PSALM CHAPTER 7 - 12

PSALM 7

1 A Meditation of David,
Which he sang to YHWH when he hid
From the words of the Benjamite
Whose name was Cush and did not right.
2 O YHWH my God, in You I put
My trust, save me from all whose foot
Is against me to persecute
And save me, 3 lest they like a brute
Lion tear me, rending in pieces,
While none’s to save, it never ceases.
4 O YHWH my God, if I’ve done this:
If there’s iniquity remiss
In my hands, 5 if I have repaid
Evil to him who always made
Peace with me, or have released my
Enemies from their empty sty,
6 Let the enemy pursue me
And overtake me, yes, and be
Treading my life down to the earth,
And set my honour as no worth.

As evil as the act that perpetrates
Against the innocent is that he rates
The guilty good and fair and without shame.
It is a duty once to stand and blame.
And yet that is a duty that’s regarded
By the sweet Christian as a thing retarded.
To carry out the right is hard to do
When it incurs the wrath of tooty-froo.
Beloved, let me do good to every man,
Give health and wealth in stealth much as I can,
And at the same time raise accusing word
Against the crafty, evil-doing bird.
Let me give good for good from day to day,
And give me courage to make wicked pay.

7 Arise, O YHWH, in wrath, lift up
Yourself because the raging cup
Of my enemies draws near, rise
Up for me to the judgment wise
You have commanded! 8 So the group
Of people shall surround in troop
Their hope in You, therefore, return
On high. 9 YHWH’s a judge very stern
For all the peoples; judge me, YHWH,
According as I rightly do,
According to what’s found by You
In me as my integrity.
10 Oh, let end the iniquity
Of the wicked, sustain the just,
For the righteous Ælohim must
Test hearts and minds. 11 My defence is
Of Ælohim, who saves all His
Upright in heart. 12 Ælohim is
A just judge, and El El God is
Angry with the wicked each day.
13 If he does not repent his way,
He will sharpen His sword, He bends
His bow and makes it ready, 14 sends
His instruments of death prepared,
Makes arrows fiery shafts and bared.

The holy one You sent, the blessed Messiah,
Told us to pray in plain words like the fire,
For enemies and love each bad pariah.
Dismayed, I find to love the sweet a trier,
Say nothing of the enemy. A prayer
For enemies is hard to utter where
The childless widow fasts in sorrow for
The lost to tanks, embargos, bombs and more.
Must one pray for such enemies as well,
And love them too, as far as I can tell?
One cannot love the neighbour as oneself
Until one knows there is but that one Self.
Still I am glad to find this prayer for those
Who persecute, where no sweet loving shows.

15 See, who brings forth iniquity,
Yes, he conceives trouble freely
And brings forth falsehood. 16 He has made
A pit and dug it out, waylaid
And fallen in the ditch he made.
17 His trouble shall return upon
His own head, and his violence
Shall come down on his own defence.
18 I will praise YHWH according to
His righteousness, and will sing praise
To the name of the Most High YHWH
Now and as long as I have days.

The prayer for the foe is not just words sweet,
Forgiveness in his sins to eat the treat.
The prayer is that the wickedness might end,
Not merely to accept him as a friend.
The Christian duty to pray for the foe
Seems hard because some think that it should show
Acceptance of his wicked way to go.
Oh no, the prayer for wicked folks is that
They should do no more evil where they sat,
And that’s an easy prayer indeed to say
Even for the victim inside the fray.
Beloved, I come before Your throne to pray
For all the enemies I have today,
That they will stop right now their evil way!

PSALM 8

1 To the Chief Musician. On the instrument of Gath. A Psalm of David.
2 O YHWH, our Lord, how excellent
Is Your name in all of the earth,
Who have set Your glory’s ascent
Above the heavens in its worth!
3 Out of the mouth of suckling child
You have ordained strength, and enfiled
Your enemies, that You may show
Sabbath on the avenging foe.
4 When I consider Your heavens,
The work of Your fingers, the lens
Of moon and the stars, which You’ve set,
5 What is man whom You don’t forget,
And son of man to whom You come?
6 For You have made him little lower
Than gods or angels some adore,
And You have crowned him with the sum
Of glory and honour and more.
7 You have made him to reign in state
Over the works of Your hands great,
You have established all beneath
His feet, that has both claw or teeth,
8 All sheep and oxen, beast of field,
9 The fowl of air, the fish that yield
The sea, whatever passes through
The sea’s paths swimming not a few.
10 O YHWH, our Lord, how excellent
Is Your name, in all the earth sent!

O my Beloved, how sweet of You to plan
And tell beforehand what the promised man
Would do to honour and respect his mother.
When she was lied about and when another
Accused her wrongly, he spoke up and said
She was a righteous maid, not wrongly led.
He spoke when just a baby in her arms
To comfort her and quiet her alarms.
Why did You, my Beloved, reveal this thing
To David, peace on him, the prophet-king?
The son of man’s made lower than the gods,
Those trinities and idols, empty pods,
That some would try to raise him to in vain.
We worship You, he, I, the angel train.

PSALM 9

1 To the Chief Musician. Upon death to the son.” A Psalm of David.
I will praise You, O YHWH, with my
Whole heart, I will tell, not deny,
Of all Your wondrous works. 2 And I
Will be glad and rejoice in You,
I’ll sing praise to Your name, Most High.
3 When enemies turn back anew,
At Your presence they’ll fall and perish.
4 For You have maintained what I cherish,
My right and cause, You sat to bless
On the throne judging righteousness.
5 You have rebuked the nations, You
Destroyed the wicked, truly You
Have blotted out their name forever.
6 O enemy, destructions are
Finished forever! Cities far
And near you have destroyed and their
Memory’s perished in thin air.

Blot out the name of every empty thing
That I have done or thought or in the wing
Of silver speech fathered upon the world.
Blot out all vanities in flags unfurled.
Blot out, Beloved, the idol that my heart
Would set up to replace You from the start,
The secret that would waver and reveal
The hopes of silvered notes and brazen heel.
Beloved, I ask the miracle of You
That You might cast the memory from view
Of all things whether mine or others’ share
That depart from Your youness everywhere,
Till I find nothing where I turn to look
Except Your face, and let that be my book.

7 But YHWH shall always endure, He
Prepared His throne for clemency.
8 He shall judge the world righteously,
Judge the people in uprightness.
9 YHWH also will be a refuge
For oppressed in troublous deluge.
10 And those who know Your name will place
Their trust in You, and in Your grace,
For You, YHWH, do not abandon
Who seek You and rely upon.
11 Sing praises to YHWH, who dwells in
Fortress! Declare His deeds within
The people. 12 When He venges blood,
He will remember them in flood,
Forgetting not the humble cry.
13 Have mercy on me, O YHWH! And
Note my trouble from hateful band,
You lift me up from gates of death,
14 To tell Your praise with all my breath
In the daughter of fortress’ gates
Rejoicing where salvation waits.
15 The nations have sunk in the pit
Which they made, in the net they fit
In hiding, their own foot is caught.
16 YHWH is known by his judgment wrought,
The wicked is snared in the work
Of his own hands and without shirk.
17 The wicked shall be turned in hell,
All the nations that do not well,
Forgetting Ælohim. 18 For not
Always shall needy be forgot,
The expectation of the poor
Shall not always go out the door.
19 Arise, O YHWH, do not let man
Prevail, and let Your judgement fan
The nations in Your sight. 20 Put them
In fear, O YHWH, that nations may
Know themselves to be men that stray
While You’re holding the diadem.

Destroy in me the enemy and all
That seeks another hope but You, I call
On You alone and seek my help alone
In You, let fail my will and flesh and bone,
But You lift me up from the gate of death
First to the gate of law and air and breath,
Then to the gate of burning fire where none
Can be an enemy, but love made one.
Oh, turn my wicked parts to hell and give
The expectation of the poor to live,
Poor dervish let me be forever in
Your loving heart at peace where none knows sin.
Let my own foot be troubled by Your snares,
Tripped up by bands of love, caught unawares.

PSALM 10 CONTINUED FROM PSALM 9

1 Why do You stand afar off, YHWH?
And hide in troublous times debut?
2 The wicked in pride persecutes
The poor, let them be caught, the brutes,
In the plots which they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts in the prised
Of his heart, and blesses the greedy
Renouncing YHWH, outdated, seedy.
4 The wicked with his proud face does
Not seek from Bethel unto Luz,
Ælohim’s in none of his thoughts.
5 His ways are always prospered plots,
Your judgement far, out of his sight,
He sneers at all his foes in spite.
6 He has said in his heart, “I shall
Not be moved to a troubled cell.”
7 His mouth is full of cursing and
Deceitfulness, oppression, and
Under his tongue is mischief and
Iniquity. 8 He sits in places
And lurking for the village faces,
And there he murders without traces
The innocent, his eyes are fixed
In secret on the helpless mixed.
9 He lies in wait and secretly,
As lion in its den, to be
In wait to catch the poor, and he
Catches the poor when he draws him
Into his net. 10 He crouches dim,
He lies low, that the helpless may
Fall by his strength. 11 He has his say
In his heart, “El El God’s forgotten,
He hides His face from the begotten,
He’ll never see what’s done that’s rotten.”

Though I have prayed, Beloved, that You’d forget,
The truth is that the evil act to get
Is Yours to see and in the judgement day
That comes this week or in the future way
The thing shall go out and not unrequited:
You are a furore when You are incited.
Though I may seek a hidden place to foil
Myself and lose my righteous, midnight toil,
Your eye finds all the depths and sounds the deep,
You mind here unforgetful all my sleep.
Beloved, I strike the folly down from view
And hold it up to grace and help from You
Until no thing remains in secret hand
Or openly, except Your divine stand.

12 Arise, O YHWH! O El El God,
Lift up Your hand upon the sod!
Do not forget the humble here.
13 Why do the wicked fail to fear
Renouncing Ælohim? He’s said
In his heart, “You will not be sped
To ask account of whom I’ve bled.”
14 But You have seen, for You observe
Trouble and grief, and who deserve
Get payment for it by Your hand.
The helpless commits him to stand
In You, You help the fatherless.
15 Now break the power of wickedness
And of the evil, seek out his
Wickedness till there’s none in biz.
16 YHWH’s King forever and always,
The nations perished from His braes.
17 YHWH, You’ve heard the humble desire,
You will prepare their heart with fire,
You’ll cause Your ear to hear the crier,
18 To do justice to fatherless
And vexed, that no more may oppress
The man of earth in wickedness.

Beloved, I guess this is permission for
Me to pray before open window, door
That You will break the arm of the oppressor
Or enemy of which I am confessor.
Knowing that Christians are so sweet and turn
The other cheek while they let oil fires burn,
And Muslims and Jews both reject the truth
Of blinded eye for eye and tooth for tooth,
I hesitate to call down condemnation.
I thank You now for this lasting elation.
Please break the arm of Georgie the insane
And send So damn to hell to file his claim.
To say the word does not make me feel better,
But satisfied to pray You to the letter.

PSALM 11

1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
In YHWH I put my trust, how can
You say to my soul, man to man,
“Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
2 For look! The wicked creeping in
Bend bow, make ready arrow on
The string, that they may shoot at dawn
In secret at upright in heart.
3 If the foundations here depart,
What can the righteous do for start?
4 YHWH’s in His holy temple, and
YHWH’s throne’s in heaven to command,
His eyes behold, his eyelids try
The sons of men who live and die.
5 YHWH tries the righteous, but the vain
And violent He hates again.
6 Upon the wicked He will rain
Coals, fire and brimstone and a flame
Of wind’s their cup’s portion and shame.
7 For YHWH is righteous, He loves true
Righteousness, His face sees them do
The uprightness that He foreknew.

The vision of my small horizon here
Does not extend up to Your throne, my dear.
I see the arrows of the wicked point
And feel already how they strike the joint.
I see the mountain where I should take flight,
I see oppression and the wicked spite.
I see no throne, I see no face at all,
I hear no answer to my fainting call.
It is enough, Beloved, that Your eyes see
The wicked violence surrounding me.
And though I cannot see Your loving face
Nor near nor far from where my footsteps race,
It is enough, Beloved, if You can spy
My countenance, and where my treasures lie.

PSALM 12

1 To the Chief Musician. On an eight-stringed harp. A Psalm of David.
Help, YHWH, for the godly man ceases!
From humankind the faith decreases.
2 They speak idly each one with neighbour,
Lip flattering and with the labour
Of double heart they speak. 3 May YHWH
Cut off all flattering lips, and too
The tongue that speaks proud things, 4 for who
Have said “With our tongue we’ll prevail,
Our lips are our’s, who can avail?”
5 “For the oppression of the poor,
For sighing of the needy sure,
Now I’ll arise,” says YHWH, “I will
Set him in safety to his fill.”
6 The words of YHWH are pure words, tried
Silver in a furnace of dried
Earth, purified seven times over.
7 You shall keep them, O YHWH, in trover,
You shall preserve them now and ever.
8 The wicked prowl, thinking them clever,
On every side, when vileness raised
Among the sons of men half crazed.

Oppression is the normal state of things
In this world made by senators and kings.
The right proportion of greed, cruelty
And lust makes up in each society
The man ideal for each. Keep me from greed
And cruelty, O my Beloved, I need
No motive but my lust for Your approach.
Remove all manners from me, Lord, and coach
My soul in singleness, heart undivided,
And my heart satisfied with what’s provided
In You alone, the treasure that makes bare
The courtesies and castles built in air
That are the substance of the faith in things.
Of You alone my lustful language sings.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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