PSALM CHAPTER 103 - 115

PSALM 103

1 Of David. Bless YHWH, O my soul,
All in me bless His holy Name.
2 Bless YHWH, my soul, do not forget
All the benefits that He’s set.
3 He forgives your iniquities
And heals you of every disease.
4 He rescues your life from the fall,
He crowns You with mercy withal
And lovingkindness above all.
5 He satisfies your mouth with good,
Renews your youth like eagle’s would.
6 YHWH acts in His righteousness and
Judgement for all in oppressed band.
7 He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to Israel’s folk by this.

The Sabbath day is set apart for me
To bless Your holy name eternally,
While time wastes body and the power to be,
Each week I enter in a temple free
Of time and motion, lost in power and strength
And loveliness of You, Beloved, at length.
The evil passions of the weekly round
Fall then confessed, forgiven on the ground
Of that great rescue from all time and place
To bring me back from whirling to Your face.
Beloved, indeed my strength returns renewed
With that blessed wine of Sabbath day imbued
With Your vast spirit that once flew along
The waters of creation and Your song.

8 YHWH’s merciful and gracious, slow
To wrath, and filled with goodness’ show.
9 He will not always chide, nor will
He always keep His anger’s fill.
10 He’s not treated us as deserved
According to sins we have swerved,
Rewarding us for wickedness.
11 For as the sky is high above
The earth, so great also’s His love
In mercy for those who confess
Their fear of Him and His address.
12 As far as east is from the west,
So far has He removed the nest
Of our transgressions from our vest.
13 As a father has mercy on
His children, so YHWH’s also gone
In pity of those who fear Him.

The wise in sun’s worship comes to confess
His sins before the cross of light to bless
Its deaths and resurrections and impress
Against all reason that to kill a man
Will make all things right in the divine plan.
Instead I come the day before to get
The true in blessing, where Your grace is met
By those whom You forgive in infinite
Mercy to which no sacrifice of blight
Can add a whit. The Sabbath fills my heart
With light brighter than sun and moon impart,
Not just because it is the day You made
To review all creating power displayed,
But because on it You’ve set Your power’s right.

14 For He knows our frame and remembers
That we are mere dust, ash and embers.
15 The days of man are like the grass,
Flowers of the field that bloom and pass.
16 The wind runs over it, it’s gone,
Never more felt there to be drawn.
17 But YHWH’s mercy is from the dawn
Of everlasting and upon
Them who fear Him beyond all time,
And His righteousness in the climb
Of children’s children, flesh and rhyme.
18 To those who keep His covenant,
Remembering His commandments sent
To act by them in full consent.
19 YHWH has prepared His throne above,
His kingdom rules all push and shove.
20 Bless YHWH, you His angels and those
Of great strength standing in their rows
To do His commandments and hear
The voice of His word on the ear.
21 Bless YHWH, all you His armies’ train,
His slaves to do His will not vain.
22 Bless YHWH, all His works in the way
Of His own sovereign display,
Bless YHWH, my soul, and every day.

If on the Sabbath day I come to see
Remembering Your name eternally,
Remembering creatorship makes You
The Sovereign of my world and heart and pew,
You also come upon the Sabbath day.
You come in Your remembrance of the way
That I am fashioned of but wind and clay.
There’s no evil original to pay,
But Your grace is sufficient for the weak
Form in which humankind is made to speak.
I fail to rise in substance to the great
Image in which I’m made and set in state,
But Your grace is enough to place me straight
Upon the pedestal of Artist’s rate.

PSALM 104

1 Then bless, O my soul, YHWH! O YHWH
My Ælohim, for great are You,
Honour and majesty’s Your dress.
2 He puts on light like cloak no less,
He spreads the sky like curtains’ press.
3 He lays His palaces upon
The waters, He makes the clouds drawn
A chariot, He walks upon
The wings of the wind’s scattered spawn.
4 He makes His angels winds in rife,
His servants flaming fire of life.
5 He lays foundations of the earth
Never to be removed from berth.
6 You covered it with the deep like
A garment, the waters to strike
Stood higher than the mountains’ spike.
7 At Your rebuke they fled away,
At Your thunder’s sound sped astray.
8 They go up by the mountains’ side,
They go down by the valleys’ ride
To the place You’ve made them abide.
9 You’ve set a bound they may not pass,
Not to cover the earth in mass.

The flame and wind, the waters rife
In all their depths on earth for life
Are merely servants in Your care,
Beloved, who made things everywhere.
Light is no sacred thing to You,
You change it like a cork on screw,
You speak to things without ears true,
And yet they rise up then and do.
I follow the waters that run
Upon the mountainsides that spun
Their paths down to the valleys wide
Until they find a place to hide.
You set all bounds, You see all things,
Establishing both pawns and kings.

10 He sends the springs in valleys rent,
Running among the hills’ descent.
11 They give drink to every field’s beast,
The wild asses quench thirst at least.
12 Beside them the birds of the air
Find nest and habitation where
They sing among their branches fair.
13 He waters the hills from His rooms,
The earth is satisfied with blooms
And fruit of Your works rising there.
14 For cattle He makes the grass grow,
The herb to serve humans below,
To bring food out of the earth’s span,
15 And wine to make glad heart of man,
And oil to make his face to shine,
And bread to give man’s heart its twine.

All things eat their own nourishment and true
From the creating hand and mouth of You.
The fruit comes from the blossom, and the flower
Comes from the bud and opens in an hour,
And as the waxwing hops about the bower,
You offer berries from the mountain ash,
And if upon a year there’s no such stash,
You give the bird an apple on its twig,
To each bird not living in land of fig.
I too hop hopefully beneath Your hand
And look out on the winter-wasted land
And see the storehouse of Your treasures where
The sky meets lake beneath the mountain’s share,
To find that You have not left table bare.

16 The trees of YHWH are full of sap,
The cedars of Lebanon’s wrap,
Which He has planted in their gap.
17 There the birds make their nests, the stork,
The fir trees shade her house in fork.
18 The high hills protect the wild goats,
The rocks for conies behind moats.
19 He made the moon follow its road:
The sun know to go down in load.
20 When You make darkness, it is night,
Wherein the forest beasts of fright
Creep silently and out of sight.
21 Young lions roar after their prey,
They seek their food from El each day.

There is an argument among the men
Who pretend awareness and faith again
Despite the laxness of the church and state
In their maintaining of calendar’s rate.
Some find the month by calculating late,
And other find it by observing when
The sickle hangs in silver above fen.
Some merely look at almanac and think
That decrees in themselves, though on the brink
Of destitution and destroying’s power,
Are safe enough to follow in this hour.
The year hangs on the equinox, I wait
Beneath the covering of child and mate
Until the morning lengthens, though not late.

22 The sun comes up, they gather in
To lie down in their den and bin.
23 Then man goes out to do his work,
Labours till evening without shirk.
24 YHWH, how diverse are then Your works,
In all of them Your wisdom lurks,
The earth is full of Your rich perks.
25 The great expanse of sea in which
Innumerable creeping things pitch,
Both small and great beasts without hitch.
26 There go the ships, leviathan,
Whom You made to play there in span.
27 These all wait on You till You give
Them in their time their food to live.
28 What You give them they gather in,
You open Your hand, from Your bin
They are filled with the good in din.

Leviathan’s so great that I should think
There would not be enough to eat and drink.
Its scales brush through the waters in the night
And glitter in the morning come the light.
Leviathan’s so far from me and mine
That I should think him legend of the kind
That’s told to amuse king and court and great,
But have no substance in the real of fate.
Beloved, the world of sense and matter here
Is trussed up with the tents of form and gear
Until the words of prophecy appear
And splinter sight and thought without a tear
Where fan the fins and flaps leviathan
Lifts up beneath a moon no man can scan.

29 You hide Your face, they are downcast,
You take their breath, they die at last,
And return to their dust when past.
30 You send out Your breath, they are made,
You renew the earth’s face with spade.
31 The glory of YHWH shall endure
For ever, YHWH’ll rejoice for sure
In His works that He set and stayed.
32 He looked on the earth and it shook,
He touched the hills to smoke in nook.
33 I’ll sing to YHWH so long I live,
I’ll praise my Ælohim to give
Me life and being from His book.
34 I murmur sweetly at His view,
And so I shall be glad in YHWH.
35 Let sinners fail from off the earth,
And let the wicked fail from birth.
And so now bless YHWH, O my soul!
And then praise YHWH from goal to goal!

The holy Qur’an also makes the point
That You, Beloved, breathe out life in a joint
And man and beast rise up to sing and play
And work and eat and live again to pray
Until You take that breath again away
And all sink down to death no more to stray.
Then once again under the morning bright
With resurrection all things come in sight
And live and breathe again for wrong or right.
Beloved, this moment I am here to sing
And pray beneath the counter of Your wing
Until the darkness cover me and mine
And I am outside the hall where men dine.
All things look to You only for their fling.

PSALM 105

1 Give thanks to YHWH, call on His name,
Show to the folk His deeds of fame.
2 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him, talk
Of all His wondrous works and walk.
3 And glory in His holy name,
Let their heart rejoice without shame
Who seek YHWH without sin or blame.
4 Seek YHWH and His strength, seek His face
Continually in every place.
5 Remember His great works He’s done,
His miracles beneath the sun,
The judgements that His mouth has won.
6 Descendants of Israel, His slave,
You children of Jacob in wave,
His chosen ones, the good, the brave.
7 He’s YHWH our Ælohim, His ways
Of judgement are to all earth’s praise.
8 Always remember His promise,
The word He commanded for bliss
To a thousand generations.
9 What He made to the benisons
Of Abraham and His oath to
Isaac son of Abraham true.
10 He has confirmed it for a law
To Jacob, and to Israel’s maw
For everlasting covenant.
11 Saying “To you I shall present
The land of Canaan for your lot
Inherited in glorious plot,
12 When you were only few, a few
And strangers in the land and pew.”
13 They went from nation, land to land,
From kingdom to another band,
14 He let no one do any wrong
To them, even the kings and strong
He reproved for their sakes along.
15 “Touch not My anointed and do
My prophets no harm or pursue.”

King David here repeats the pleasing word
That’s written down in Chronicles the first
And chapter sixteen by a faithful bird
That sang the promises counted not worst.
He can say like good Händel at the stroke
His music bears repeating to the folk,
And all the sweetness of his harp and tones
Arises in glory above the thrones
Of every earthly monarch and the seat
Of company president for a treat.
Beloved, You’ve led me too from land to land
Where I have fed protected at Your hand,
Saved for the purpose of tweeting Your praise
Such as it is until my end of days.

16 He called a famine on the land,
He broke all the bread’s staff in hand.
17 He sent a man down beforehand,
Joseph, sold in a servants’ band,
18 Whose feet they crushed with fetters, he
Was laid out in iron chains to be
19 Until the time that His word came,
The word of YHWH tried him in flame.
20 The king commanded him set free,
The ruler of folk by decree.
21 He made him ruler of his house,
Governor of store, bin and mouse,
22 To bind his princes at his will,
And teach his senators their fill.

The brothers were so shamed by what they did
In selling Joseph for the highest bid,
That they clung to his word and echoed it
From Judah’s generations for a fit.
Joseph had brought them consolation by
His saying it was Your plan on the sly
To save them all from hunger and not their
Fault they had sold him for the siller’s share.
Judah it was who came up with the plan
Of making profit on the blood of man.
Beloved, my first responsibility
Is to admit my fault in Your decree,
And as I profit by the way You care
For troubles, still admit my woeful share.

23 Then Israel came into Egypt,
And Jacob lived in Ham’s land fit.
24 And He increased His folk no end,
And made them stronger than their fiend.
25 He turned their heart to hate His folk,
To deal deceitfully in stroke.
26 He sent His servant Moses back,
And Aaron chosen without slack.
27 They showed His signs there among them,
And wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent the cloud and made it dark,
They did not rebel at the lark.
29 He turned their waters into blood
And let their fish die in the mud.
30 Their land brought forth frogs in their lot
And filled their rulers’ chamber-pot.
31 He spoke, and there appeared on land
All sorts of flies and lice in band.
32 He gave them hail for rain and fire
Flaming upon their land in pyre.
33 He struck their vines and their fig trees,
He broke down their trees in the breeze.
34 He spoke and locusts blew in where
Caterpillars swarmed without care.
35 They ate up all the herbs on land,
Consumed the fruit of their ground scanned.
36 He also struck the firstborn down
In all their land, their strength and crown.

The Exodus is the tale that is heard
Every time humankind falls on the turd.
There’s always hope that You might once be stirred
Again to act, since one time long ago
You rose up to plague Egypt in the show.
If all that came was caused by volcano,
Then that gives room to doubt even the blow
Of Your salvation in the tract and glow.
And still I lay my faith in You and know
That hands of all oppressors at last slow.
I wait Your kingdom in my heart and deed
And by my doing, slight though be the seed,
Let Your will be done in my life decreed,
On days of midnight sun, on days of snow.

37 He brought them out with riches told
To tote wealth in silver and gold,
Not one was feeble in their fold.
38 Egypt was glad when they went out,
For fear fell on all and redoubt.
39 He spread a cloud for covering,
And fire to give light in night’s wing.
40 When they begged for them, He brought quails,
And filled them with heavenly bread’s sales.
41 He opened up the rock from which
Gushed waters that ran down like pitch
In the dry places like a ditch,
42 Remembering His holy pact
With Abraham in how to act.
43 He brought out His people with joy,
His chosen with gladness’ employ.
44 He gave to them the heathen’s lands,
They got the fruits of the folks’ hands,
45 So that they could keep His commands
And follow His laws kept in view.
And so now then praise you, praise YHWH!

I’ve never eaten quails or manna yet,
And still I sit beside a table set
With twelve fruits from Your tree, with bread to get
The cheeses of Your promised land for me.
I never sang with Miriam the song
Of victory that echoed all along
The shores of the Red Sea for right and wrong,
But I have bowed before Sinai’s decree.
Beloved, I eat the fruit of tree the hand
Of others planted on a foreign strand,
I drink the waters of artesian well
Unknown to any man of Israel,
I fill my life with blessings from Your law
Pronounced on Sinai to the people’s awe.

PSALM 106

1 Praise YHWH! give YHWH thanks, for He’s good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Who can speak the great things YHWH could,
And praise Him because He is clever.
3 Blessed are those who announce judgement,
Always doing right and content.
4 Remember me, YHWH with the grace
That You bear to Your chosen race,
And shower me in saving pace.
5 Then I may see how good things fall
Upon Your chosen in their stall,
And so rejoice and gladness take
In Your folk, and glory awake
For Your inheritance’s sake.
6 We’ve sinned just like our fathers too,
Done wickedness before Your view,
Committed outrages not few.
7 Our ancestors did not perceive
With understanding by Your leave
What miracles You did before
All of the Egyptians on shore.
They did not mind the multitude
Of Your mercies, but were so crude
To provoke there beside the sea,
The Red Sea gleaming fitfully.
8 He saved them still for His name’s sake,
To show His mighty power in wake.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea also,
It was dried up, He was not slow
To lead them through the deep and so
Into the wilderness to go.
10 He saved them from the enemy,
Redeemed them from the foe’s hand free.
11 The waters covered up their foes,
There was not one left in their rows.
12 Then they believed at last His words,
They sang His praises like the birds.

When I consider how oft I reveal
Impatience here beneath the treading heel
Of everyday, and spout a word’s complaint,
I think that I too am no driven saint.
If some asked with a tongue in humour dipped
If there were not enough graves when they shipped
Out of Egypt, that they must find the soil
Of wilderness the place of rest from toil,
I’m not about to judge them for the spoil.
Between the Sea of Reeds and Pharaoh’s bait
I think I too might have come to relate
A bit of fear, perhaps not whimsical,
In fact more likely the hysterical.
Let me rise to those old complainers’ fate.

13 They soon forgot His works, did not
Wait for His counsel loving taught,
14 But in the wilderness greatly
Lusted to eat their meat freely,
And in the desert tested Him,
Ælohim with plaints sour and grim.
15 He gave them their request, but sent
Leanness into their soul and spent.
16 They envied Moses in the camp,
And Aaron saint of YHWH and lamp,
17 The earth opened and swallowed there
Dathan, and covered, soil and air,
Faction of Abiram with care.
18 In their midst there was kindled fire
The flames consumed wicked desire.
19 They made a calf in Horeb, and
Worshipped the moulded image grand.
20 Thus they changed their glory into
The ox’s image that eats dew
Upon the grass. 21 And they forgot
Ælohim their Saviour, who taught
Great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works
In the land of Ham, awesome dirks
By the Red Sea. 23 Therefore He said
That He would destroy them instead,
Had not Moses His chosen one
Stood up before Him in the sun
To bear the breach, to turn away
His wrath, lest He destroy that day.
24 So they despised Muhammad’s land,
And they believed not his command.
25 They sat complaining in their tents,
Heard not YHWH’s voice for arguments.

The golden calf was looking back to that
Monolatry of Egypt where they’d sat
At feet of priest and king. The wilderness
Was too bucolic for such well-read slaves.
A scientific, golden worship raves
In town and ear with civilized finesse.
So even then, before the prophet’s birth,
They questioned him because of land and worth.
Belovèd, they did not believe his word,
Although their hot souls burning in them stirred
To hear the Unity, its recitation.
A dearer thing it was to be a nation.
Destroy me too, Beloved, wherein I am
Besides You, I’m a sacrificial lamb.

If erets Hemda does not mean the land
Of Muhammad, despite the name at hand,
Then Isaiah cannot mean Jesus Christ
When he spoke to Ahaz, for whom sufficed
The word without the sign. In fact his fate
Was to live to see the sign come not late.
If Isaiah gave sign to king and then
Prophesied of Messiah among men,
Then David does a better job when he
Mentions the very name in clarity.
Both passages relate to days of old
Before both Christ and Arab prophet bold,
But You, Beloved, not silent, came and told
Us messengers should come to set us free.

26 That’s why He lifted up His hand
Against them in the desert land,
27 To overthrow their descendants
Among the nations and to prance
In all lands scattered at a glance.
28 They joined themselves to Baalpeor,
Ate offerings of the dead in score.
29 So they provoked to wrath with their
Inventions, and the plague to bear
Came on them for their evil share.
30 Then stood up Phinehas to make
Judgement, so the plague stayed at stake.
31 That was accounted to him for
A righteous deed for evermore.
32 They brought wrath at waters of strife,
So even Moses lost his life.
33 That’s because they provoked his mind
So he spoke carelessly consigned.
34 They did not slay the nations round
Whom YHWH commanded them to ground.

The failure to kill others is complaint
You often make against Your chosen saint.
And yet in the commandments that You spoke
On Sinai You said don’t kill other folk.
Some say the word means murder, but I say
That murder means another law in sway
Should define what killing is justified
And what is not where You, Beloved, abide.
But what law is there above that You shed
Upon the ears and hearts that once were spread
Out beneath Sinai’s peaks standing in dread?
Beloved, I trust that those You sent to be
Your representatives knew and were free
To kill those they must in the riot’s spree.

35 Instead they mingled with the folk
And learned their heathen ways and yoke.
36 They served their idols, empty, vain,
That were a snare to them and stain.
37 Indeed they sacrificed their sons
And daughters to devils by tons,
38 They shed innocent blood, the blood
Of sons and daughters in a flood,
Whom they offered to Canaan’s gods
Polluting with blood the land’s sods.
39 They were defiled by their own acts,
And prostituting their own pacts.
40 That’s why the wrath of YHWH flamed out
Against His people in redoubt,
Disgusted by His own in rout.
41 He gave them up into the hand
Of heathen, and the hated band
Ruled over them and all their land.
42 Their enemies oppressed them too,
And made them servants in their crew.
43 Many times He delivered them,
But they provoked by stratagem,
And for their sins brought down to hem.
44 He took note of their trouble when
He heard their cry before all men.
45 He remembered His promise made,
And changed His mind for the parade
Of the great mercies where He stayed.
46 He made those who took them in chains
To pity them for all their pains.
47 Save us, YHWH our Ælohim, and
Gather us from the heathen land
To give thanks to Your holy name,
And triumph in Your praise and fame.
48 Blessed be YHWH Israel’s Ælohim
From everlasting to the dream
Of everlasting, and let all
The people say in pew and stall
”Amen. Praise you YHWH Lord of all.”

The Sabbath Psalms are ended and the tale
Of all the Torah seems to be on sale
Within the sparkling words I sing and wail.
The Sabbath Psalms are ended, I make peace
Within my soul and pray for the increase
Of Your will done on earth and without cease.
The Sabbath Psalms are ended and I stay
In silence to enjoy the bit of day
That still remains of rest in Your own way.
Beloved, the Sabbath Psalms re-echo in
My heart and keep my hand away from sin
As I look toward the week before my feet
And wonder whether it will be a treat
Or doom to anyone that I may meet.

Beloved, I come upon the Sabbath day
In dhikr or remembrance of Your way,
In sema’ or in hearing of Your word,
And every time I come my heart is stirred.
When I begin with ninety-second Psalm
Where Sabbath’s mentioned, I rely in calm
Upon the repetition of Your name,
The holy YHWH, resident in the flame
Of Psalms up to the one of Ahmed’s fame,
And as I count the repetitions here,
I find the ninety-nine of love and fear.
Beloved I whirl in Sabbath ecstasy,
And find Your name entwined forever free
With that of Muhammad eternally.

PSALMS BOOK FIVE PSALM 107

1 Give thanks to YHWH for He is good,
For His mercy endures for ever.
2 Let YHWH’s redeemed speak as they should,
Who from the foe’s hand those will sever.
3 He gathered them out of the lands
From east and west, from north and bands
Of the south. 4 They wandered the sands
Of wilderness in vacant way,
They found no city where to stay.
5 Hungry and thirsty, they were faint.
6 They cried to YHWH in their complaint,
He saved them from distresses’ paint.
7 He led them out by the right way
To find a city where to stay.

The scattering and gathering of Your own
Is something I wonder about alone.
The northern kingdom scattered in the pale
Of the Assyrian empire, no avail.
The southern kingdom led to Babylon
Came back to build the city that was gone
And scattered once more before Roman drawn.
The people came back with a vengeance on
The Palestinian folk and waged new war
And put the olive trees to death in store.
Beloved, I wait the gathering of those
Who keep Your law alone and step on toes
Of merchants and of princes in their rows.
I’ve waited forty years and I’ll wait more.

8 O that men would praise YHWH for good
And for His great acts as men should!
9 He satisfies the longing soul,
He fills with good the hungry’s bowl.
10 Those sitting in the dark death’s shade,
Bound in affliction, iron weighed,
11 Having rebelled against El’s word,
Disdaining Elyon’s counsel heard,
12 So He brought down their heart with pain,
They fell with no one to sustain.
13 They cried to YHWH in their distress,
He saved them from troubles’ address.
14 He brought them from the dark death’s shade,
And broke their chains that were displayed.

You satisfy my soul, Beloved, it’s true,
And yet I find distress in my home pew.
If there is not a taste of suffering yet
In the crocks and the crannies I have met,
I find it in my heart to be distressed
By what the others suffered and unguessed.
Though You save me from troubles, I still find
Enough to sadden and to worry mind,
And shed a tear beneath the joyous sun
Before the pleasures of my day are done.
Beloved, in all creation there are none
So foolish as the human psyche spun
That finds complaint in every stile and turn
No matter what’s to get and what’s to learn.

15 O that men would praise YHWH for good
And for His great acts as men should!
16 He’s broken down the gates of brass,
And cut the iron bars like grass.
17 Fools for their transgressions and for
Their iniquities hit the floor.
18 Their soul abhors all kinds of food,
They come near death’s gates in their brood.
19 They cry to YHWH in their distress,
He saves them from troubles’ address.
20 He sent His word and healed them too,
And saved them from destructions’ view.

Beloved, I have at my age certain aches
And stains that could be healed for goodness’ sakes.
And after Your word strengthens blood and heart,
I know some others who could use Your part.
I let fools bide in their transgressions’ art,
And leave You Yourself to destroying cart
To break down walls of iron and gates of brass.
I only ask You now, before You pass
To heal me and to heal mine on the way
To saving people from distress in sway.
Beloved, I come at morning of the day
And find the woods are barren of the gay
Leaves that last week turned glimmering and bright.
I pray for healing before comes the night.

21 O that men would praise YHWH for good
And for His great acts as men should!
22 Let them offer offerings of thanks,
Rejoicing declare His works’ banks.
23 They go down to the sea in ships,
They do affairs in ocean slips,
24 They see the wonders of YHWH creep,
His miracles within the deep.
25 He raises up the stormy wind
By His command, feathered and finned
Are lifted by the waves unbinned.
26 They rush up toward the sky, they go
Down once more in the trough and low,
Their soul’s melted at trouble’s show.
27 They reel and stagger like a drunk,
At their wits’ end, scared they’ve been sunk.
28 They cry to YHWH in trouble’s wake,
He brings them from distress’s take.
29 He makes the storm a calm until
Its waves themselves have become still.
30 Then they’re glad of the calm repose
Until the hoped for haven rose.

I’ve seen the ocean lie like pearl and wind
Itself beneath the sky unfurled, untined.
I’ve seen the grey and wave rise up behind
The cliffs that shadow land and out of mind,
And hear the plummet roar of deep resigned.
I’ve heard the sighing of the little waves
That plough the shells before sanderling graves.
I’ve smelled the driftwood fire cypress outlined.
Beloved, in memory I seek the light
Of ocean breathing immensely and bright,
While on the lapping lakeshore I count where
The rings of high water marked out its share
Below the tundra and the beating there.
Beloved, in silence I hear earth laid bare.

31 O that men would praise YHWH for good
And for His great acts as men should!
32 Let them exalt Him also in
The people’s congregation’s din,
And praise Him in the elders’ bin.
33 He turns streams into wilderness,
The watersprings to dry address,
34 A fruitful land to barrenness,
Because of its folk’s wickedness.
35 He turns the wilderness to pools
Of water, and there dry ground cools
In watersprings beneath His tools.
36 And there He makes the hungry dwell,
And build a city for their cell.
37 They sow the fields and come to plant
Their vineyards, and receive the grant
Of its fruit’s increase on the slant.
38 He blesses them also, so they
Are multiplied in a great way,
Their cattle also comes to stay.
39 Again they’re brought down on the earth
Through oppression, affliction, dearth.
40 He pours contempt on prince and king
And causes them to flee and sing
In desert places without sting.
41 But the poor He shall set on high
Above affliction high and dry
In families like flocks in sty.
42 The righteous shall see and rejoice,
And wicked ones shall find no voice.
43 The wise one will observe these things
And understand the wanderings
That YHWH in lovingkindness brings.

Beloved, I must be of the righteous crowd
Since I keep finding voice to speak aloud
My jingles and my rhymings by the proud.
The wicked ones find no voice in the way
Of Your Word striking fear against the bay,
In Hebrew scratchings like that left by crow.
I have enough rejoicing for a shroud
Well woven in the sound of dirges low.
Beloved, the wise observe the tide and flow
And in their sightings they have come to know
That after rain there comes the shine and bright
Of heat and health before the failing night.
Your lovingkindness stands in likely pools
Unnoticed by both kings and royal fools.

PSALM 108

1 A Song. A Psalm of David.
O Ælohim, my heart’s steadfast,
I’ll sing and give praise, and at last
Even with my glory. 2 Awake,
Both lute and harp! And then I’ll shake
The dawn. 3 I will praise You, O YHWH,
Among the peoples, sing praise to
You among the nations. 4 For Your
Mercy is great and what is more
Above the heavens, and Your truth
Reaches up to the clouds, forsooth.
5 Be exalted, O Ælohim,
Above the heavens, and let beam
Your glory above all the earth,
6 That Your beloved ones may of worth
Be all delivered, save with Your
Right hand, and hear me ever more.
7 Ælohim has spoken in His
Holiness: “I’ll rejoice, that is,
I will divide Shechem and measure
The Valley of Succoth for treasure.
8 Gilead’s Mine, Manasseh’s Mine,
Ephraim also’s the helmet fine
For My head, Judah’s My lawgiver.
9 Moab’s My washpot, on the river
Of Edom I will cast My shoe,
I’ll triumph on Philistia too.”
10 Who will bring me into the strong
City? Who will lead me along
To Edom? 11 Is it not You, O
Ælohim, who’s cast us off so?
And You, O Ælohim, who did
Not go out with our armies’ quid?
12 Give us help from trouble, for help
Of man is useless as a skelp.
13 Through Ælohim we valiantly
Shall do, for indeed it is He
Who shall tread down our enemy.

If David’s heart is set to sing again
Psalm sixty so that every ear of men
May hear the twelves march through the valleys clear,
I’ve no complaints in application here.
If Your heart is set on the happy tune,
Or on the sadness of Edom in doom
Or Moab for Your washpot by the sand
Of silver, I do not lift up my hand.
Beloved, the golden bells of Psalm ring true
In everything that You come here to do,
To raise the weak and righteous in Your view,
Or put down those who rebel at Your law
And pass their days on earth in bloody claw,
While I come to Your throne, Beloved, in awe.

PSALM 109

1 To the chief musician, a Psalm
Of David. Do not remain calm,
O Ælohim of my praise drawn.
2 For the mouth of the wicked pawn
And the mouth of deceitful men
Are opened against me again,
They’ve spoken against me with lies.
3 They’ve surrounded me in the guise
Of hateful words, and they have fought
Me without cause in what I’ve wrought.
4 For my love they’ve become by foes,
But I stay in the prayer I chose.
5 They’ve given me evil for good,
And hatred for my love as could.

How many lies have been told about me!
I find them everywhere I turn to see!
I should not be surprised with such a state,
Since so few look to Your law soon and late.
The love of lying surrounds every place
Upon the earth, and there is hardly trace
Of truth in mouth of humankind, I swear,
Beloved, deceit and lies are everywhere.
The church is filled with filth, I hear the din,
Attack on righteousness, support of sin,
And yet, Beloved, the few who call Your name
Their rock of refuge, despite all the shame,
Remember You alone and do the right.
I seek out such to know both day and night.

6 Set a wicked man against him,
Let an accuser make him dim.
7 Let him be judged and so condemned,
Let his prayer become sin and hemmed.
8 Let his days be few and let take
Another his office and stake.
9 Let his children be fatherless,
His wife decked out in widow’s dress.
10 Let his children be vagabonds
And beg for bread by empty ponds.
11 Let the extortioner take all,
And strangers spoil his laboured hall.
12 Let none have mercy at his call,
None take his orphans into stall.
13 His posterity be cut off,
Let those after forget to scoff.
14 Let his ancestors’ wickedness
Be remembered at YHWH’s address,
And let not his mother’s sin be
Blotted out for eternity.
15 Let them be before YHWH for aye,
So He’ll cut off their memory’s cry
From the earth and under the sky.
16 Because he did not mind to show
Mercy, but persecuted poor
And needy so he might destroy
The broken-hearted without joy.
17 As he loved cursing, so let it
Come upon him as it is fit,
As he delighted not to bless,
So let it be far from him less.
18 He put on cursing like a coat,
So let it come like water’s moat
Into his bowels, like oil into
His very bones and spoil them too.
19 Let it be his cloak covering,
His belt tied on him like a string.
20 Let this be my foes’ fate from YHWH,
Of those who speak bad of me too.

The sweet Christian leaves out this torrid prayer
Because he wants to appear kind and fair,
And yet cathartic speech in closet made
Could have prevented him in his parade
From sticking knife in back of those waylaid.
The sweet Christian prefers the perfumed hymn
To Psalm, and wakes the drum and guitar’s vim
In wild gyrations of the slick and slim,
But never prays for enemy and lost
According to the words that You embossed.
Beloved, I pray from day to day that You
Might curse my enemies in power and pew,
And leave them on the vacant sand to waste
Away in mud and blood and wicked paste.

21 But You YHWH Lord, do this for me,
For Your name’s sake and Your mercy,
In Your goodness deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and
My heart is broken in my hand.
23 I pass like a shadow when done,
Tossed like a locust in the sun.
24 My knees are weak through fasting long,
My flesh fails of fatness and strong.
25 For them I’m an object of hate,
They look at me, shake heads to rate.
26 Help me, YHWH my Ælohim, save
Me by Your mercy from the grave.

Beloved, bless me and mine, who take Your law
In hope and act and leave the bloody claw.
Remember me for fasting and for good
Despite the waywardness in what I should.
For I repent of every evil thing,
I grieve for every sorrow that I bring
Upon another, though I feel the sting
Of every man’s hate who hates Your law too.
Beloved, I find the wilderness in view
As I flee from the sale and buying that
Oppress the poor and crush them on the mat.
Beloved, I find the street filled with the throng
That comes to art, accomplishment and wrong,
And quietly among them sing Your song.

27 Then they may know what’s in Your hand,
What You, YHWH have done in the land.
28 Let them curse on, but You bless me,
When they rise up, let shame go free,
But let Your servant joy to see.
29 Let my foes be covered in shame,
Confusion like a mantle’s game.
30 I’ll greatly praise YHWH with my mouth,
Praise Him with crowds from north and south.
31 For He’ll stand at the poor’s right hand
To save him from the judges’ stand.

David the king admits the thing is true
That the poor man before the judge and crew
Of courts of law stands to fail before those
Who scheme injustice and step on his toes.
David the king knows well how many come
With wealth and power to pretty up the sum
Against the poor to steal the poor man’s fare
And take away his bread and rightful share.
That’s why, Beloved, David the king repeats
That You Yourself will step in from the streets
And save the poor from judges and their heats.
Beloved, I wait to see when David’s call
Is answered on the earth below the pall
Of civilized in trade and county hall.

PSALM 110

1 A Psalm of David.
YHWH said to my Lord, “Sit at My
Right hand, and sit there until I
Make your enemies your footstool.”
2 And YHWH shall send the rod of rule
In your strength out of Zion. Rule
In the midst of your enemy!
3 Your people shall come willingly
In the day of your power, and in
The beauties of holiness, from
The womb of the morning to win,
You have the dew of your youth’s sum.
4 YHWH has sworn and will not relent,
“You are a priest forever sent
According to the order of
Melchizedek for gain or love.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand, he
Shall thrust through kings the day that he
Comes in His wrath. 6 He’ll judge among
The nations, He shall fill the rung
With the dead bodies, He shall slay
The heads of many lands in dread.
7 He’ll drink of the brook by the way,
Therefore He shall lift up the head.

The order of Melchizedek bears sway
Even above the order of the day
When Aaron came with censor and the sway
Of smoke and offering for all sins to pay.
The order of Melchizedek I see
In Salem sweet where Abraham was free
With booty of his warfare on the quay.
The order of Melchizedek’s my way.
Beloved, the hand that wrote to Hebrews made
The order of Melchizedek parade
Of Jesus Christ, but that’s easy to say.
The truth is hidden in the larger bay.
The secret priesthood of Your hidden room
Is where I flee, Beloved, from every doom.

PSALM 111

1 Praise YHWH! and I will praise YHWH with my whole heart,
In upright assembly and congregation.
2 The works of YHWH are great, and all find a part
In their perusal who find pleasure when done.
3 His work is honourable and glorious,
And so forever endures His righteousness.
4 He has made His wonderful works remembered,
YHWH’s gracious, full of compassion in a word.
5 He has given their food to those who fear Him,
He will ever be mindful of His pact grim.
6 He’s declared to His folk the power of His works,
Giving them heritage where each nation lurks.
7 The works of His hands, verity and justice,
Are all sure as His precepts coming to this.
8 They stand fast and firm forever and ever,
And are done in truth and uprightness to sir.
9 He’s sent in truth redemption to His people,
He’s commanded His covenant eternal:
Holy and awesome’s His name. 10 The fear of YHWH
Is the beginning of wisdom, and a true
Understanding have all those who His words do.
His praise endures forever, righteous and true.

Beloved, I may come on the grey-packed day,
The autumn colours turned sombre from gay,
And praise You with my whole heart, who can say.
I search the polished corners of the room
Within my inner chamber for the bloom
Of praise and wonder if the whole heart sounds,
Or if lip-service only meets the rounds.
Beloved, I sweep the granite floor to find
Anything that would keep me heart and mind
From praising You, and then return with gift
Of self alone, and with my face uplift
Praise to You once with whole heart as I light
The lamps within my chamber for Your sight,
Exposing every corner from the night.

PSALM 112

1 Praise YHWH! Blessed is the man who fears
YHWH, delighting when His law appears.
2 His descendants on earth shall be
Mighty, the generation free
Of the upright shall blessèd be.
3 Riches and gear shall fill his room,
His righteousness endure till doom.
4 To the upright there comes a light
In darkness: He is gracious, right
Full of compassion, righteous too.
5 A good man’s merciful and lends,
Discretion marks his affairs' ends.
6 Surely he shall never be moved,
Remembrance shall always be proved
Upon the righteous and his friends.
7 He’ll not take fear of evil news,
His heart is firm, his trust is YHWH’s.
8 His heart is set, he shall not fear
Till he sees his desire appear
Upon his enemies in tear.
9 He’s generous to help the poor,
His righteousness always endure,
His horn raised up in honour sure.
10 The wicked see it and are grieved,
He’ll gnash his teeth and unreprieved
He’ll disappear, the great desire
Of wicked ones shall burn in fire.

Beloved, the promise of destruction met
Upon my enemies makes me upset.
In fact I do not wish to see the pyre
Where my foes are extinguished in the fire.
I’d rather that the evil in each heart
Might be struck down, and idols all depart.
I’d rather that the work of wicked hand
Might be extirpated out of the land.
Beloved, I throw the idol down in me
And lend my heart to Your law to be free
Of lust of flesh, of lust for power, and lust
Of false faith that makes fool’s gold of the dust.
Beloved, I gnash my teeth upon the fold
Of tin and pray that it will turn to gold.

PSALM 113

1 Praise YHWH! Oh praise, YHWH’s servants here,
Praise YHWH’s name, 2 and then blessed appear
The name of YHWH from this day on
To all the bourns of time when drawn.
3 From sunrise to its going down
YHWH’s name is praised around the town.
4 YHWH’s high above all nations round,
His glory’s above the sky’s bound.
5 Who is like YHWH our Ælohim,
Who dwells above all things that seem?
6 Who bends down to see all things in
Both heaven and the earthly bin.
7 He raises the poor from the dust,
Lifts up the needy from the rust,
8 That he may set him with the great,
Even the folk’s princes in state.
9 He builds the barren women homes
To be mothers of sons, not gnomes.
So praise YHWH in every estate.

Beloved, if I praise You from rising sun
Throughout the day until the day is done,
What of the night? What of the blessèd night?
Let me praise You when I put out the light.
No doubt this Psalm is meant for a feast where
The services of praise continue there
Throughout the day, or it may be a day
Of fasting instead of feasting in way.
Few come to praise with feast or fast these days,
Because there are so few You want to praise,
And because no one now knows when Your feast
Is on the calendar to say the least.
Beloved, let my praise every day appear
In fast or feasting, safety or in fear.

PSALM 114

1 When Israel went out of Egypt,
The house of Jacob from the crypt
Of a people of a strange tongue,
2 Judah became His sanctuary,
And Israel His dominion.
3 The sea saw and fled from the rung,
The Jordan was held back and chary.
4 The mountains skipped like rams undone,
The little hills like lambs and merry.
5 What’s wrong with you, O sea, that you
Flee, and you, Jordan, driven in dew?
6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams,
And little hills, that jumped like lambs?
7 Before the Lord tremble, O earth,
Before Allah of Jacob’s worth.
8 He turned the rock to standing water,
Into a fountain of fresh water.

I know when the sea fled, I know indeed
When Jordan river fell back on its steed,
I know when the rock turned to water-spout.
But what is skipping of the hills about?
Perhaps that’s telling of the day when You
Came down on Mount Tur almost in the view
Of humankind and, as the mountain shook,
You told the people there to hear and look.
Beloved, I rise among the bowing crowd
To hear the ten commandments spoke aloud,
And give my will to You that I may live
Within the blessings that Your statutes give.
Beloved, I see by faith the hills that jump,
And listen in the vision to the bump.

PSALM 115

1 Not to us, YHWH, not to us, but
To Your name give glory in rut,
For Your mercy and Your truth’s cut.
2 Why should the heathen say ”Where’s now
Ælohim of theirs anyhow?”
3 But our Ælohim’s in the skies,
He’s done the things that He thinks wise.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of human hands and bold.
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak,
They have eyes, but they do not peek.
6 They have ears, but hear not a sound,
Noses they have, but smell no round.
7 They have hand, but they do not touch,
And feet they have, nor walk as much,
Nor does sound come from their throat’s bound.
8 Those who make them are likewise made,
So are all whose trust in them stayed.

The Allah of the holy Qur’an has
A hand and a foot and all of such jazz,
But who knows if He hears a word I say,
An idol in the great transgressor’s way.
Beloved, I have not seen Your hand or foot,
Nor have You any house or place to put
Your head when slumber comes to dress you down.
You are no idol at all on the town.
Yet You are the Allah of the Qur’an,
The Aloah of Job and Psalms’ out drawn,
The hope of every man and woman known
Who may not have a name for the ungrown.
Without ear hear my call and praise to You,
Without tongue mind me of the things I do.

9 O Israel, trust now in YHWH:
He is their help and shield in clue.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in YHWH:
He’s their help and shield from the blue.
11 O you who fear YHWH, trust in YHWH:
He’s their help and their shield in crew.
12 YHWH has been mindful of us: He
Will bless, he’ll bless Israel’s place free,
He’ll bless the house of Aaron’s tree.
13 He will bless those in fear of YHWH,
The small and great, middle-sized too.
14 YHWH shall multiply you the more
You have children to keep in-door.
15 You’re blessed of YHWH Creator of
Both heaven and earth all made in love.
16 The heavens, the heavens belong to YHWH,
But earth He’s given to human crew.
17 The dead do not come to praise YHWH,
Those gone into silence, none do.
18 But we will bless YHWH from this day,
Now and for evermore, alway.
Praise YHWH, always ever praise YHWH.

It was a foul thing that David once said,
That earth is for humans both born and bred.
The sky itself is not for You alone.
The birds have the right to approach Your throne.
And so earth is not man’d to tread in vain.
It’s also lent to those who know the pain
Of being mere beasts, mammals on the wane.
It was a foul thing David said instead.
Beloved, I do not treat David with guile,
I always look on David with a smile.
I don’t believe he meant it as men now
Who take the earth as property somehow
Of humankind alone. Hypocrisy
Is shown that not all human’s own the lea.

[size=18]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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