A rendering of Psalm 59, a desperate plea for help from God while being slandered and threatened.
Tag: poetry
Psalm 88
A rendering of Psalm 88, a desperate prayer that spirals into darkness because of a feeling that not only has God rejected, but God is the source of personal suffering.
Psalm 18
A rendering of Psalm 18, A David prayer reflecting on when God turned certain defeat into overwhelming victory.
Psalm 22
A rendering of Psalm 22, a prayer in the middle of feeling abandoned by God and yet looking forward to when God comes through and personal praise spills out on everyone else.
Psalm 39
(For Jeduthan, the worship leader: A David psalm.) I made a promise to myself: Watch what you’re doing. No destructive talk. Leash your tongue While idiots and haters are around. So, I kept quiet. Totally […]
Psalm 45 – the wedding psalm
A rendering of Psalm 45, the only psalm about marriage.
Psalm 44
A rendering of Psalm 44, a prayer for times when I remember how God has helped others but seems to be ignoring me in my pain.
Psalm 43
Get me off the hook, my God. Show how true I am To this false nation. Pull me from the jaws Of these sharp-tongued liars. You’re supposed to be on my side, God. So, why […]
Psalm 49
A rendering of Psalm 49, a wisdom poem about the emptiness of wealth and fame and the true equality brought by death.
Psalm 35
A rendering of Psalm 35, which begs God to be the defense attorney who will vindicate from the poison accusations of haters.
Psalm 41
Aiding the hurting, The helpless, The homeless Is the best kind of living. And Yahweh takes care Of care givers When they need it most. Yahweh takes of the side Of people who live this way. […]
Psalm 42
Like a dog At an empty water dish, Parched, That’s me, So terribly thirsty For God. My soul is dehydrated, Chapped and cracked, Empty of God — The bubbling, Refreshing, Life-giving God. Where can I go […]
Psalm 40
A rendering of Psalm 40, where David remembers God’s faithfulness in the past and asks for it again in his current problem.
Psalm 36
A rendering of Psalm 36, which compares a life lived without God to a life immersed in God’s life and love.
Psalm 32
A rendering of Psalm 32, a David psalm, combining prayer and earned wisdom, stemming from confessed sin after a time of foolishly hiding it.
Psalm 31
A rendering of Psalm 31, a psalm in the midst of shame and anxiety that finds hope and shame’s cure in God’s faithfulness.
Psalm 29
A rendering of Psalm 29, a David psalm viewing an electrical storm roll from north to south and seeing in it the power of God, which he uses not for destruction, but for peace.
Psalm 27
A rendering of Psalm 27, a prayer in the darkness, resetting the imagination from fear to God.
Psalm 26
A rendering of Psalm 26, a prayer for vindication when falsely accused.
Psalm 10
A rendering of Psalm 10, which calls on God to deal with the bullies and abusers who think he won’t hold them to account.
Psalm 30
A rendering of Psalm 30, a song David wrote when he was healed from a deadly illness and later used to celebrate the original Hanukkah, when the defiled and restored temple was rededicated.
Psalm 23
A rendering of Psalm 23, which offers a picture of the contented life, something our discontented culture needs.
Psalm 16
A rendering of Psalm 16, which rejects attempts at hedging our bets by relying on other sources of happiness than God.
Psalm 17
(A David prayer.) I need your attention, Yahweh. I need some justice. I need you to take my agony seriously. I need you to hear my prayer. I’m not lying. I need you to vindicate […]
Psalm 33
Sing your hearts out to Yahweh, You good and just people! Worship and integrity Are inseparable twins. Praise Yahweh with your guitar. Make exquisite music for him On your piano. Yahweh’s faithful character Can be […]
Psalm 9
A rendering of Psalm 9, a call for God to sit on his throne as Judge in order to bring justice to an unjust world.
Psalm 8
A rendering of Psalm 8, which marvels at the royal role of humanity within a creation that dwarfs us and given by a God who dwarfs that creation.
Psalm 7
(A song David sang to Yahweh when he was dealing with Cush the Benjamite.) Here, I am, knocking at your door, Yahweh my God. Let me in! I need a safe place. I need rescuing. […]
Psalm 5
(Worship leader: Use a soulful sax on this one. A David psalm.) I need you to hear me, Yahweh. I need you to hear me out. You’re my King, So hear my plea for help. […]
Psalm 121
A rendering of Psalm 121, which finds comfort in God as the one who watches and keeps us.
Psalm 146
A rendering of Psalm 146, which considers human sources of hope before considering God’s long resumé of real hope-inspiring help.
Psalm 119 (B is for Beth)
A rendering of Psalm 119:9-16, where each verse begins with the Hebrew letter beth and delights in God’s life-giving words.
Psalm 119 (A is for Aleph)
A rendering of Psalm 119:1-8, where each verse begins with the Hebrew letter aleph and delights in God’s life-giving words.
Psalm 104
A rendering of Psalm 104, an exuberant expression of joy in the Creator and the Creation.
Psalm 4
Here’s my rendering of Psalm 4. But first a few thoughts about poetry and the difficulty of taking something several thousand years old and offering it in an American setting in 21st century English. Poetry […]
Innocence & guilt & the only satisfaction for suffering
Where does the line between innocence and guilt lie? In some regards, we’re all complicit in this interwoven world, where a bargain buy at Target is made by sweat shop labor in Cambodia. And in […]
Preaching that jams the machine
The best preachers are poets, using words to open up windows in the minds and souls of those listening to a world ignored and unseen by a world mesmerized by trinkets and tech. As such, […]
Following the Wild Goose & not the wild geese
Poets and artists are among our best companions in the life of faith. They come at things from unique angles and expose things about us and the world and God that we’d never seen or heard […]