To hide out in
Until things blow over.
Tangle their words like Babel.
Their city is one big brawl,
A never-ending cat fight.
They prowl about,
Ready to go tooth and nail,
All day,
Every day,
Spitting their violent words,
Glaring maliciously.
Destruction is mayor;
Threats and calumny walk boldly
Down the city streets.
But it gets worse.
I could handle enemy insults.
I could run from a bully.
But it’s you,
My soul friend,
My lifelong companion.
My most cherished memories include you
And me together in prayer,
Hearts united in worship
As we offered ourselves in God’s house
Among the joyful throng.
Oh let death swoop down unexpectedly,
Hauling my haters into Hades.
So fitting for their slumber parties
With evil.
But God saves me.
I call and Yahweh’s right there.
I go to sleep crying out.
I wake up crying out.
At high noon, I’m still crying out.
And he hears
And rescues.
I’m unscathed by the battle raging around me,
Despite battalions lined up against me.
God isn’t fickle.
He’s been around since the beginning
And is reliably unchanged the whole time.
He’ll deal with them,
Bringing them down,
These people who live
As if God doesn’t exist.
My fake friend
Lied to my face
Feigning friendship
With sweet words laced with poison,
With embraces disguising daggers.
Put your worries in God’s hands
Your life is safe with him,
A firm foundation
In an earthquake world.
Not so the deceitful.
Their days are numbered
And divided by two;
They’ll slip away so soon.
And me?
I trust in you, God.