PSALM CHAPTER 42 - 52

PSALMS BOOKS TWO TO FIVE

The Psalms are divided into five books. It is thought that this reflects the division of the Torah into five books as well. Indeed, the five books of the Torah, arbitrary as they are in representing divisions largely resulting from the limitations of scroll formatting, can be seen to represent the five roots of faith that can be logically established: the oneness of God, God’s impartiality, God’s revelation through prophets, divine guidance, and human responsibility to give account. The subject matter of the five books of Psalms does not lend itself to such a summary.

Rather, there are other motives for the division of the Psalms. First of all, we should see at least three levels in the compilation. The first level is the original intention of the author of the Psalm. The second level is the intention of the compiler in the Psalm’s inclusion in a liturgical cycle or compilation of liturgical texts. The third level is the intention of the final gathering of such collections into one book.

The first level of intention is revealed by several indicators. These may be the Psalm headings that authors or early editors have attached to the Psalms, although such headings also seem to include rubrics for the recitation of the Psalms. The content of the Psalms also gives an indication of the original intention, and this has been the focus of Psalm studies among traditional scholars.

The intention of compilers has been neglected by scholars. The five books of Psalms may indicate a second level, that of the earliest compilations. The compilers’ intentions may differ greatly from those of the original author of each Psalm. The first book of Psalms appears to have been intended to include a symbolically significant number of Psalms, specifically 40. It appears that Psalms 9 and 10 were split in the Masoretic text in order to make 40. Possibly Psalm One was added in the final compilation of 150 Psalms, making 41 Psalms in the first book and disguising the intention of the original compiler.

The intention of the second book of Psalms is less clear. The compiler may have desired to create a collection again with a symbolic number, 70, including books one and two. This is no longer readily visible in the final collection, not only because of the addition of a Psalm to book one, but because of another split Psalm, numbers 42 and 43, which are also clearly one Psalm. It is interesting that the later editor split Psalms which can be immediately recognized as belonging to one another. Psalms 9 and 10 for an acrostic and Psalms 42 and 43 are structurally a coherent whole with a common, repeated refrain.

It is impossible to suggest the purpose of the first two compilations. The last book is clearly in the sequence of the annual festivals. The first two books may relate to the two daily sacrificial events in the second temple.

The third book of Psalms does not show a concern with symbolic numbers. It may have been a collection of hymns compiled for use on the first day of the month. It must be remember that the original intention of each Psalm is not always taken into account by the compiler. There are two reasons for thinking the third book is for the first day of the month. The first reason is that the fifth book clearly follows the sequence of annual feasts. It is reasonable therefore to suggest by analogy that books three and four correspond to the first of the month and the Sabbath, thus providing a collection for each of the daily, monthly and annual festivals. If that is plausible, then the mention of the Sabbath in Psalm 92 would identify this as the Sabbath collection, and the mention of the new moon in the third book tentatively identifies it as for that purpose.

The fifth book is clearly a collection of compilations in view of the annual feasts. The first section refers to the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread and includes the Great Halel, a sequence recognized in Jewish tradition as appropriate to the annual feasts. The section is Psalms 107-118. Psalm 119 relates to the feast of weeks. Psalms 120-134 are identified in the titles as Psalms of pilgrimage. As such they represent a year-end pilgrimage event (thinking in terns of the year beginning in autumn) that is no longer known in Jewish tradition but is traceable in the Torah (Deuteronomy 12). Psalms 135-144 are not so clearly marked as the pilgrimage Psalms, but lie between them and the Psalms of praise that thematically fit the feast of tabernacles or Succoth. Psalms 135-144 are thus in a structural slot to suggest that they are appropriate to the feast of trumpets and the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. Psalms 146-150 are identified as Psalms of praise, certainly appropriate to Succoth.

The gathering of the five collections into one finally represents the third level, that of imitating the Torah sections. As such, the intention of the earlier compilations has been neglected and subsumed. It is doubtful that the intentions of either the original authors or the compilers of the earlier collections was taken into account in the second temple. However, the problem arises, in that case, in identifying any period when this sequence of annual festivals actually took place. Some of the Psalms are post-exilic, so that they could not have been included in the earlier compilations upon which the 150 is based.

Christians have long found prophetic references to Jesus the Messiah in the Psalms. Parallels between the wording of some Psalms and events in the Gospels are already noted in the Gospels themselves. No less evident, in fact more so, is the way that the Psalms can be related prophetically to the rise and development of Islam. The central text of Psalm 106:24 identifies the name Muhammad as a point of contention far more clearly than anything in regard to Jesus. Beyond that, sequences of twelve are often applicable to the sequence of the twelve Imams, especially the third and the fourth slots relating to the martyrdom of Hussein (as) and the characteristic of praise on the part of Zeynul Abideen (as). The sixth slot is also important in a number of cases. Finally, the twelve Psalms for the sons of Korah and the twelve Psalms of Asaph contain striking parallels to the lives of the corresponding twelve Imams. If one accepts the principle of prophecy in the sense of predicting future events and individuals, one can hardly expect the ambiguous references to Jesus to be valid and at the same time disregard references to the twelve Imams which are certainly equally clear and relevant. The reference to Muhammad is so much stronger than any reference to Jesus that the only way to escape its intent is to deny prophecy altogether.

PSALMS BOOK TWO PSALM 42

1 To the Chief Musician a law,
Meditate the sons of Korah (1).
Twelve psalms are written on the way
Of the sons of beloved Korah
And in their number and their sway
Bring to mind in a prophecy
The number of imams in fee
Who rose after the prophet’s time
To bear the world in act and rhyme.

This first of the maskil, of meditations
Of Korah’s sons set out in their elations
Addressed to the chief of the song and whirling
Before the ark of covenant uncurling
Uprises in my heart to cantillate
Your name, Beloved, because Your name is great.
When David set aside apportioning
Of service to the realm and ancient king,
In prophecy of action he proclaimed
That temple of praise should not fail once aimed.
I join the sacred words of the Zabur
Set out in quiet lays and for the poor
Remembering that once the world was set
With a divine appointment seen and met.

2 As the deer pants for water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
The hidden leader of all men
Lies sometimes in the desert glen
Without the springs of water known
To those who never wander, groan.
I ask the dear Lord God above
To look down on that man in love
And lead him to a springing well
As He did once when Ishmael
Waited beneath the sprig to hear
The tinkling of Zamzam on ear.

I’ve never seen the deer pant for the brook,
But only stand among the trees and look.
I’ve never seen the beast in fright take flight
With tongue laid out and heaving sides in sight.
But I can see in mind’s eye that the cool
Of water would attract the deer in school,
And bring the shy ones from the glade to find
Refreshment in the water and the kind.
Beloved, my cervine soul pants for the fresh,
Delightful waters that no feet enmesh,
But flow from fountains of Kauthar to make
The green bowls filled that holy imams take.
My soul pants for You more than food and drink
And so I bend my neck toward the brink.

3 My soul thirsts for Ælohim, looks
For the living God. When shall I
Come and appear before God’s eye?

Beloved, when shall I appear before You?
The days are filled with rainbows and the hue
Of life and breath above the aspen thicket
Beyond the slough, beyond the open wicket,
But I see not the divine face, though it
Reflects in everything created fit.
Beloved, when shall I appear before sight
Of Your throne set above the world of might
To hear aloud the voice I hear now in
The stillness of my heart beyond the din
Of worship and of praise, to see the view
Of Your divine face from the right and true?
Beloved, I come in quietness and by
The inner vision beneath leaden sky.

4 My tears have been my food by day
And night, while other ones still say
To me, “Where is your God, I pray?”

Who reads the Torah law, commandments met
At Sinai for the folk that You once let
Hear Your voice loud and clear, who reads the choice
Must eat his tears as often as rejoice.
As day and night I read the sacred Word
Of Decalogue I still am not deterred
From sorrow and from tears, and still recall
The plague of human stance against the wall
That would deny to me the right and love
That You bestow on others in the shove.
Beloved, though I am dervish dog unmeet
To lick the common dust from off Your feet,
I taste the tears of longing that I may
Receive You in the temple of my day.

5 When I remember these things, I
Pour out my soul within me. I
Used to go with the multitude,
I went with them in joyful mood
Up to the house of Ælohim,
With the voice of joy and I deem
With praise, and with a multitude
That kept a pilgrim feast of food.

I went with multitudes around the stone
Of Kaaba whereupon sits the great throne
Reflecting from the sky Your arsh above,
I went with multitudes to find Your love.
I poured out my soul as my steps went round
And heard the murmuring of voices sound
In supplications in all nations’ tongues.
I climbed alone the sacred temple rungs.
With voice of joy and praise the Mekkah dawn
Grew bright upon me as well as upon
Those gathered in Your name, the Mahdi too
Invisibly walked within ken and view.
Beloved, I rejoice in the memory
Of that day and the day that I still see.

6 Why are You cast down, O my soul,
Disquiet within me unroll?
Hope in Ælohim, for I’ll yet
Praise Him for help of His face set.

My soul, Beloved, disquieted in me,
Both fed on tears, and longing utterly,
Seeks You despite my joy, in face of praise
The loving, faithful congregations raise.
I turn from false hopes in that unity
And from false loves that force themselves on me,
I turn from myself and from others to
That Self above creation that is You.
I turn from safety without enmity
And satisfaction in the bread I see
Upon the table and I seek the better:
I seek the Word behind the word and letter.
In all abundance I still feel bereft:
In my abundance You are all that’s left.

7 O my God, my soul is cast down
Within me, therefore from the town
Of Jordan I’ll remember You
And from the heights of Hermon’s dew,
And from the hill of Mizar’s view.
8 Deep calls to deep and at the noise
Of Your waterfalls, Your waves poise
And all Your billows cover me.
9 YHWH will command diurnally
His lovingkindness, in the night
His song with me shall be my light,
A prayer to the God of my life.
10 I’ll say to Ælohim my Strife,
“Now why have You forgotten me?
And why do I go mourningly
For oppression of enemy?”
11 As with a breaking of my bones,
My enemies reproach my groans,
While they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God and where your song?”
12 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why unquiet in my toll?
Hope in Ælohim, for I shall
Yet praise Him, who’s the arsenal
Before my face, God I extol.

I flee to You in memory of Your names
From enemy and from oppressors’ claims.
My soul is cast down, it is true, and yet
My casting down itself when it is met
Turns me toward You and at Your coming get
The joy of Your praise high above all blames.
I flee to You in memory of the great
Deeds of Your hand, and find I am not late
To see the smaller deeds in air and breeze,
The manufactures of the whispering trees.
Beloved, I am unquiet, it is true,
And yet unquietness leads but to You,
Forgotten all the sorrow come in view,
Known every weight of glory come anew.

PSALM 43 (KORAH 2)

1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause
Against an ungodly nation,
Deliver me, oh, from the claws
Of the deceitful man of dun.
2 For You are God of my strength, why
Do You cast me away? And why
Do I go mourning because of
The enemy and his hard shove?
3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me, bring me uncouth
To Your pure hill and to Your tent
Invisible and where You went.
4 Then I will go up to the altar
Of Ælohim, and not to falter
To Ælohim exceeding joy,
And on the harp I’ll praise employ
To You, O Ælohim, my God.
5 Why are you cast down to the sod,
O my soul? Why disquieted
Within me? Hope in and be led
Of Ælohim, for I shall yet
Praise Him who is still my best bet,
The help of my countenance and
My God and choice from every brand.

Judge me, indeed! I have traversed the court,
Past altar and past laver and in sort
Enter the tent, leaving the deer behind
Where bread and light and incense are combined
To show the way into the sacred place
Where the ark stands before the divine face.
Judge me, indeed! I enter in the way
Of inner temple in the heavenly ray
Where only the high priest comes once a year,
Or in the heavenly places standing sheer
Upon the grandest eras of the ages.
Your throne of judgement set, the open pages
Of life and deed and motive gleam in lustre,
The grapes are cut in forties for a cluster.

PSALM 44

1 To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah (3).
We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us the deeds
You did in their old days by rod.
2 You drove out the nations with Your
Hand, but You set our fathers’ score,
The nations You afflicted and
Cast them out. 3 For the promised land
They did not gain by their own sword,
Nor did their own strength unexplored
Save them, but it was Your right hand,
Your arm, and the light of Your face,
Because You favoured them as race.
4 You are my King, O Ælohim,
Command deliverances for Jacob.
5 By You we push down all that seem
Our enemies, through Your name wake up
To trample those who rise against us.
6 For I’ll not trust my bow that fenced us,
Nor shall my sword save me. 7 But You
Have saved us from our enemies,
And shamed those who hated us too.
8 In Ælohim we boast decrees
All day long, and praise Your name ever,
Your name forever and forever.

How have the lovely fallen! See how quaint
Are all the words of King David, the saint!
I doubt the new age helpers of the power
Lounging under their energy an hour
Such condemnations of the Canaanites
On grand parade going down in their plights
Note with much favour. Positive’s in fashion,
Or not to knock the ones in glitter crashing.
For my faith, my Beloved, I count the woe
Damning the Trinitarian and slow
Among the Baal worshippers not amiss.
Vice is a thing that I refuse to kiss
In myself or in others. You do well
Demanding Jebusite to die by spell.

9 But You have cast us off in shame
Our armies go without Your name.
10 You make us turn back from the foe,
And those who hate us take for show
The spoil for themselves. 11 You have given
Us up like sheep for slaughter riven,
And scattered us among the nations.
12 You sell Your people for small rations,
And have no profit in their sale.
13 You make us a reproach and tale
To our neighbours, a scorn, derision
To those around us in our vision.
14 You make us a byword among
The nations, and a song that’s sung
With shaking of the head among
The peoples. 15 My dishonour stands
Always before me, and expands
The shame of my face over me,
16 Because of his loud voice when he
Reproaches and reviles, because
Of the avenger, enemy,
Because of their words and their laws.

You laid the Amorite down in the dust
For filling up iniquity’s last crust,
And Israel triumphed over them the day
They swept across the Jordan on dry clay.
You are a dangerous hand for a God,
You give the land of heathen grouch and sod,
But then You sell the winners in the tale
And scatter them beneath the rain and hail.
Beloved, I flee from You to You again
As I hand down my pagan gods with wen,
And grasp at You to hold in desperation:
Where can I grab and hold You for a ration?
If You are dangerous You’re slippery.
My hands stay empty though eternity.

17 All this has come upon us, but
We’ve not forgotten You, nor what
We should not deal falsely with Your
Covenant You promised before.
18 Our heart has not turned back, nor our
Steps strayed from Your way and Your power,
19 But You have greatly broken us
In jackals’ places, covered us
With the shadow of death. 20 If we
Forgot the name of our God, we
Stretched out our hands to foreign god,
21 Would not Ælohim search and prod?
For He knows secrets of the heart.
22 Yet for Your sake and for our part
We’re killed all day, counted as sheep
For slaughter. 23 Wake! Why do You sleep,
O Lord? Arise! Do not cast off
Forever. 24 Before heathen scoff
Why do You hide from us Your face,
Forget affliction, our disgrace?
25 For our soul is bowed down to dust,
Our body clings to earth and rust.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem
Us for Your mercies, Ælohim.

Have not the sons of men come out to dance
Around the faith that You give them to prance
In wealth and health and all posterity?
Long is the sign of Your favour’s mercy.
Some glory in Your good will as they say,
Only believing that their roundelay
Neat and cool proves superiority
Over all those beneath them in the spree.
Full well I know the good and evil lot
Done up in human plights is simply not
A sign or proof of goodness in parade.
Vehemently I deny punishment
In pain, but only take from Your hand sent
Damage and resurrection where You went.

The Psalms of Korah are set out to please
With one minus twelve headings in the breeze
That mention that dear name of trust that sang
Above the sounds of pagan din and clang.
The hidden twelfth is that which comes to pass
After the hart that pants for water grass.
The sequence thus is hidden from the crew
Who count the Psalms out bravely on the dew.
This is the third, the Psalm of sacrifice,
The slot that in each twelfth comes to suffice
In prophecy of Karbela in round.
The foul destruction that came on the ground
Where Husseyn rode in thirst is forecast here,
As well as his faithfulness without fear.

PSALM 45

1 To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Contemplation of the sons of Korah (4). A Song of Love.
My heart is overflowing with a good theme,
I recite my words concerning the King’s dream,
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
2 Than the sons of men indeed You are fairer,
Grace is poured upon Your lips, as Ælohim
Has blessed You forever. 3 So gird Your sword’s gleam
On Your thigh, O Mighty One, with Your glory
And Your majesty. 4 And in Your majesty
Ride out prosperously because of the truth,
Humility, and righteousness, in its ruth
Your right hand shall instruct You in awesome things.
5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s
Enemies, the peoples fall under Your wings.
6 Your throne, O exalted one, is forever
And ever, sceptre of righteousness, sceptre
Of your kingdom. 7 You love righteousness and hate
Wickedness, therefore Ælohim, Your God great,
Has anointed You with the oil of gladness
Above all Your companions in their address.

Why are the rightly guided ones so rare,
Beloved, why with Your loving, tender care
Do You not sent more guiding lights into
The dark world where we must have faith and do?
A thousand years have passed since one was born
Into this world with light of truth and scorn
For wrong, and he remained a hidden one
And still lurks secretly it seems to shun
The gaze of adulation and of danger.
Ah, You could never send to us a stranger
To loving righteousness and hating wrong.
So few consistently do so, and long
We wait for such few to appear. Imam
From age to age fulfils the loving psalm.

8 All Your garments with myrrh and aloes, cassia,
Out of the ivory palaces, in awe
They have made You glad. 9 Kings’ daughters are among
Your honourable women at Your right strung,
There stands the queen in the gold from Ophir sung.
10 Listen, O daughter, consider and incline
Your ear, forget your own people too, who dine
In your father’s house, 11 So the king will greatly
Desire your beauty, because he is fitly
Your husband, bow down before him faithfully.
12 And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift,
The rich among the people will seek to lift
Your favour. 13 The king’s daughter’s all glorious
Within, her clothing is sewn in golden dress.
14 She shall be brought to the king in broidered robe,
The virgins followed her from ends of the globe,
They shall be brought to you 15 glad and rejoicing.
They shall be brought entering the king’s palace.
16 Instead of your fathers shall be your sons’ place,
Whom you shall make princes on all the earth’s face.
17 I’ll make your name remembered in every age,
So the folk shall always praise your heritage.

I’ll make Your name remembered, but I can
Not lay hand on the great ages in span.
I only have the power to say Your name
Varied by no more than one breath in claim.
Out of the silent wings of night’s low veil,
Revealing not more than a spark in trail,
You hear my narrow voice upon the air
Propelling that one syllable in share
Among the many glittered, bittered words
Laughing aloud like hop-twittering birds.
Around the simple pyre I whirl and say
Cured names perhaps, but still of just one day,
Ensconced in songs that rise at once to fall,
Stung, fluttered, disappearing at the wall.

The fourth Psalm of Korah in the twelve met
Reminds me of the prostrations once set
By Ali Zeynul-Abideen to show
What beauty in sweet supplications know
The one who comes by night and day to read
The incensed prayers of Ali in his greed.
Beloved, the glory and the majesty,
The aloes, and myrrh, the ivory,
As light and shade above the odours that
Surround Your throne and every place You sat.
Beloved, this second book of Psalms is made
Of deeper heart yearnings and signs’ parade
That echo in the inner temple where
No troubled ear may enter without fear.

PSALM 46

1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah (5). A Song for Alamoth.
Ælohim’s our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear at length,
Though earth be shaken like a bubble,
And though the mountains be cast down
Into the heart of the sea brown,
3 Though its waters in frothy spume
Roar and be troubled in their room,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling
Across the world where we are dwelling.
4 There is a river whose streams make
Glad the town for Ælohim’s sake,
The holy place of Most High’s tents.
5 Ælohim gives her His presence,
She shall not be moved, Ælohim
Helps her, at the break of dawn’s gleam.

The streams of Kauthar wake me from my dream
And take me from this land of things that seem
Into the tents of Your reality
Before the fruited branch upon the tree.
I find the inner temple where the cry
Of righteousness never fails to pass by,
And let the earth burst like a shaken ball,
A bauble floating, dashing on the wall.
Beloved, Your draughts of life make glad the town,
Make glad the meadows and the ploughed fields brown,
Make glad the heart that comes from sorrow down
Toward the gleam of earth, toward the seat
Of everlasting favour and retreat.
Within Your temple, my Beloved, we meet.

6 The nations raged, kingdoms were moved,
He uttered His voice, unreproved
The earth melted. 7 For YHWH of hosts
Is with us, God of Jacob’s boasts.
8 Come, see the works of YHWH, who’s made
Desolations in the earth splayed.
9 He makes wars cease to end of earth,
He breaks the bow and cuts the girth
Of spear in two, He burns with fire
The chariot. 10 Be still, desire,
And know that I am Ælohim,
I’ll be exalted by the cream
Of the nations, I will be praised
In the earth by the nations razed!
11 YHWH of hosts is with us, the God
Of Jacob’s our refuge and rod.

I still my heart before the shaken sword,
Before the bombs that flatten out the horde,
And see the fighting cease before the eye
That darkens where the earth melts from the sky.
I still my heart and find no I but You,
And know You’re Ælohim upon the dew,
Above the scented lily, in its hue,
Beyond the questionings of how and why.
Beloved, my heart is still, my hand at rest,
My feet both folded, and within my breast
I find no I but You, Beloved and best.
My heart is still, and yet I hear the tone,
I see the gleam of righteousness alone,
I bow a mere illusion at Your throne.

This Psalm of Muhammad Baqir arose
To quench the raving thirst of all of those
Who seek the temple and the river cool
In You, Beloved, the great desired for pool.
“Inquire in His temple” repeats the name
A single time in Psalms to light the flame
In the first book, and secretly comes here
To recite the name’s meaning without fear
And in a hidden way, so only souls
Who search the word Baqir come to the goals.
The Hebrew waiting to inquire turns to
The Arab breaking of the nut in two,
And shows the inner meat as tasty sweet,
Spear broken, but the verdict laid out neat.

PSALM 47

1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah (6).
Oh, clap your hands, you peoples all!
Shout to Ælohim with the call
Of triumph! 2 For YHWH is Most High
In awe, He’s a great King though nigh
Over all the earth. 3 He’ll subdue
The peoples under us, the crew
Of the nations under our feet.
4 He’ll choose us heritage and meet,
The excellence of Jacob whom
He loves above all time and room.
5 Ælohim has gone with a shout,
YHWH with the sound of trumpet rout.
6 Sing praises to Ælohim, sing
Praises! Sing praises to our King,
Sing praises! 7 For Ælohim’s King
Of all the earth, sing praises well
With understanding to excel.
8 Ælohim reigns over the folk,
Ælohim sits upon the stroke
Of His holy throne. 9 Princely folk
Have gathered together, the folk
Of the God of Abraham’s oak.
For the shields of the earth belong
To God, greatly exalted song.

You are the God of Abraham, they say
And then continue that in Your own way
You are one of a thousand tribal gods
That used to swell up like peas in their pods.
Each patriarch of every clan would hold
A god of his ancestors made of gold,
And You were one of those until the rhyme
Of evolution helped You in the climb
From ancestor to deity to be
A tribal god with divine company,
Till polytheistic views changed at last
To monolatric worship in the blast.
From worship of one god it’s one small step
To belief that there’s only one vine cep.

I might have thought to find the name that graces
The sixth Imam with all his holy traces
In this Psalm, but the fact is in the twelve
There’s rarely hint beyond the third to delve
And fourth to raise the praises that resound
In the heart temple from Zaynel’s abound.
In Zaynel’s Psalm the name Sadiq comes twice,
And in the seventh Psalm it would suffice
To sound just once, but in the hopeful dream
No divine guide is taught but Ælohim.
But with the sixth Imam You become King
In all the earth, for he taught everything
In clarity while in his upper room
He sounded the alchemy of earth’s doom.

PSALM 48

1 A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah (7).
Great is YHWH, greatly to be praised
In the city of our God blazed,
In His holy mountain and free.
2 Beautiful in its heights to be,
The joy of the whole earth, the mount
Of the fortress upon the fount
Of the north, and the great King’s town.
3 Ælohim in her palace brown,
Is known as her refuge. 4 For see,
The kings assembling passed freely.
5 They marvelled at what they could see,
Troubled they quickly sought to flee.
6 Fear took hold of them there, and pain,
As a woman in birth pangs’ reign,
7 You break the ships of Tarshish’ band
With an east wind come from Your hand.

The palaces of old are long gone now,
The stones lie not on stones, thrown down somehow,
And trampled by the wicked feet that pass
Unseeking spire and psalm and sea of glass.
The palaces of old upon the mount
Have disappeared beneath the dried up fount,
And only days and years mark off the way
To You, Beloved, in temples where I pray.
The Sabbath of Your divine guides I find
Within the inner chambers of my mind,
Upon return of Sabbath and each week,
I find, Beloved, the very thing I seek.
The birth pangs of the slave wife now betray
The joy of the seventh son’s birth today.

8 As we have heard, so we have seen
In the city of YHWH of hosts,
In the city of our God clean:
Ælohim always sets its boasts.
9 We’ve thought, O Ælohim, on Your
Lovingkindness, here at the door
Of Your temple. 10 According to
Your name, O Ælohim, so true
Is Your praise to the ends of earth,
Your right hand’s full of righteous worth.
11 Let the mountain fortress rejoice,
Let Judah’s daughters in their choice
Be glad, because of Your judgments.
12 Walk about the fortress with sense,
And go all around her to count
Her towers, 13 mark her bulwarks’ mount,
Consider her palaces, so
As to make of them a bright show
To the generation to come.
14 For this is Ælohim, in sum
Our God forever for each breath,
He’ll be our guide even to death.

I count the visions parapets to know
In days to come the temple’s golden row,
The image to keep shining in my heart,
The inner temple where I take Your part.
Beloved, I count the stones upon the court
And find the mystic numbers of resort
That cry within my soul encouragement
To keep Your law as faithfully as meant.
A hundred sixty-six in count to make
The court of Zion for Your blessèd sake,
Takes my feet from the warm stones lying there
Into the cooler recesses of prayer.
You are my guide indeed as I turn round
The temple stones and gather on the ground.

PSALM 49

1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah (8).
Hear this, all peoples, and give ear,
Who dwell on the earth far and near,
2 Both low and high, and rich and poor.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom’s contour,
The meditation of my heart
Shall be an understanding part.
4 I will incline my ear to hear
A proverb, I’ll disclose the fear
Of my dark saying on the harp.
5 Why should I fear the days that carp,
When the iniquity abounding
At my heels comes at me surrounding?
6 Those who trust in their wealth and boast
In the abundance of their roast,
7 None of them can by any means
Redeem his brother when he leans,
Nor give Ælohim his ransom,
8 For the redemption and the sum
Of their souls is costly, and it
Shall cease forever, 9 for the pit
Shall not be seen by him whose life
Is eternal and without strife.

No man can pay the ransom of a soul
By human sacrifice, nor god nor troll
Suffices to redeem the human crown.
All golden crosses turn to lead and brown.
Though Christ should die again and once more give
The spark of divine life to make men live,
It would not be enough, not ten times more,
To ransom humankind from his death’s door.
Beloved, the divine Self that You have given
To every soul is all by which man’s shriven,
And in creation’s power that gift alone
Is all that ever can and will atone.
I lay my wooden self aside and take
Hold of Your Self and rise up in the wake.

10 For he sees wise men die, likewise
The fool and senseless in his guise
Perish, and leave their wealth behind.
11 Their inner thought is that their rind
Will last forever, and their houses
To all generations with spouses,
They call their lands by their own names.
12 But the man, though in honour’s claims,
Does not remain, for he is like
The beasts that perish at the strike.
13 This is the way of foolish ones,
And of their progeny by tons
Who rejoice in their words and runs.
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave,
And death shall feed on them as slave,
The upright shall have dominion
Over them in the morning sun,
And their beauty shall be consumed
In the grave, far from dwelling doomed.

The gift of being I taught from the start
Of Your creation is the fatal dart
That also supplies humankind with myth,
The dark belief that he’s immortal with.
The green twig when it’s cut off from the tree
Of life fades quickly in its poverty,
Its leaves wilt on the air, its blossoms fail,
The fruit is shrivelled on the stem and veil.
Beloved, the fool can never see the trail,
Can never realize his soul is just
Reflection of the divine on the dust.
It is the divine beauty found within
That tempts the lonely man to commit sin,
Aspiring and believing he can win.

The name of Ridha’s hidden in the word
That sweetly sounds like voice of robin stirred
To chirp with gladness, though the well-turned earth
Is frozen and he must return to berth
Of safety in the south. “The upright shall
Have the dominion”, spoken of the pal
And eighth Imam to prophesy the truth
That caliphs make their promises to youth,
But fail to carry out, and yet the way
Was truly given into Ridha’s sway.
Ridha’s his name, and prophesied as such
In centuries before the caliph’s touch,
In lovely lays to make his name appear
Recited in the Psalm and in Your fear.

Of every cognate in Hebrew and tongue
Of holy Qur’an, both of which are sung,
One cannot always be sure of cognate:
Perhaps the name of Ridha came not late
Upon rejoicing of the verse before
Instead of on dominion to the core.
The children of the foolish were not kind
To caliph’s choice of Imam in the bind,
And so they rejoiced when they came to find
That promises need not be kept in store.
The sea of faith becomes a desert shore.
Beloved, I rejoice in dominion found
In You and in Your throne upon the ground
And in the light of faith and courtesy
That lies in Ridha’s humble way to be,
Not caring for the wealth and honour bought
But clinging to the truth from You once taught.

15 But Ælohim, He will redeem
My soul from the power that may seem
Of the grave, who accepts my dream.
16 Don’t be afraid when one is rich,
When his glory reaches a pitch,
17 For when he dies nothing shall he
Carried away of all the fee,
His glory shall not follow him.
18 Though while he lives he is not dim
(For men will praise you when you do
Well for yourself and raise a hue),
19 He shall go to ancestors’ blight,
A place where they never see light.
20 A man who is in honour, yet
Does not understand what he’s met,
Is like beasts that perish in net.

The human body made of dust shall go
Down to the grave like every beastly show,
And like the breath of beast to rise on wind,
The spirit of a man flies up with finned
And winged to makes its way back to the One
Who gave it when creation’s hour was done.
And yet, Beloved, You do not leave the soul
To disappear in its delusion’s goal,
But take up that reflection from the soil,
And give each man the reward of his toil.
Your image once impaled on wood and air,
In water and in fire upon the share
Of clay will rise up in its destiny
Of righteousness forever on the tree.

PSALM 50

1 A Psalm of Asaph (1)
El Ælohim YHWH spoke and called
Earth from the sun rising unwalled
Unto its going down unstalled.
2 Out of the fortress perfectly
Beauty of Ælohim to see.
3 Our Ælohim comes and shall not
Keep silent, consuming fire wrought
Before Him and around about
Him is a mighty storm to rout.
4 So He calls to the skies above,
And to the earth, that He in love
May judge His people without shove.
5 Gather My holy ones to Me,
Those who’ve made with Me a treaty
By sacrificial honesty.
6 And so the skies proclaim his right
For Ælohim Huu’s judge in might.

The first of twelve of Asaph’s Psalms, I sing
The twelve Imams that make the heavens ring
With righteousness and guidance where You call
The skies to being and the earthly stall.
You gather here Your holy ones to make
The revelation of Your will at stake
In human flesh. Ali’s the first name flung
Against the parapets of heart and tongue.
Beloved, I make a pact with You indeed,
By sacrifice of storm and lust and greed,
I turn toward the glowing morning sky,
And hear the proclamation and the sigh,
And know that You are just in every act,
Because You’ve sent Your guidance in Your pact.

7 Hear, O my people, and I’ll speak,
O Israel, I’ll lay bare cheek
In witness against you, for I
Am Ælohim, your God who cry.
8 I shall not reprove you for your
Sacrifices, burnt offerings’ store
Continually before My door.
9 I’ll take no bullock from your house
Nor he-goats from your paddock’s blouse.
10 For Mine’s each forest beast and still
The cattle on a thousand hill.
11 I know each bird of mountainside,
And the wild animals abide
In the field to be at My side.
12 If I were hungry, I should not
Tell you about it, for the plot
Of the world’s Mine and the whole lot.
13 Shall I eat bulls’ meat or then drink
The blood of goats there where they sink?
14 Offer to God thanksgiving and
Pay your vows to the most High’s hand.
15 Call out to Me in trouble’s day,
I’ll save you to praise Me in sway.

I have laid hand to sacrifice of goat
And sheep among the beastly ones of note,
But I have not expected that You might
Eat such meat and drink such blood in my sight.
I know that all things in creation’s pale
Belong to You by virtue of the veil
Of Your creating hand and power and light.
I eat myself the sacrifice by night.
Beloved, as I feed on the body’s weight
Of what You have provided now to sate
The hunger after fasting, I relate
Your praise and name and so participate
In the true sacrifice before Your gate.

Let me put it once simple, what You say:
You do not care for sacrifice today,
Nor blood of beast or man to show the way.
Instead of sacrifice You command me
To offer thanks in praise that is comely,
And carry out my promises in fee.
As for salvation, it does not depend
On sacrifice or thanks, but in the end
On calling on Your name for help alone,
And then You’ll save from what things would atone.
Beloved, the message is now clear for all:
Salvation is what You do when we call
In trouble of any kind that we see,
From now until Your last eternity.

16 But to the wicked God has said
What have you to do in declaring
My laws, to take in your mouth’s sharing
My covenant on Sinai glaring?
17 For you hate teaching and cast out
My words behind you without doubt.
18 When you met a thief you agreed
With him and you’ve given your seed
Along with adulterers’ mead.
19 You give your mouth to evil and
Your tongue forms deceit by command.
20 You sit and speak against your brother,
You slander the son of your mother.
21 These you have done while I remain
Silent, you thought I was as stain
As you yourself, yet I’ll reprove
You and set by your eyes the groove.
22 Consider this, you who forget
Allah, so I don’t come to set
You in fragments so none can save
You from an early, painful grave.
23 Who offers praise gives glory to
Me, and to him who acts as due
I’ll show his God’s salvation true.

The sacrifice of truth is not the slaying
Of animals to hear their hopeless braying,
But to recite Your law, and yet that word
Is like to condemn even the heart stirred.
The repetition of the sacred text
Is condemnation to the hand perplexed
Of disobedience, and to the tongue
That takes in vain the name of neighbour sung.
Beloved, let my lips gather to Your praise
Only the words that sacrifices raise
In honour to Your name, let me forget
The evil of the tyrant and the set
Of those who falsify Your way and deed.
Let me remember only You with speed.

PSALM 51

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had married Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, Ælohim,
According as Your kindness seem,
By Your abundant grace relieve,
Blot out my sin and give reprieve.
Wash me completely from my sin,
Make pure from wickedness within.
3 For I admit what I have done,
My sins always before me run.
4 Against You and You only I
Have sinned and done evil to spy,
Yet You are justified to speak
In condemnation of my leak.

David admits that he committed fault
But not against Uriah in assault,
Nor against Uriah’s engagement when
He preferred to further career with men
Of war against the sacred law and so
Abandoned hopes of marriage in the row.
David’s sin was not that he failed to keep
The letter of the law, but he did peep
At one beauty bathing for him to see
Upon the rooftop, and came to agree
To marriage not advisable and one
Likely to cause some trouble he should shun.
Against You only David sinned despite
Nathan’s hyperbole to set things right.

5 See I was born in wickedness,
In sin my mother did address
To conceive me. 6 See what You want
Is truth inside a man to haunt,
And in the secret places You
Will bring Your wisdom to my view.

Was David born in wickedness? Indeed,
From what we know of the times and their seed
When Ali’s sons increased the weight of guilt
In Israel, it was a time of silt.
Does David make excuse for self that where
He lived was filled with sinfulness to share?
I think not, nor does he bring mother’s trait
To witness against his own choice and fate.
Beloved, You know that where I live is filled
With the iniquity of Rome that’s killed
The conscience of the human heart and soul.
And yet You wish that purity control
The innermost shrines of the human heart.
Let me, Beloved, succeed to do my part.

Sweet Christians beg two words from one to hear
About poor David trembling in his fear.
Some say that he was framed in sin relates
To sin original on human pates.
But others wonder if in fact his mam
Was not yet married to his dad in scam,
And being illegitimate, he crows
About the sin of which he hardly knows.
I think that both are wrong and fail to see
The spirit of the living poetry.
So let all who are sure they understand
The Scripture be burned up in hell in band.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, I’ll be clean,
Wash me and I’ll be whiter seen
Than snow. 8 Make me at last hear joy
And gladness, so the bones like toy
That You have broken take glad mien.
9 Turn Your face from my sins and blot
Out all my iniquities’ plot.
10 A clean heart create for me, God,
A right mind renew where I nod.
11 Don’t put me from before Your face,
The breathing of Your holy place
Remove not from me without trace.
12 Return to me Your saving’s joy,
Your guiding mind uphold, deploy.
13 So I’ll teach transgressors Your ways,
Converting sinners to Your praise.
14 Save me from bloodshed, Ælohim,
Ælohim of my saving’s scheme,
My tongue proclaims Your right regime.

Your divine action on the human heart,
And on the page of witness from the start
That rises in the actions of the hand
And foot that follow or leave Your command,
Is that You cleanse the way, blot out the sin,
And make the heart clean from without, within.
The guidance that You give to David’s mind
Provided him with teaching of the kind
That he could share with others on the day
When You preserved his hand from bloodshed’s way.
Beloved, I lay hold of the teaching here
That David comes to give my heart as clear
As tongue can sing, and beautiful as rain
That washes away human striving’s pain.

You blot out sin, Beloved, upon the breath
Of the holy sanctuary by death.
David knew that when he should go to rest,
You would reign on Your throne above the best.
The cherub wings that overshade the ark
Shine with the golden mercy seat and park
Above the tables of the law now set
Within most holy place in heaven met.
Atonement’s made by prayer before Your throne,
So save me from bloodshed that would atone,
But cannot blot out sin from holy place.
This is the secret teaching I would trace
In David’s words astounding for Your grace.
In David’s words I come to trust alone.

15 O Lord, my lips open, and my
Mouth shall declare Your praise for aye.
16 You did not want a sacrifice,
Else I’d provide it in a trice,
You do not take any delight
In burnt offering and smoke in sight.
17 The great sacrifice is a mind
Repentant and a heart refined
By contrition and mourning eyes,
O Ælohim, You’ll not despise.
18 Do good in Your good pleasure to
The fortress, build the walls anew
Around Jerusalem. 19 Then You
Shall be pleased with the sacrifice
Of righteousness, and with address
Of burnt offering and the whole gift,
Then shall they offer bullocks, lift
Them on Your altar and confess.

Rather than righteousness brought into view
By Your grace, and without repentance due,
Foolish Christian would take a sacrifice
Of Your best and Your sweetest to suffice
For the atonement of his sin for slice.
You do not accept crosses and their load,
You abhor agony of Romans stowed
Upon Your one beloved, but You accept
The sacrifice of spirit though inept
Repenting with contrition and with tear.
Such ones may bring their offering and come near.
Beloved, repentance opens up the way
For sacrifice of praise in temple’s sway,
On altar and on golden voices’ lay.

PSALM 52

1 To chief musician a maschil
Of David when Doeg from hill
Of Edom came and told Saul and
Said to him, “David’s in the land,
House of Ahimelech to stand.”
Why boast in evil, mighty man?
God’s goodness always has a plan.
2 Your tongue invents the evil thing
Like a sharp razor and working
Deceit. 3 You love the evil more
Than good, lying rather than store
Of righteous speech. 4 You love all words
Consuming deceitful tongue’s curds.
5 So God will destroy you for ever,
He shall take you away and sever
You from your house and then root you
Out of land of the living too.
6 Those who do well will see it too
And fear and ridicule the view.
7 See the man who did not make God
His strength, but trusted in the prod
Of his own wealth and took address
Of strength in his own wickedness.
8 But I’m like a green olive tree
In the house of Ælohim’s key,
I trust in Ælohim’s mercy
For ever and ever confess.
9 I’ll praise You for ever, because
You have done so, I’ll hope in pause
Of Your name, because it is good
Before Your holy ones who could.

My moments of remembrance are spun like
The green tree and the olive with its spike
Established by the hill of fortress and
Raising its praise in leaves caught up in band.
Shall I indeed praise You forever when
I raise my voice in Psalms spoken again?
The time I have to whirl on earth is small,
And I am pressed by life against the wall.
Yet on the Sabbath day eternity
Returns to bless my ears, my eyes to see.
Beloved, in this brief moment that I cast
My cantillation to recoup my past,
I see the future melt in gifts away
And raise me into Your eternal day.

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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