PSALM CHAPTER 74 - 86

PSALM 74

1 Maschil of Asaph (3).
Why, Ælohim, have You cast off
For ever? Does You anger scoff
Against Your meadow’s sheep like smoke?
2 Remember Your assembly’s yoke
Purchased from ancient time, the rod
Of Your inheritance on sod
That You’ve redeemed, this fortress mount,
Where You have sat to give account.
3 Lift up Your steps because constant
Desolation in all the rant
The foe has done in wickedness
In the holy place to confess.
4 Your enemies roar in the crowd
Of Your own, they set up aloud
Their names for worship unallowed.
5 Fame comes proportionate to be
As one lifts axe on goodly tree.
6 But now they break down the carved work
With hammer blows and hatchet jerk.
7 They’ve thrown fire in Your holy place,
Defiled Your dwelling by Your face
To the ground. 8 They said in their hearts,
“Let us destroy them for their parts,
They’ve burned up all the synagogues
Of El in the land, demagogues.
9 We do not see our signs, no more
Is any prophet, and the score
Of how long no one keeps in store.
10 How long, O Ælohim, shall foe
Reproach? Shall blaspheme Your name’s show?
11 Why withdraw Your hand, Your right hand?
Take it out of Your pocket manned!
12 And Ælohim’s my king of old,
Working salvation on earth bold.
13 You divided sea by Your strength,
You broke the heads of dragons’ length
In the waters. 14 You broke the heads
Of leviathan torn to shreds,
And gave his flesh for those to eat
Who lived beneath the desert heat.
15 You split the fountain and the flood,
You dried up mighty rivers’ blood.
16 The day is Yours and so’s the night,
You have prepared the sun and light.
17 You’ve set all the borders of earth,
You’ve made summer and winter’s worth.
18 Remember this, the enemy
Has reproached, O YHWH, and the scree
Of foolish folk blasphemed Your name.
19 Don’t give up the soul of Your own
Beloved into the crowd to stone,
Do not forget assembled poor
Forever waiting at Your door.
20 Have respect for the covenant,
The earth’s dark places are not scant
With dwelling place of cruelty.
21 Oh don’t let the oppressed return
Ashamed, let the poor come to learn
With the needy to praise Your name.
22 Get up, O Ælohim, and plead
You own cause, remember indeed
How the foolish man daily scorns
You with reproach of butting horns.
23 Do not forget the noise of foes
Against You, the tumult of those
That rise up against You, that grows.

The prophecy of prayer in Asaph’s word
In the third Psalm that bears his name and stirred
The heart of seventy-some in Karbela
Describes in detail down to broken straw
What happened on that day of infamy.
King David prays the cup might pass and be
Far from the faithful few who stand beside
Hussein and love the flag of peace they spied.
Beloved, I look back on the grave events
And see them all illumined like bright tents
Against the backdrop of the prophecy.
Beloved, I hear the cries that David heard
Long centuries before the thing occurred
And bow in pain with what I hear and see.

PSALM 75

1 To the chief Musician, Set to Al-tasheth (do not destroy), A Psalm or Song of Asaph (4).
We give thanks to You, Ælohim,
We do give thanks and so esteem
That Your name’s near as Your works share,
Wonderful things they do declare.
2 When I come at the proper time
I’ll judge righteously in the clime.
The earth and all its dwellers find
Themselves dissolved, I bear the kind
Pillars of it beneath the air.
4 I say to arrogant ones, “Do
Not act with foolishness,” and to
The wicked, “Do not flaunt you power.
5 “Don’t lift your horn up, do not speak
By a stiff neck and a neck sleek.”
6 Promotion’s neither from the east,
Nor from the west, nor is increased
From the south desert where faith ceased.
7 But Ælohim is judge: He’ll put
Down one, set another on foot.
8 For in YHWH’s hand there is a cup,
And the wine is red; it’s full up,
And He pours it out, but the dregs
Shall all the earth’s wicked in pegs
Wring out and drink them on last legs.
9 But I’ll declare for ever; I
Will sing praises and lift on high
To Jacob’s Ælohim come by.
10 All the horns of the wicked I
Will also cut off by and by,
But the power of the righteous shall
Be exalted in festival.

I think that Samuel’s mother came to make
The horn a point of prophecy at stake
Before any other woman or child
Or man who cantillates upon the wild.
It’s good to end the Psalm of praise that points
To Zaynul Abideen with warning joints
Against the wicked. He was one to see
The horrors and the terrors of the spree
At Karbela, and yet his life was spent
In bowing down in praise to You, he lent
His heart and tongue to nothing more than this.
He found no other king on earth to kiss.
Beloved, I join his Psalms of praise as I
Read David’s words etched golden on the sky.

PSALM 76 (ASAPH 5)

1 To the chief musician upon
Stringed instruments well tuned at dawn.
A psalm of Asaph and a song.
In Judah Ælohim’s known long,
His name is great in Israel.
2 In Salem also is the tell
Of His tent and His dwelling place
In the fortress. 3 And there to trace
He broke the arrows of the bow,
The shield and sword of battle show.
4 You are more glorious and swell
Than mountains of the prey to tell.
5 The stouthearted were plundered, they
Have sunk into their sleepy way,
And none of the mighty men found
The use of their hands on the round.
6 At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Both chariot and horse to wake up
Were cast into the depth of slumber
From first to last and all their number.
7 You Yourself are One to be feared,
And who may stand once he’s appeared
In Your presence when You are wroth?
8 You caused the judgement to be heard
From heaven, the earth feared and was stirred,
9 When Ælohim arose to judge,
To save on earth all oppressed drudge.
10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise
You, with the rest of wrath in days
You shall gird Yourself in Your ways.
11 Make vows to YHWH your God, and pay,
Let all who are around Him stay
To bring presents to Him who ought
To be feared in all things He’s taught.
12 He shall cut off spirit of princes,
Awesome on earth as each king winces.

Beloved, You clove in two the arrows that
The enemy would shoot at righteous hat,
And broke the universe in two to show
The judgement that was true from the word go.
In smaller measure those whom You have sent
To represent Your law and love in tent
Have split the cases open and found out
Justice in verdicts against lean and stout.
Beloved, the fifth Imam, the one who’s called
Al-Baqir also came to split the walled
And show that You are one in justice standing
Above both kings and presidents on landing.
I bring my gifts to that one hidden where
You pour our fragrances upon the air.

PSALM 77

1 To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph (6).
My voice to Ælohim I lift,
To El-Ælohim as a gift,
And He lent ear to my song’s drift.
2 In the day of my trouble I
Sought out the Lord, with hand up high,
Tears streaming in the night no cease,
My soul without comfort’s release.
3 Let me remember Ælohim
When trouble comes upon my dream,
And pour out my fervent complaint
Whenever my spirit would faint.
4 You keep my eyelids open while
I am in speechless trouble’s guile.
5 I’ve considered the days of old,
The years of ancient times once told.
6 I make remembrance of my song
In the night, I commune along
With my own heart, my spirit makes
Search diligent with all my might.

The dhikr or remembrance of Your name,
Beloved, is raised by David in the claim
Of Asaph’s sixth Psalm, one that brings to mind
The sixth holy Imam, a soul to find.
The sema’ that we know today goes back
To the law as confirmed without a lack
By Ja’fer al-Sadiq, and so I lay
The open book Buyruk before the ray
Of candlelight and as I stop to pray
In circle prayer I bless the by-gone day,
The Sabbath of both David and Imam,
The faint and future light I know of calm.
Beloved, I contemplate Your holy names
Throughout the blessed night of candle-flames.

7 For all time will the Lord cast off?
8 Is His mercy a mocking scoff?
Does promise fail with the day’s light?
9 Does El forget His graciousness?
Does His wrath close His mercy’s dress?
10 I said “This is my weakness nigh,
But years are in hand of Most High.”
11 I’ll remember all YHWH’s works bold,
Remember Your wonders of old.
12 I’ll murmur of all Your acts where
I speak of Your doings to share.
13 Ælohim, in the holy place
Is Your way, whose exalted trace
Is like unto Ælohim’s face?
14 You are the El of wonders done,
Declared Your strength on people won.

I take the sema’ on my tongue and seek
Remembrance of Your wonders week by week.
When I declare Your strength abroad, I hear
The echoes of Your miracles that cheer
The heart and mind, and raise spirits on high
To see Your passing now against the sky.
You way is in the holy place, I see,
The holy place of heavenly rooms’ degree,
The sacred temples of the silent wood,
The inner chamber of my heart where could
Fall melodies of Scriptures nodding where
The pages turn from parchment into fair
And fleeting woodland flowers. My soul, beware!
Beloved, flit out of hiding the bird’s share!

15 You have redeemed with Your strong arm
Your people, Jacob’s sons from harm,
And sons of Joseph from alarm.
16 The waters saw You, Ælohim,
The waters saw You in the stream
They were oppressed, deep troubled dream.
17 The clouds poured out water, the skies
Sent forth a rumble, arrows rise
Abroad from You. 18 The heavy sound
Of Your thunder in heaven around:
The lightning flashed upon the world;
The earth trembled and shook and twirled.
19 Your path is in the sea, Your way
In mighty waters, and the sway
Of Your footsteps an unknown ray.
20 You led Your people like a flock
By hand of Moses, Aaron’s stock.

Even the time of Ja’fer as Imam
Looks back to the Egyptian crowd with Psalm
To mind the day when Pharaoh met his end
Beneath the Red Sea waters where they blend
The sand and wheels of chariots with crew
To flounder in the floods, see how they do!
After twelve hundred years and more I flush
To think how often people in the blush
Of life have contemplated what it meant
To be redeemed from Egypt and be sent
Into the desert to ride on a day
Of trouble both before and after sway
Of Sinai. I look all around the mount
To see how many footprints I can count.

PSALM 78

1 A Maschil of Asaph (7).
Give ear, my folk, to my Torah,
And tune your ears to my mouth’s law.
2 My opening is my mouth’s rule
Revealing ancient things in school,
3 Which we have heard and which we know
From what our ancestors bestow.
4 We do not hide them from our sons,
But recite to generations,
The praises of YHWH and His acts
And wonders that His grace enacts:
5 Enactment set to Jacob and
Torah proclaimed to Israel’s band,
He ordered our ancestors to
Inform their children what is due.
6 So that the coming generations
And children yet unborn in nations
Might know and in their turn reveal
To their children the thing’s appeal,
7 That they should trust in Ælohim
And not forget Ælohim’s scheme,
And keep His commandments 8 and not
Be like their ancestors in plot,
Rebellious and stubborn in ways
With hearts unstable in their stays
Whose minds did not with firm decision
Keep faith in El’s spirit’s precision.

The first Moses brought Torah out to see
And through Your power set the people free
From Egypt to obey Your word and know
The brightness of Your spirit in the glow
Of desert and of Sinai and of cloud
That led them there to hear Your voice aloud.
The second Moses, one of prophecy,
The hope of humankind came on the go
To face the many and the ruling proud.
Beloved, I love above all at this time
Musa the seventh Imam in the rhyme
And round of twelve, and see how he fulfilled
The prophecy of one more Moses billed
Since Moses spoke the farewell sermon stilled.

9 The sons of Ephraim well fit
As archers both to shoot and hit
Turned back before the battle day.
10 They did not keep Ælohim’s way
To walk in His Torah’s law’s sway.
11 They forgot His high acts, His great
Wonders He made them see in state.
12 In their ancestors’ sight He did
A wonder in the land and bid
Of Egypt, in the Vale of Soan.
13 He split the sea where they had flown,
Brought them across and set the flood
In walls on both sides of the mud.
14 He led them with a cloud by day
And all the night they did not stray
Out of His fire’s glow on the way.

The cloud by day and fire by night once led
Your people from the desert and from dread.
Today I see the grey clouds gathered by
And covering the whole run of the sky,
So they can lead in every way to go
Or else no place at all as many show.
I cannot follow clouds or fires below
The stars that trek across the nightly woe.
Beloved, instead of cloud and fire I take
The loved Imam whom You sent for my sake
To be the seventh in a line of twelve
And show the best of Sabbaths not to delve.
I walk between the towered walls of sea
And know Your guidance still will cover me.

15 He split the desert boulders too
And watered them from the depths’ dew.
16 He let the streams spurt from the rock
And brought from it fresh water’s stock.
17 And yet they sinned against Him there
In desert rebelled from the fair
Most High. 18 They troubled Ælohim
To beg themselves bread from the stream.
19 They spoke against Ælohim, saying
“Can El deck out a table set
And food in the desert to get?
20 “He struck the rock and it was paying
Out water in flood and streams staying,
But can He also give us bread
And meat to His own people led?”

The son of Umar used to scorn the way
Of Musa al-Kadhim in what he’d say.
The people said he ought to die since he
Was so free with his words of enmity.
But Musa went to meet him in the field
And heard him curse his feet that spoiled the yield
Of all he planted. Musa took his purse
And gave him sum of planting and not worse
The price of what he hoped to gain in stall.
The son of Umar changed his mind to call
Musa the sent of God, and so You blessed
With food and gain and did not try to wrest
The life out from the wicked. I love best
The changing of the evil at the wall.

21 So YHWH heard it and rose in wrath
And fire appeared in Jacob’s path
And also anger on the way
Of Israel, 22 for they did betray
Their trust in Ælohim, and they
Did not rely on His help’s sway.
23 He gave the clouds above command,
The doors of heaven He opened grand,
24 And brought rain on them for to eat
Manna, the sky’s grain for a treat.
25 The bread of angels mere men fed,
He sent them meat to fill them led.
26 He sent the east wind from the sky
Brought by His power the south wind dry.
27 He rained down on them like the dust
Flesh, and like the seas’ sand the lust
Of wingèd birds. 28 He dropped them down
Right in the middle of their town.

In wrath, Beloved, You meet the common bill,
And sometimes I wish You would come to fill
The earth with violence and come to kill
Those who do mischief on the earth and will.
Instead You send Your Musa with his wares
Of flour and dates and money behind stares
And incognito to the poor that throng
Behind the doors of fair Medina’s song.
Beloved, I love the sending of the feast
From heaven to those who have of goods the least.
It is a better war than violence
Falling upon the broken hand and fence.
Send what You will, Beloved, and I shall give
Thanks for the gifts You bring that I may live.

29 They stuffed themselves up to the brim
With what He gave them at their whim.
30 Their lusts were unrequited yet
And the food in their mouths still set,
31 When Ælohim’s wrath came and met
Them, and He slew them in their power,
And cast down Israel’s youth that hour.
32 For all this they still sinned a lot,
And did not trust in what He’d wrought.
33 So ended in a mist their days,
Their resting place in worried maze.
34 Upon His slaying them they sought,
Returned repenting to El’s plot.
35 And they remembered Ælohim
To be their rock of high esteem,
And El ‘Elyon great to redeem.

Beloved, the slaying of the wicked brings
But little help repenting at the springs.
If tender loving care come from Your hand
Does not call for the gratitude to stand,
The plague will not call for the loving heart
To do the right and fulfil the good part.
Repentance was a brief thing on the day
When Moses caused the people in the way
To flee before the Pharaoh’s army and
To come before the mountain once to stand.
The golden gods they left in that far land
Were smuggled in their heart and mind to make
Renewal and a resurrection’s stake.
I seek the firm rock of faith in Your wake.

36 They flattered Him with their mouth and
With their tongue they seduced His hand.
37 But their heart was not true with Him
Nor faithful to covenant trim.
38 But Huu Rahum, He’s merciful,
He covers sins and does not pull
Destruction, but many times He
Smothers His anger and the spree
Of His wrath covers faithfully.
39 And He remembers they are flesh,
A moving wind not come afresh.
40 How often they were snooty in
The wilderness against His bin,
Brought sorrow to His mind by sin
In the desert of howling din.
41 Then they returned to trouble El,
Blight Holy One of Israel.

This mind of mercy that You show to all,
Beloved, is something that You gave in stall
To Musa al-Kadhim and made him tall.
He too knew how the evil heart would spend
Itself against him in the fateful end,
And yet he gave the evil hand the sum
That was indebted by its failing rum.
You buy my heart too, my Beloved, as I
Look out with empty hand upon Your sky.
I follow sweet Musa with famous purse
And see him handing out the gold for worse
And better, never thinking who might take
The pence from him and use it for the sake
Of evil. I beware blessing and curse.

42 They did not remember His hand
Delivering from enemy’s land,
43 From Egypt when He showed His signs,
His wonders wrought from Soan’s inclines.
44 He changed their river into blood
They could not drink because of crud.
45 He sent on them flies to devour them,
And river frogs come out to scour them.
46 He gave to locusts all their fields,
To grasshoppers their labour’s yields.
47 He tore with hail their vineyards bare,
Their fig trees destroyed by storm’s share.
48 He gave their cattle to the hail,
Their flocks to thunderbolts’ prevail.
49 He cast on them His anger’s fire,
His wrath and indignation’s ire,
Evil angels upon the pyre.

Beloved, the miracles that You spread out
Upon Egypt that day I hold in doubt
Were caused by some volcano with a snout.
Should I consider only Your hand’s sway?
Instead I care not for the wide expanse
Of success in the wicked tent and dance,
Nor for the way the righteous learn to beg
Because they have not bread to eat nor keg.
I hold, Beloved, fast to the law You gave
Through Moses and through Musa, both Your slave,
And let my hand do nothing but the right
That they reveal in word and action bright.
There is reward perhaps, but if there’s none,
I’ll take my comfort in what Musa’s done.

50 He prepared His way in His wrath
And spared not their soul from the path
Of death, but gave over their life
To pestilence as well as strife.
51 He struck down all Egypt’s firstborn,
The height of strength in Ham’s tents shorn.
52 But His own folk brought out like sheep,
Flock guided in the desert keep.
53 And He led them on safely, so
That they did not fear where to go,
While seas fell drowning every foe.
54 He brought them to the very edge
Of His holy place, to the ledge
Of this mountain that His right hand
Had purchased there upon the land.
55 He drove out the heathen before
Them also and divided store
By line of lot and made the tribes
Of Israel dwell in their tents’ vibes.

Musa himself came to the reign because
You had struck down the first-born with his claws
Caught in the wine and in the drunken brawl.
And yet who knows what secret’s in the wall.
If Ibrahim was dead, the first-born son,
It follows that Musa under the sun
Is left to meet the plague and then to run.
Both are within Your will, Beloved, and I
Love every son of righteousness on sly,
The ones brought forth by Ja’far, every guy
Whose father is the righteous when he’s done.
The one is hidden and the other waits
In sweetness and in mercy at the gates,
I turn from one to other as elates.

56 Still they tried and provoked the most
High Ælohim, and without boast
Did not keep His witnesses’ coast.
57 Instead they turned back and in act
Unfaithful like ancestors whacked,
They swerved aside like crooked bow.
58 For they provoked Him to great ire
With their high places set on fire,
And they moved Him to jealousy
With their graven images’ plea.
Ælohim heard and was incensed
And left Israel greatly unfenced.
60 So He forsook Shiloh’s abode,
The tent He’d placed on human load.
61 He gave His strength to captives’ fate,
His glory to enemy’s plate.
62 He gave His folk unto the sword,
Was angry with His plot unshored.
63 The fire consumed their young men; and
Their maidens were not given in hand.
64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their
Widows made no lament to share.

The truth is simply that which Moses preaches,
There is no safety and no peace that reaches
Down to the human way until the law
Of ten is learnt and kept by every claw.
The violence must fall on good and ill,
On those upon the plain and on the hill,
Until a kingdom and society
Arise once that will set the evil free,
And keep the ten commandments without pale
Or threat of punishment beneath the veil.
It is a simpler thing than playing ball,
With fewer rules and easier in stall,
And yet the church would sabotage the weal
By claiming it’s impossible to heal.

65 The Lord arose as out of sleep,
And like a mighty man to sweep
As in the noise of wine to weep.
66 He attacked His foes from the back,
Made them eternal laughing stack.
67 Moreover he refused the tent
Of Joseph, and He was not bent
To favour tribe of Ephraim.
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, mount
Zion which he loved above count.
69 And He built His holy place high
Like the earth established for aye.
70 He chose David His servant too,
And took him from the sheepfolds’ view,
71 From following the pregnant ewe,
He brought him to feed Jacob’s folk
His people Israel, His lot’s yoke.
72 So He fed them according to
His heart’s integrity and true,
And guided them, by His hands drew.

As You, Beloved, turned from Saul on a day
And chose King David to reveal Your way,
So You turned from Ismail and took in pay
Fair Musa for his kindness and the ray
Of sweetness in his heart and in his sway.
And yet the northern kingdom hidden by
Knew righteousness at times beneath the cry
Of vain idolatry. So Ismail’s try
Also peeks from the secret hill to show
A flicker and a glimmer and a glow
Of right that You called forth from times gone past
And sent upon the earth to live and last.
The sevens and the twelves are called to stay,
Though sevens both failed expectation’s lay.

PSALM 79

1 A Psalm of Asaph (8).
Ælohim, the heathen have come
Into Your inheritance sum,
Your holy temple they’ve defiled,
Holy Jerusalem they’ve spoiled.
2 Dead bodies of Your servants they
Have given to feed the birds by day,
The flesh of Your holy ones to
The wild beast of the earth as due.
3 They’ve shed their blood like water round
About Jerusalem’s dry ground,
And left none to bury the dead.
4 We’re left a laughing stock to those
Around us, scorn, derision flows
From all our neighbours on their toes.
5 How long, YHWH, will Your anger last?
For ever will arise the blast
Of jealousy from You aghast?
6 Pour out Your anger on the yoke
Of heathen who’ve not known Your stroke,
And on the kingdoms that have not
Called on Your name in garden plot.
7 For they have consumed Jacob’s lot,
And spoiled his place in every spot.

The transfer of the power from Umayyad
To Abbasid might seem at first a glad
Change in the course of trends, but in the end
Abbasid double-crossed the divine friend
More subtly and with greater abuse than
Yazid in wicked tantrum with his clan.
Yet in Jerusalem the wicked stain
Is not the perpetration of the vain
Abbasid rulers, but the crusades come
To shed blood both of Jew and Muslim rum.
How long will anger last? I come to say
After the fact two centuries of sway
Until bright Saladdin came in to pay
Respects to You, Beloved, and the right way.

8 Do not remember us because
Of former wickedness in laws,
But let Your tender mercies rise
Quickly before us, for our eyes
Are brought down to the earth in guise.
9 Help, Ælohim of our salvation,
For the glory of Your name’s station,
And save us and purge out our sins,
For Your name’s sake where it begins.
10 Why should the heathen cantillate,
“Where is their Ælohim in wait?”
Let Him be known among the folk
Of heathendom and by the stroke
Of vengeance in our sight for blood
Of Your servants struck down in mud.
11 Let sighing of the captive rise
Before You, by the power and size
Of Your greatness save those condemned
To death where they have been enhemmed.
12 Revenge to our neighbours in all
Seven times more into their hall
For their reproach, since their reproach
Is of You, O Lord, to encroach.
13 Then we Your people and the sheep
Of Your pasture will give and keep
Thanks to You for ever and show
Your praise in generations’ flow.

The prayer of David, Asaph and the one
Sent as the eighth Imam is in praise done,
Though crying under every trial that makes
The faithful suffer under despots’ stakes.
The prayer of these is that You should not mind
The wicked past in action uncombined
With faith, but judge Your folk according to
The greatness of Your grace and mercy’s view.
Indeed, Beloved, I bend to take Your grace
And mercy from the soil I see in trace,
The autumn violet, the single bloom
That blossoms against hope and fear of doom.
Even in centuries laid in the dust
Of empires, You are One whom I can trust.

PSALM 80

1 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannimeduth, A Psalm of Asaph (9).
Give ear, O Israel’s Shepherd, You
Who lead Joseph in flock and dew,
Who dwell between the cherubim,
Shine forth in brightness and in vim.
2 Before the face of Ephraim,
Before the face of Benjamin
And Manasseh stir up Your din
Of strength and come deliver us.
3 O Ælohim, turn back to us,
And make Your face to shine on us,
And we shall be saved from the fuss.
4 YHWH Ælohim of hosts, how long
Will You be angry with the throng
Of Your folk who prays all day long?
5 You feed them with the bread of tears,
You give them tears to drink for cheers.
6 You make us strife in neighbours’ eyes,
Our foes laugh to themselves, despise.
7 Turn back to us, O Ælohim
Of hosts, and make Your face to beam,
And we shall be saved as You deem.

The jealousy of Benjamin revolves
Around the golden calves and then resolves
In the Shekinah where its blessing sits
Between the cherubim and so befits.
The bread and drink of tears is nothing new,
They fall upon the faithful and the few
In waves of punishment or with the dew
That rises as a sign on fleece for dew.
Beloved, the prayer of David and the one
Who was born of the eighth when he was done
Is that You might return and show Your face
In its salvation, mercy and in grace.
The round goes on, the prayer though perfectly
Recited and answered eternally.

8 You’ve brought a vine from Egypt’s land,
Cast out of it the heathen band,
And planted it upon the sand.
9 You readied the way before it,
And made it take deep root as fit,
And it filled up the land to sit.
10 The hills were covered with its shade,
Its boughs like goodly cedars made.
11 She sent her boughs out to the sea,
Her branches to the river’s lee.
12 Why have You broken down her hedge,
So all that pass by on the ledge
Break off boughs and branches and sedge?
13 The sylvan boar comes in to spoil,
The wild beast of the field in toil
Devours it leaf and root and soil.
14 Return, we pray You, Ælohim
Of hosts, look down from heaven’s beam
And see and visit this vine’s dream,
15 The vineyard Your right hand has made
Planted and the branch that has stayed
Strong for Yourself. 16 It’s burnt with fire,
It is cut down and on the pyre
They perish at Your face’s ire.
17 Let Your hand be upon the man
Of Your right hand, upon the span
Of the man’s son You have made strong.
18 So we will not go back along
From You, invigorate our song,
And we will call upon Your name.
19 YHWH Ælohim of hosts, turn back,
Make Your face shine upon our slack
And we shall be saved in the track.

The riddles were set from the marriage place
Of Samson years before the come in trace
Of the man and the man’s son in this word
Revealed by David and Asaph averred.
Taqi is made the bridegroom of the king
And set to answer riddles on the wing,
Atonement for the slaughter on the site
Of holiness, and marriage laws of right.
Beloved, another riddle I bestow
Upon the leader for the weal or woe,
Who is the plant brought up from Egypt’s way
To spread upon the sand and shade from day?
If Benjamin and Judah will bear sway,
I know the blessèd path that I should go.

PSALM 81

1 To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph (10).
Sing loud to Ælohim our strength:
Make joyful sound at last, at length
To Ælohim of Jacob’s strength.
2 Take a psalm and bring here hand-drum,
The pleasant harp, the psaltery’s hum.
3 Blow the trumpet the month’s first day,
On the appointed holy day.
4 For this is Israel’s statute kept,
Ælohim of Jacob’s law swept.
5 He ordained in Joseph witness,
When He went through Egypt’s address,
I heard a tongue I could not guess.
6 I removed his back from the load,
His hands saved from the pots in goad.
7 You cried in trouble and I came
To save you from the burning flame,
I answered You from secret place
Of thunder, I proved You in trace
At waters of Meribah’s grace.
8 Hear, O my people, I’ll bear word
Of testimony that you heard,
O Israel, if you’ll obey me,
9 There shall be no strange god in fee,
Neither shall you bow down to see
Any strange god eternally.
10 I am YHWH your Ælohim who
Brought you out of Egyptian crew,
Open Your mouth, I’ll fill it too.
11 My folk would not obey My voice,
Israel would not make Me her choice.
12 So I gave them to their hearts’ lust,
They walked in their own counsels’ dust.
13 Oh that My folk had obeyed Me,
Israel had walked accordingly!
14 I should soon have subdued their foes,
And turned My hand against their rows.
15 The haters of YHWH should have bowed
Themselves to Him, they’d been allowed
To endure for eternity.
16 He would have fed them on the spree
With finest of the wheat and by
The honey from the rock then I
Would have satisfied you hungry.

The wheat and honey might have been their fare
If Israel had been obeying there
In desert and in promised land and air.
Instead they turned away to other gods
And worshipped at the altar of dumb pods.
They had endured throughout eternity,
Had they maintained You only without wee
Gods and their idols fallen on the spree.
Beloved, give the boils sheep’s fat intersticed
With purest rose water on the surpliced
And see how quickly health and room increase
Until all wickedness fails from the lease!
The punishments of centuries remain
And yet You honour hope with its own gain.

PSALM 82

1 A Psalm of Asaph (11).
Ælohim stands in assembly
Gathered from among the mighty,
He judges the exalted ones.
2 How long will you judge unjustly
According to fame’s wicked buns?
3 Defend the poor and fatherless,
Do justice to needy’s address
And the afflicted help redress.
4 Save the poor and the needy and
Take them out of the wicked hand.
5 They do not know nor understand,
They progress in darkness and all
The earth’s foundations lie in sprawl.
6 I’ve said You are exalted ones,
And all of you children by tons
Of the Most High, daughters and sons.
7 But you shall die like men, and fall
Each like one of the princes’ call.
8 Arise, O Ælohim and judge
The earth, for You shall have the fudge
Of all the nations for Your own.

The Psalmist says that all are Your own sons,
The tribes of Israel set out in tons.
Al-Askeri, eleventh in the line,
Maintains the same word as he’s doing fine
To say “We all indeed belong to God,
And to Him we return upon the sod.”
And so the prophecy bears record still
That the twelve sent of God are on the hill.
Beloved, I give my hand to You as set
Up Father to the universe and met
By every man created as a son
Who ought to obey Father when he’s done.
I am content with that and come to die
To self and life itself under the sky.

PSALM 83

1 A Song or Psalm of Asaph (12).
Ælohim, do not be in peace,
Do not keep still, do not increase
Your silence, O El of release.
2 See here, Your foes come made a noise,
And those who hate You lift like boys
Their heads against You and their toys.
3 They’ve taken evil counsel there
Against Your people everywhere
Consulting against those that You
Have hidden once away from view.
4 They’ve said “Come, let us cut them off
From being a nation to scoff,
That Israel’s name may be no more
Held up in her remembrance’ store.
5 For they’ve agreed with one consent,
They’re united against Your tent.
6 The tents of Edom, Ishmaelites,
Of Moab and the Hagarites,
7 Gebal, and Ammon, Amalek,
The Philistines as well as trek
Of Tyre’s inhabitants a speck.
8 Assur also has joined with them,
They’ve helped Lot’s children on the hem.
9 Do to them as the Midianites,
As to Sisera in the fights,
As to Jabin at brook Kison,
10 Who failed at Endor in the dawn.
They became as dung for earth’s pawn.
11 And make their nobles like Oreb,
And make them also like Zeeb,
Yes, all their princes as Zebah,
And make them all as Zalmunna,
12 Who said “Let’s take now to ourselves
Possession of Ælohim’s shelves.”
13 O my Ælohim, make them like
A wheel, and make them as the spike
Of stubble before wind to strike.
14 As the fire burns the forest through,
And as the flame sets hills in view
On fire, 15 So rage on them with Your
Tempest and trouble them with store
Of Your storm waking at the door.
16 Fill their faces with shame, so they
May seek Your name, O YHWH, each day.
17 Let them be ashamed and in fear
For ever, indeed let appear
To them shame, let them perish near.
18 Then all shall know that You whose name
Alone is YHWH are in great fame
High over all the earth’s acclaim.

This curse is laid out carefully to set
The sons of Abraham to rise and fret,
And only Israel remains to be
The holy, chosen seed under the tree.
Let not the sons of Abraham be left
In shame, Beloved, no matter what’s been cleft
In Psalm and prayer beside the temple gate.
Bring all of them back to Your face and wait
To gather all into the kingdom’s share.
Turn over this curse and David’s whole prayer
For Asaph on the mount. I live to learn
That life is long enough for those who burn.
If we’ve invented hell at last, it’s time
To let heaven have a day of prose and rhyme.

PSALM 84

1 To the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of the sons of Korah (9).
How lovely is Your tent, O YHWH
Of armies! 2 My soul longs for You,
Faints even for the courts of YHWH,
My heart and my flesh cry out for
Ælohim the Living in store.
3 Even the sparrow has a home,
The swallow her nest not to roam,
Where she may lay her young, indeed
Your altars, O YHWH of hosts greed,
My King and my God in my need.

Beloved, the third step in the path of twelve
Speaks to the one who does desire to delve
Into the hidden mysteries of light.
Here find a secret song of right and might.
The third Imam, though weary with the path
Through field and desert, did not know the wrath
Of Yazid was upon him, yet he found
The home to which his faltered steps were bound.
The darting swallows at the riverside
Could not bring water where the dears abide.
In sacrifice he lifted up his son
And wept to see what battle had been won.
Pierce my heart and my eyes with arrows sharp
With sacrificial love and voice of harp.

4 Blessed are those who live in Your house,
They’ll praise You still, body and nous.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength’s in You,
Whose heart is set on pilgrimage
To Your house ever age to age,
6 Valley of Baca [Mecca] they pass through,
Making of it a spring, the rain
Covers also its pools again.

The pilgrimage calls on the desert air,
And wafts its notes seductive to come there
On wing or weary foot and find the spring
That hid from Ishmael’s eyes until the thing
Was spoken by the angel. Guide me too
By Baca’s parched and hidden ways till dew
Cools hand and brow, till staggered foot finds rest
Upon the Kaaba of Your heart, a nest.
Beloved, bring me the tender valley road
Where on the sands both saints and camels strode,
And I shall make a well beyond the fears
Of Ishmael’s disappointment and his tears,
And know that even Mecca has its rains
And through its drought and through its thirst remains.

7 They go from strength to strength, each one
El Ælohim’s in Zion done.
8 O YHWH Ælohim of hosts, hear
My prayer, God of Jacob, give ear.
9 Behold, O Ælohim, our shield,
Regard Your Messiah’s face sealed.
10 For good’s a day within Your courts,
Better than thousands in resorts.
My place is to keep the shoes safe
In my Ælohim’s house like waif,
Rather than dwelling in the tents
Of wickedness and without sense.
11 A sun and shield’s YHWH Ælohim,
YHWH will give grace, glory esteem,
No good thing will He dare withhold
From those who walk upright and bold.
12 O YHWH of hosts, happinesses
Of Adam are that his trust is
In You, and his confidences.

The qalendar sits at the mosque door where
The worshippers come in, and coming bear
Their shoes to wait them while they stay in prayer.
The qalendar sits where I’d like to be,
Always beside Your door, and if You see
Me sitting there, call me inside to pray,
Or if I am not worthy of that bay,
Then let me wait content beside the door.
Beloved, I set the sandals in their store
And match them with a face. The job’s not light
Remembering the faces night to night.
Though I for memory of faces gone
Am weak, especially toward the dawn,
I thank You for the woollen shirt I’ve on.

PSALM 85

1 To the chief musician, a Psalm
For the sons of Korah (10) in balm.
You have blessed, YHWH, Your land indeed,
Brought back Jacob’s captives in seed.
2 You’ve released the sins of Your folk,
Covered their wickedness in stroke.
3 You’ve taken away all Your wrath,
Turned from Your anger’s fierceness’ path.
4 Turn us, O Ælohim of our
Salvation, and make fall the tower
Of Your anger toward us sour.
5 Will You be angry with us aye?
Will You extend your wrathful eye
To many generations’ spy?
6 Will You not once again revive
Us, so Your folk may joy alive
In You as long as they survive?
7 Show us, O Lord, Your mercy and
Grant us Your salvation to stand.
8 I’ll hear what speaks El YHWH, for He
Will declare Islam to His free
Folk and His holy ones, but let
Them not turn back to folly yet.
9 Surely His salvation is near
To them that live within His fear,
That glory may stay in our land.
10 Mercy and truth have given hand,
Righteousness and Islam have kissed.
11 Truth shall spring from the earth of mist,
And righteousness look down from heaven.
12 Also YHWH shall give good from leaven,
And our land yield increase undim.
13 Al-Sadiq shall go before him,
And shall set in ways of His trim.

The sixth Imam, Ja’fer Al-Sadiq went
Before all those that came after him sent
With truth and mercy in establishment
Of law defined and refined by the way
Of sema’ punctuating night and day.
Beloved, You do declare the way of peace
To Your folk, both the leaders on increase
And every lowly one, ones such as I
Who merely keep the shoes of those gone by
To pray upon the floor of temple set
Between the earth and sky, the dry and wet.
Beloved, You give the good to some and all,
You cause the tender soil on earthly ball
To bring forth meat and drink and fill the stall.

PSALM 86

1 A prayer of David. Bow down ear,
O YHWH, to me, listen and hear,
For I am poor and needy here.
2 Preserve my soul, for I am holy,
Save Your servant, for I am lowly,
You are my Ælohim for I
Trust in You now and by and by.
3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
For unto You I cry adored
All the day long in my accord.
4 Give joy to Your servant’s soul, for
To You, O Lord, I lift in store
My soul, rejoicing as before.
5 For You, O Lord, are good and kind,
Full of mercy front and behind
To all who call on You in bind.
6 Give ear, O YHWH, unto my prayer,
Attend to the sound everywhere
Of my petitions on the air.
7 In the day of my trouble I
Will call on You, for You are nigh
To answer me the day I cry.
8 There’s none like You among the high,
O Lord, none with such deeds as try.
9 All nations You’ve made come adore
Before You, O Lord, in their score
They glorify Your name in store.
10 For You are great, and wondrous things
You do, You alone among kings
Are Ælohim as the sky sings.

For You are great, O my Beloved, and do
Most wondrous things. The only God is You!
The clatter of the armies would suffice
It seems to set a rival god in vice.
The one is god who has the loudest voice,
And better rockets amplify the choice.
But You belie the competition in
The wondrous things You do to hide their sin.
The moment of destruction is held fast
As silently the earth becomes new-grassed.
And after all the building and the gore,
Your hand unseen creates it as before.
For You are great in tiny things and green,
In what You do and what You say and mean.

11 Teach me Your way, O YHWH, I’ll walk
In Your truth, knit my heart in stock
To fear Your name and not just talk.
12 I’ll praise You, O Lord and my God,
With all my heart, and at Your prod
I’ll glorify Your name for ever.
13 For Your great mercy will not sever
From me, and You have saved my soul
From lowest hell and from Sheol.
14 O Ælohim, the proud arise
Against me, and the crowds despise
My soul in seeking violence,
They have not stood in Your presence.
15 You’re a Lord El compassionate,
And merciful, patient, in state
Of much mercy and filled with truth.
16 O turn to me, pity my youth,
Give Your strength to Your servant here,
Save Your maidservant’s son and dear.
17 Show me a sign for good; that they
Which hate me may see it, and sway
In shame, because You, YHWH, will aid
Me and comfort me when I’ve strayed.

Beloved, what sign can You show that the ones
Who do the wicked act, the deed that stuns,
Would recognize as proof of intervention
Of Your strong arm even in some prevention?
The truth is no such sign at all exists.
No matter what You do, the mind insists
On turmoil and on static myth and foil.
The human situation’s one of toil.
Beloved, I need no sign at all where I
Tread on the needled path under the sky
Where fir trees pierce the mist and so create
A temple great enough for Your estate.
Beloved, I need no sign at all to go
Toward the shine of You and Your throne’s glow.

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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