PSALM CHAPTER 63 - 73

PSALM 63

1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
O Ælohim, you are my El,
Early will I seek You and well,
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs
For You in a dry land of songs
For thirst, where no water belongs.
2 To see Your power and glory, so
As I have seen You on the go
In the sanctuary to glow.
3 Better is Your lovingkindness
Than life, my lips shall aye address
Praise unto You and still confess.
4 So will I bless thee while I live:
I will lift up my hands and give
Glory to Ýour name as I bless.
5 My soul it shall be satisfied
As with marrow and fatness fried;
My mouth shall praise with joyful lips,
6 When I remember You upon
My bed, think on You till the dawn.

This book of Psalms is the book called in thirst
Both for the blessed and also those who’re cursed.
The hart pants for the water brook and still
The thirst of righteous souls to do Your will,
Beloved, is iterated on the hill
Of Mizar and of Sinai to the flood
Of the Euphrates where the day ran blood.
Let me praise You, Beloved, and slake my own
Thirst in the waters that flow from Your throne,
And let me hear the joy that thunders down
From dawn upon the sleeping of the town.
Beloved, the soul is satisfied to know
The lyrics of the ghazels in the show
That ask of love nothing beyond the row.

7 Since You have ever been my help,
Therefore in the shadow and skelp
Of Your wings I’ll rejoice and yelp.
8 My soul follows hard after You,
Your right hand holds me up to view.
9 But those who seek my soul that they
May plunder it shall go the way
Of the lower parts of earth’s sway.
10 They’ll fall by the sword: they shall be
A meal for foxes once set free.
11 Let king rejoice in Ælohim
While all who swear by Him shall beam,
But the mouth of those who speak lies
Shall be stopped up before Your eyes.

It seems I live an era fraught with lies,
I find so many lies about my size
That I can hardly recognize myself.
And yet I faithfully sit on the shelf
To meditate and praise Your holy name
As I remember Your diviner claim
Upon my bed in the night-time when I
Murmur the dhikr of the Psalms to find
How many of the stars might become blind.
Under Your wings and out of sight I stand
Still wondering at the lies of human band,
But filled with faith that You, Beloved, are near
To me and mine always to know and hear.
I pray the prayer of David on the grand.

PSALM 64

1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
Hear, Ælohim, my voice,
From fear of enemy rejoice
To keep my life both safe and choice.
2 Hide me from secret wicked plots,
From the insurgents in their clots,
3 Who whet their tongues like swords and bend
Their arrows like bitter words’ end,
4 To shoot from hiding at the just,
And suddenly shoot from the dust
Without fear of reprisal’s lust.
5 They strengthen in a wicked plan,
To lay snares secretly for man,
They say “Who shall reveal or can?”
6 The search out dark iniquities,
They finish with their search at ease,
The inward of each one is deep,
And their heart never goes to sleep.
7 But Ælohim lets arrow fly
At them and suddenly they die.
8 So they’ll turn tongue upon themselves,
And all who see them among elves
Shall flee to escape from their shelves.
9 Shall fear each man and shall declare
The work of Ælohim is there,
For they shall wisely think upon
The end of his doing that’s drawn.
10 The righteous shall be glad in YHWH
And shall trust Him in what they do,
And everyone upright in heart
Shall glory in Him for his part.

How times and plots do not change on the earth,
How it remains a desert in it’s dearth
Where snares are secretly set out by all
Who come around me with the craven pall.
Yet I step out upon a world set free
By winter’s march and snow’s new destiny
To follow Your tracks from the step into
The sleeping wood standing like ghostly crew,
Knee-deep in white and cracking in the frost.
I step out in faith that the story cost
Shall not bend down the trees that comfort me
Beneath the pregnant sky till crimsonly
The night steps in to say the last word where
My whirling and my turning make my prayer.

PSALM 65

1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David.
Praise waits for you, O Ælohim,
In the fortress, and all esteem
To perform their vow to Your gleam.
2 O you who hear prayer, to you will
All living come to prayer fulfil.
3 Words of iniquity prevail
Against us, our transgressions’ pale
You shall clear away without fail.
4 Blessed whom You choose and cause to come
To live in Your courts, we’ll become
Satisfied with the goodness in
Your house, Your holy temple win.
5 Terrible things in righteousness
You will answer us who confess,
O God of our salvation, hope
Of all the earth’s ends and to cope
For them afar off on the sea.
6 By His strength He sets fast the hills
Belted with power that all things fills.
7 He stills the roaring of the sea,
Its waves’ noises unceasingly,
The peoples’ tumult wonderfully.
8 They too who live in regions far
Fear at the rising of Your star,
You make the morning to rejoice,
And evening coming lift its voice.
9 You come to earth to water it,
You greatly enrich it as fit
With a mighty river and fair
Filled with waters, and You prepare
Them grain provided and with care.
10 You sprinkle ridges thoroughly,
Settling down its furrows wetly,
And make it soft with showers to bless
The growing of it and address.
12 They drop upon the pastures of
The desert, and the hills above,
The little hills rejoice in love.
13 The pastures clad in flocks of sheep,
The valleys covered over deep
With corn, they shout for joy and keep
A song above what they shall reap.

The proud words that the Psalmist here inscribes
In praise of You, Beloved, among the tribes
Is like to draw disdain from Baal’s first priests
Who claim the rain is product of their feasts.
It’s like to draw a sneering smile from those
Who think the rain in scientific prose
Is but the condensate of what arose
From sea and lake, in dew and mist and cloud.
Beloved, I speak to You above the crowd
Of worshippers who bow and pray aloud.
The singer on the temple steps is done,
The stones are barely to be seen by sun,
And Aqsa now within the portico
Is where the teachers sit, the pupils stow.

PSALM 66

1 To the chief Musician, A Song or Psalm.
Make a joyful sound unto God,
All you lands on the earth and sod.
2 Sing out the honour of His name,
And make His praise glorious in fame.
3 Say to Ælohim “How are seen
Your works!” Through might of Your demesne
Shall Your foes fall down at Your scene.
4 All the earth comes to worship You
And sing together Your praise due,
They’ll sing to Your name all in crew.
5 Come see the works of Ælohim,
Terrible toward children of men.
6 He turned the sea into dry land:
They went through the flood on the sand
By foot: there we rejoiced in Him.
7 He rules by His power never dim,
His eyes see the nations, do not
Let the rebellious raise a plot.

Beloved, for centuries the human race,
And best of it, perhaps, in this fine place,
Has harked back to the drying of Red Sea
When You fell on Pharaoh’s band in a spree
Of vast destruction and saved those who tried
To leave the civilized and multiplied.
I do not come to point at violence
As something immoral about Your tents.
I rather come to say that if that’s all
You’ve done to push the thug against the wall,
Then Your hack record is not really great.
Two million came from Egypt, but in freight
Three times as many died in better times
When men had learned to make both guns and rhymes.

8 Bless then, O folk, our Ælohim,
Raise the sound of His praise to gleam.
9 He keeps our soul in life and He
Does not let our feet stumble free.
10 For You have tested us, O God,
Tried us as silver on the sod.
11 You brought us down into the net,
You laid affliction on us set.
12 You made men ride over our heads,
We went through fire and riverbeds,
You brought us out into a place
Of wealth and comfort by Your face.

The place of comfort was not Palestine.
That has been war-ridden by Philistine
And Canaanite, and Hellene and the crew
Of Rome set out to fill up every pew.
That place of comfort was not the Ukraine,
Or Poland or the vasty German wain,
Or even Scotland under northern stain,
Where pogrom is the watchword of the stew.
Och! I almost forgot that Scotland is
Perhaps the only land not in the biz
Of pogroms on the European front.
I leave the Scots in innocence to punt.
It’s Andalus for sure that refuge when
David was living and singing with men.

13 I’ll go into Your house to bring
You every kind of burnt offering,
To You I’ll pay my vows and sing,
14 As my lips have promised the thing,
And as my mouth has spoken, when
I was in trouble before men.
15 I’ll offer You burnt sacrifice
Of fat flesh, and with rams’ incense,
I’ll offer bullocks in a trice
With goats raised up outside my tents.
16 Come all you fearing Ælohim,
And I’ll declare what He in scheme
Has done for my soul as He deem.
17 I cried to Him with mouth and lips,
Extolled Him with my tongues that slips.
18 If I hide sin in my own heart,
The Lord won’t listen to my part.
19 Truly God’s heard and listened to
The sound of my prayer to Him due.
20 Blessed be Ælohim who has not
Turned from my prayer, mercy forgot.

Beloved, I do not wish to hide my sin
Deep in my heart, but throw it in the bin.
Hear my prayer then, and wherein I have failed
To seek out sin and quell it now impaled
Upon the dagger of your word and law,
Let me seek further beneath armoured claw.
Turn not from my prayer that is turned to You,
And though You must escape from my eye’s view,
Do not fail to answer the humble prayer
That follows Your flight on the open air.
Though I have no bulls on the frying pan,
Nor blood of sheep and goats, nor even man,
Hear, my Beloved, the prayer that does not fail
To seek You and Your heart beyond the gale.

PSALM 67

To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song.
1 Ælohim have mercy on us,
Bless us and cause His face to shine
On us 2 So Your way obvious
May be known on the earth for sign,
Salvation among all folk fine.
3 Let the people praise You, O God,
All folk praise You upon the sod.
4 Oh let the nations now be glad
And sing for joy and not be sad,
For You shall judge with righteousness
The people governing to bless,
The nations of the earth address.
5 Let the people thank You, O God,
Let them give thanks all in the pod.
6 Then shall the earth yield her increase,
God, our own Ælohim’s release
Shall bless us and shall never cease.
7 Shall bless us Ælohim and all
The ends of earth be in His thrall.

The earth indeed yields her increase the day
The summer tinges winter’s clouds of grey
And wakens all the tulips in my play
To gladden my springs and my soils to stay
As long as summer lasts. I make my way
Beyond the apple trees to where the wild
Bird cherries stand aghast, irreconciled
With new growth of the apples. I take saw
And axe and trim the cherries, cast in maw
Of mulcher the bright odours from their craw.
Beloved, the earth yields her increase again
To joy of bird and squirrel and of men.
I turn upon her dancing and return
To find the cycle of learn and relearn.

PSALM 68

To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David.
1 Let God arise, and let His foe
Be scattered and let them also
That hate Him flee before His row.
2 As the smoke dissipates so drive
Them away and out of the hive,
As wax melts before fire so let
The wicked perish as they met
Ælohim who is present yet.
3 But let the righteous ones be glad,
Let them rejoice and not be sad
Before Ælohim, and greatly
Rejoice before One not to see.
4 Sing to Ælohim to His name
Psalms praising Him who is not lame
To ride on the skies by His fame
Of YAH rejoicing just the same.
5 A father of the fatherless,
A judge of the widows no less
Ælohim’s His holy address.
6 Ælohim sets in families
The lonely ones, He brings to please
Out those bound with chains, but the ones
Rebelling sit on their dry buns.

Some want to be set up in churches met
Where priests and elders rule them by the net,
And that’s catastrophe, whether it’s set
By county, state, the crown or parliament
Or by the congregation with consent.
Beloved, take me away from every church,
I see in time they always leave in lurch,
But give me final resting place and perch
To be set in a family and tent.
The family of Abraham was spent
To show what faith can be once it is lent,
And Ishmael and Isaac knew from the go
That family is the best thing on show.
You are my family, Beloved, I know.

7 O Ælohim, when You went out
Before Your people round about,
When You marched through the desert drought,
8 The earth shook and the heavens also
Dropped at the presence of the glow
Of Ælohim, Sinai itself
At the sitting upon its shelf
Of Ælohim of Israel.
9 Rain in abundance did You send,
Ælohim, by it did You bend
A confirmation of the lend
When it was too weary to spend.
10 Your congregation came to dwell
In it, Ælohim, prepared well
Your good things for the poor as well.
11 The Lord gave the command and great
Was the band who proclaimed its rate.
12 Kings of armies in flight apace
Left at home who divides the grace.
13 Though you were lying among pots
Like silver wings of doves your lots
Shall be and feathers in their slots
Of yellow gold that never rots.
14 When the Almighty scattered kings
In it like Salmon’s snow for wings.
15 The great hill like hill of Bashan,
A high hill like hill of Bashan.
16 Why do you jump, you mountains high?
Ælohim desires here to try
To live in this hill by and by,
Indeed YHWH will live there for aye.

I beg to say a word for Mount Sinai
Every chance I get in open or sly.
Bashan is great for cows, and I’ve no word
To say against the cattle, since I’ve stirred
From Ayrshire and escaped thence like a bird.
And Zion is a fortress hill of fame
Although as hills go it has hardly claim.
And Point Mountain in West Virginia lies
At the gate where my grandfather’s disguise
Took him into the world to seek the prize.
But no hill is like Sinai, where You came,
Beloved, as Scriptures say to tell the game,
Unless it really happened as they say
At the Red Pipestone quarry on a day.

17 Great chariots twenty thousand
Thousands of angels at the hand
Of the Lord holy Sinai’s stand.
18 You have ascended to the sky,
You’ve led captivity thereby
Captive, You have received gifts there
For men, indeed rebels have share,
That YHWH Ælohim will dwell there.
19 Blessed be the Lord who day by day
Gifts us in an abundant way,
The El of our salvation’s ray.
20 Our El’s a saving God, to YHWH
The Lord the matters of death due.
21 But Ælohim shall wound the head
Of His foes and the hairy spread
Of such as still in sins is led.
22 The Lord said “I will then bring back
From Bashan, I will set the track
From the sea’s depths now without slack
23 So your foot may be dipped in blood
Of your enemies and the flood
Of it for tongue of dogs in mud.

The angels that mount at Sinai to greet
The burning law You speak without retreat
Number to twenty million. I should think
That would suffice to stop upon the brink
The ones who wish to diverge from Your law
To make a troika of gods with a jaw,
Or fasten Your name on an idol bare,
Or come a day late to appointment where
You promise to meet every one alive.
Some wish to honour parents only when
They earn respect, and others for a yen
Are out to kill. I’d think the angel band
Should be enough to keep law in the land
And make order the order of the hive.

24 They’ve seen Your goings, Ælohim,
The goings of my Ælohim,
My King in the holy regime.
25 The singers went before, and those
Who play on instruments to close,
Young ladies playing timbrels rose.
26 So bless Ælohim in assembly,
And YHWH from Israel’s fountain trembly.
27 Little Benjamin ruler great,
Princes of Judah at the gate
Of council, chiefs of Zebulun,
Heads of Naphtali under sun.
28 Your Ælohim’s commanded strength,
Strengthen, O Ælohim the length
For us all of the things You’ve done.
29 Since Your house at Jerusalem
Is where kings give You diadem.

If Benjamin is little, I would rather state
That Saul of Benjamin and king of late
Was tallest of all kings that reigned a while
In city of Jerusalem in file
Or even in Samaria for style.
King David does not try to hide the fame
Of Saul and Benjamin and some for blame
Who represent a dynasty renewed.
David is one with faithful love imbued.
Beloved, I too love Benjamin and Saul
As I look at the portraits on the wall
Of kings long gone whose fame and livery
Resound in cantillated word and free,
Look down upon Your grace eternally.

30 Rebuke the spearmen’s band, the herd
Of bulls with the calves undeterred
Of the people, that he submit
Himself with silver pieces fit,
Scatter the folk all who delight
In warfare and descent to night.
31 Princes shall come out of Egypt,
And Cush shall stretch out wings unclipped
To Ælohim soon and unzipped.
32 Kings of earth, sing to Ælohim,
Sing praises to the Lord in scheme.
33 To Him that rides above the skies
From Ancient time, see He’ll arise
To send out His voice mightily.
34 Ascribe strength to Ælohim’s fee,
His excellence on Israel wee,
Strong in the clouds above the sea.
35 Terrible is Ælohim from
Your holy places where You come,
Israel’s El HUU gives strength and power
To folk, Blessed be Ælohim’s hour.

Blessed be Your hour indeed, Beloved, and Your
Holy places upon the distant shore
Of the skies reams of stars and on the near
Chambered temple rooms of the granite sheer
Walls of my heart. Beloved, be blessed indeed
Above the clouds, below the lingered seed
That waits the coming of the springtime mead.
Who ride above the skies on chariot drawn
Of light and shadow on the trembling dawn,
To send Your voice creating on the crest,
Stop in my soul once more to take a rest.
The terrible in mercy, I find You
Among the shawls and the lights of true,
Despite the knowing You are not in view.

PSALM 69

To the chief Musician on the lilies. A Psalm of David.
1 Save me, O Ælohim, because
The waters come above my paws.
2 I sink in the deep mire where I
Cannot stand, I have come in sty
Of deep waters where floods arise
And overflow me to the eyes.
3 I’m tired of crying with throat dry,
My eyes fail while I wait for my
Ælohim. 4 More than my head’s prize
Of hairs are those who hate my guise
Without a reason, they’d destroy
Me, wrongfully they would employ,
My foes are mighty, I gave back
What I had not taken in slack.
5 O Ælohim, You know my way
Of foolishness, my sins today
Are not hidden from Your relay.

Now righteous men know also what it feels
Like to be numbered among the fair heels,
The ones who floundered all about the ark
And those who left the green Egyptian park
To trample in the Red Sea’s bottom dark.
The waters rise above the reach of hand
And feet sink in the moving, sloughing sand,
And cries grow hoarse before the turning wheels.
Beloved, I see the rise of miqwe and
The dark baptisms flooding all the land
And turn my breath to Youward where You stand
Above the mighty foes that dream of sin
And ways to circumvent the Judgement bin.
All men are caught in the same stempled tin.

6 Don’t let be ashamed those who wait
On You, O Lord YHWH, for my state,
Let not those who see You confounded
Be for my sake, Ælohim sounded
To Israel and her armies grounded.
7 For Your sake I have borne reproach,
Shame covered my face like a roach.
8 I have become a stranger to
My brothers, foreigner in view
Of My own mother’s children too.
9 The zeal of Your house consumes me,
Those who reproached You reproach me.
10 When I wept and with fasting cried,
That was to my reproach beside.
11 I dressed in gunny sacks and I
Became a joke to every guy.
12 Those sitting in judgement speak up
Against me, I was in the cup
Of drunkards singing to fill up.
13 But as for me, my prayer’s to You,
O YHWH, in time acceptable,
O Ælohim, in the accrue
Of Your mercy, hear me in full
For truth of Your salvation’s pull.

But as for me, my prayer to You, O Huu,
In the acceptable time, Allah, You
Will find beneath the multitude of Your
Great mercy, that You in abundance pour
Upon the one You hear recite Your name.
Arising from prostration without shame
Like David I whirl in the flame of love
And send the hearing of my prayer above.
Acceptable the time, acceptable
The word that rises from prostration full
And clear, so let the time of prayer draw near.
The time acceptable for prayer is dear
And bright from day to day. Beloved, I come
In prayer to crack the nut, divide the plum.

14 Save me from mire, don’t let me sink
Let me be saved from those who think
Evil against me, from the deep.
15 Don’t let the flood bury my sleep,
Nor let the water swallow me,
Don’t let the pit close over me.
16 Hear me, O YHWH, for good is Your
Mercy, so abundantly pour
Your tender mercies upon me.
17 Do not hide Your face from Your own
Servant, I’m in trouble alone,
Hear me quickly before Your throne.
18 Come close to me, redeem my soul,
Save me from my enemies’ toll.
19 You’ve known my reproach and my shame,
And the dishonour on my name,
My foes before me all the same.
20 Reproach breaks my heart, I am full
Of heaviness, I felt the pull
To see some to take pity, but
None came for comfort, but to shut.
21 They gave me gall instead of food,
And when I’m thirsty they collude
To give me vinegar unstewed.
22 So let their table be a trap
For them and their welfare a scrap.

The Gospel says that Jesus on the cross
Was thirsty for both water and the loss
Of Your bright presence and cried out in thirst
To find what he was offered was accursed.
Instead of water of life or the cool
From Kauthar quietly upon the pool,
He’s given vinegar to stun the duel.
The Psalm depicts the heritage at worst.
Beloved, whether the story is a myth
Or the true Gospel light in pun and pith,
I turn from numbing share of poisoned reach
To find the simple truth that You would teach.
I’m satisfied if Jesus took the word
To curse the table of the doomed and blurred.

23 Let their eyes be darkened so they
Cannot see at all in their way,
And make them tremble where they stay.
24 Pour out Your anger on them, let
Your wrath take hold upon them yet.
25 And make their dwelling desolate,
Let none dwell in their tents sedate.
26 They persecute the one that’s downed,
They speak grief to the wounded found.
27 Add wickedness to their sins and
Let them not in righteousness stand.
28 Let them be blotted from the book
Of living, written not in nook
Of where the righteous people look.

The Torah speaks of books and blotting out,
And the Zabur of Psalms too, without doubt
Reiterates the promise and the score,
While the Injil fills up the Gospel shore
With blotting out of sins forevermore.
In every case of human soul and reach
There is a blotting out, yes, and for each,
Either the name in recitation’s hour,
The sema’ of the human names that glower
Upon the single parchment and its gold,
Or else the sins under which each was sold.
Beloved, blot out my sins where I run free,
And keep me in the path I choose to be,
The ten commandments for eternity.

29 But I am poor and sorrowful,
Let Your salvation, Ælohim,
Set me up on high in the scheme.
30 I’ll praise the name of Ælohim
With a song and magnify full
Him with thanksgiving at the pull.
31 Let this please YHWH better than ox
Or bull with horns and hoofs and stocks.
32 The humble shall see and be glad,
And your heart live and not be sad
When You seek Ælohim 33 For YHWH
Hears the poor and does not eschew
His prisoners. 34 Let heaven and earth
Praise Him, the seas and all of worth
That moves in them and out of view.
35 For Ælohim saves the fortress
And builds Judah’s cities’ address,
So they can live there and remain
To have possession of the reign.
36 The servants of his children too
Inherit it, and those ones true
To love His name shall live there too.

Let my words too, or silences in sleep
Or waking be, Beloved, to You a treat
Beyond the ox and the freshly sweet meat
Of lamb or goat, the sacrifice I keep
Is praise and honour to Your lovely name.
I find no other subject but Your fame,
Though You are known through all things in the claim
Of earth and universe, forgotten You
Stand in the parliament and out of view,
In the cathedral hidden in Your pew,
Among the wealthy and the powerful
Whose hope is mere illusion of the pull
You are not seen more than in humble dress
Where some slight recognition comes not less.

PSALM 70

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.
1 Ælohim, to deliver me,
And YHWH now make haste to help me.
2 Let them be shamed, confounded who
Seek after my soul, in their due
Let them be turned back and confused
Who wanted to hurt me abused.
3 Let them be turned back for reward
Of their shame who mocked me in horde.
4 Let all those who seek You rejoice
And be glad in You for their choice
Who love Your salvation and say
“Let God be magnified today.”
5 But I am poor and needy here,
Make haste, Ælohim, to appear,
You are my help and saviour, YHWH,
So do not tarry, come anew.

I call myself a dervish, poor and needy,
And yet I flourish far above the seedy
Despite my woollish dress and ragged cloak.
I call myself a dervish, yet the flour
Of fine repasts hesitates not an hour
To whelm me with its polished grace and sweet.
I call myself a dervish though not meet.
Yet I am glad as I come to repeat
Your golden names above the glowing fire
Of raucous winds that others would inspire.
Beloved, the hopeful shelter of the dance
Is still my refuge from the sudden prance
Of that horde that I flee to find Your own
Invisible wealth at Your ivory throne.

PSALM 71

1 In You, O YHWH, I put my trust,
Let me never sink to the dust.
2 Deliver me in righteousness,
And make me escape. Acquiesce
To hear me, and save in distress.
3 Be my strong habitation where
I may every day enter there,
You’ve given command to save me,
You’re my rock and my fortress key.
4 Deliver me, O Ælohim,
Out of the power of wicked scheme,
Out of the hand of unrighteous
And cruel man for blunderbuss.
5 For You are my hope O lord YHWH,
My trust from my youth to renew.
6 By You have I been held from birth,
You were my midwife beyond worth,
My praise shall always be of You.
7 Many may marvel at my fare,
But You are my strong refuge there.

The anthropomorphic in deities
Falls flat before the God of sureties:
You are the only God I know that comes
In form of a house before other sums.
If that seems strange upon the worldly scheme,
God as a midwife is beyond my dream.
Some trust in God the Father, others find
That God the Son is better when resigned,
And many take raspar the ghost to be
The height of all gods and epitome.
But I think I like best Your form when You
Turn out to be a house without a pew
And a midwife. I only hope You’re warm,
Without drafts and cut the cord from my form.

8 Let my mouth be filled with Your praise,
And with Your honour days and days.
9 Don’t cast me off in my old age,
Nor forsake me when powers assuage.
10 For my foes speak against me now,
Try to waylay my soul somehow.
11 They say “God has forsaken him,
So persecute and capture him,
For there’s none to deliver him.”
12 Ælohim, don’t be far from me,
My Ælohim, run to help me.
13 Let be confounded and consumed
My soul’s enemies let be doomed,
Let them be covered with reproach,
And dishonour that would encroach.
14 But I shall hope continually,
And praise You still eternally.

Some think the words of Psalmist too severe
That doom the enemies that do appear.
But I think it is not too much to ask
That those who defecate without a mask
Beside my gate and leave the paper there
As well as the refined meals in their care
Ought to be doomed. There is a forest near.
Twenty steps would bring them to bushes where
They might relieve themselves in privacy.
Its crass filth of the brain that makes them be
So near my house. Beloved, cover them all
With their own reproach just below the wall,
The brown mess they’ve produced let on them fall.
The age I live in now demands degree.

15 My mouth shall show Your righteousness
And Your salvation will confess
All day, it’s too great to assess.
16 I’ll go in the strength of Lord YHWH,
I’ll mention Your righteousness to,
For all to You alone is due.
17 Ælohim, You’ve taught me from youth,
Till now I proclaim Your work’s truth.
18 Now also when I’m old and grey,
Ælohim, do not let me stray
Until I’ve shown Your strength to this
Generation and not to miss
Your power to all who’re in the way.
19 Your righteousness, O Ælohim,
Is very high, great things in scheme
You’ve accomplished, O Ælohim,
Who is like You is but a dream.
20 Who have shown me great and sore troubles
Shall revive me and raise from bubbles
Of the depths of the earthly rubbles.
21 You’ll increase my greatness and then
Comfort me because of false men.
22 I’ll praise You with the psaltery too,
Your truth, O my Ælohim, to
You I will sing with harp and well,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips greatly rejoice when I
Sing to You, and my soul come nigh,
Which You’ve redeemed as set on high.
24 My tongue also shall talk of Your
Righteousness all the day to pour,
For they’re confounded, for they are
Brought to shame who sought to disbar.

With psaltery and harp no less I praise
You as I cantillate with heart in daze
The words of Psalm and Torah on the maze
Of vine and branch that form the etching craze
Of that existence mirrored in my ways.
The richness of Your revelation brings
To ear a joy, to eye a tear that stings
The jewelled syllables their lost pearl sings
Across the riven air rife with the wings
Of angel birds that twitter where it rings.
Beloved, my soul comes near to hear the right
Confounding the wickedness out of sight
That would intrude upon the magic ways
Of Your revealed word in its roundelays.

PSALM 72

A Psalm for Solomon.
1 Ælohim, give the king your plots
Of judgement, and Your righteous lots
To the king’s son. 2 He’ll judge the knots
Of Your people with righteousness,
And Your poor with verdicts’ address.
3 The mountains bring peace to the folk,
The little hills by righteous stroke.
4 He’ll judge the poorest of the folk,
He’ll save the needy’s children for
He shall break down the oppressor.
5 They’ll fear you as long as the sun
And moon shall last, throughout their run.
6 He shall come down like rain upon
The mown grass, as showers at dawn
That water the earth when they’re done.

There was a time that I spent hours each week
Mowing the grass of neighbours for a peek.
The mower was a thrill of power to one
Who navigated life with wheels that spun
A bicycle with motor made of pin
And cardboard in the spokes to make a din.
Your job, it seems, Beloved, is after mine:
To come down on the mown grass and the vine
Like rain, the silent guest and unannounced
Except by cloud and thunder when it pounced.
Beloved, fall on my mown grass in the night
Or in the afternoon with dying light,
And I shall find the waters moving fair
And know that You, Beloved, at last are there.

7 In his days shall flourish the just,
Abundant peace so long as must
The moon endure upon the dust.
8 He’ll have dominion also from
The sea to sea, and also come
From the river unto the ends
Of the earth where His mercy tends.
Those who live in the wilderness
Shall bow before him, in distress
His enemies shall lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and the isles
Shall bring him presents and with smiles
The kings of Sheba and Seba
Shall offer gifts to him in awe.
11 Yes, all the kings shall fall before
Him in prostration to adore
All nations shall serve him in store.
12 For he shall save the needy when
He cries, the poor also of men,
And him who has no helper then.
13 He’ll spare the poor and needy, and
Shall save the needy’s soul at hand.
14 He shall redeem their soul both from
Deceit and violence to come,
And precious shall be in his sight
Their blood when they die in the fight.
15 And he shall live, to him be given
The gold of Sheba where to live in,
And prayer shall rise on his behalf,
And he’ll be daily praised to quaff.
16 If there’s a handful left of corn
In the earth from the mountains torn,
Its fruit shall shake like Lebanon,
And cities shall prosper like grass
Upon the earth where no beasts pass.
16 His name for ever shall endure,
His name shall continue as sure
As the sun, and men shall be blessed
In him, all nations call him blessed.
18 Blessed be YHWH Ælohim the God
Of Israel upon the sod
Who only does wonders abroad.
19 And blessed for ever be His name
In glory, and let the whole claim
Of earth be filled with all the same.
Amen, amen resound His fame.
20 The prayers of David here are done,
The son of Jesse here has won.

I have no son to praise in poetry,
Only daughter and grandson for my glee,
And neither is a king or queen to see
The palaces of Solomon endure.
And yet those palaces, though ruined sure,
Are intact and in fact a magic pure
To creep across the winter and the cold
And warm the heart as though with molten gold.
The palaces where once Your names were told
Live on in the reality and bold
Verses of David here and there unsold
Beneath the stars and moon and sun which stay
The guarantee and gauge of David’s way.
Beloved, the cantillations come unrolled.

PSALMS BOOK THREE PSALM 73

A Psalm of Asaph (2).
1 Indeed good to Israel is God
Who have a clean heart on the sod.
2 But my feet were almost tripped up
And my steps had well nigh slipped up.
3 For I envied the foolish ones
When I saw wicked on their buns.
4 Without constraints in life or death
Their strength is firm, they catch their breath.
5 They avoid human troubles too,
Catastrophe’s out of their view.
6 Their pride’s like a necklace of gold,
They wear violence like shoe’s soled.
7 Their eyes look up from a fat plate,
Desires of their heart never late.
8 They are corrupt, speak wickedly
Of oppression, and haughtily.
9 They set their words against the skies,
Their tongue licks up the earth in guise.
10 That’s why His people come back here,
For them full waters shall appear.
11 And they say “How does El God know?
Does the Most High some knowledge show?”
12 See these are the ungodly ones
Who prosper in the world by tons,
They increase in such wealth as stuns.
13 Truly, I’ve cleansed my heart in vain,
Innocently washed hands of stain.
14 For all the day long I’ve been plagued,
From every morning I’ve been egged.
15 If I say “I will speak so,” see
I’d offend Your children freely.
16 When I intended to know this
For me it was too painful kiss.
17 Until I entered holy tent
Of El, I understood what meant
Their end. 18 Surely You did set them
In slippery places’ stratagem,
You threw them down in their destruction.
19 How are they brought into abduction
In a moment, completely eaten
Up with terrifyings unbeaten.

I’ve heard it said by some they cannot come
To satisfy me with their tongue in sum
That must be kept so quietly between
Their teeth so I won’t rage upon their scene.
But I’ve the like impression in my greed:
No matter what I do with flower or weed,
It is not what the others want for feed,
And I am cast out of those who convene.
Beloved, I’ll let You in Your higher chair
Decide which of the beasts is good and fair
And which is set for Your destruction’s share.
Destroy me, if You will, and I shall rise
Ephemeral, a spark against the skies
And with my smoke bring water to Your eyes.

20 As a dream when one has awaked,
O Lord when You raise the unshaked,
You will despise their image raked.
21 And so my heart was sad and grieved
For the punch my kidneys received.
22 So foolish was I, ignorant,
I was before You beast to rant.
23 And yet I continue with You,
You hold me by my right hand true.
24 You guide me with Your counsel free,
And then receive me to glory.
25 Whom do I have in heaven but You?
None upon earth I wish but You.
26 Fail now both my flesh and my heart,
But Ælohim strengthens my part
Forever fills my store and cart.
27 For see, those who are far from You
Will perish, you’ve destroyed in crew
Those that go whoring far from You.
28 But it’s good for me to come near
To Ælohim, I set my gear
To trust in the Lord YHWH so I
May proclaim all Your acts on high.

The Psalmist here describes in great detail,
Detail that’s nearly gruesome in its gale,
The character of Abu Sofyan’s son
Muawiyah whose people came to run
The government Umayyad and increased
In wealth and power unheard of and released
Like plague upon the world of faith and woe.
The Psalmist here describes things long ago.
And yet the detail of his spelling breaks
Upon the coming reign and its mistakes
As though he saw before his eyes the time,
The place, the people and the raging climb.
The things that happened in Madina then
Were seen by Psalmist in prophetic ken.

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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