PSALM CHAPTER 143 - 151

PSALM 143

1 A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer,
O YHWH, Give ear and give Your care
Unto my supplications! In
Your faithfulness answer my din,
And in Your righteousness. 2 Do not
Enter into judgement unsought
With Your servant, for in Your sight
No one living knows to do right.
3 For the foe has pursued my soul,
He’s crushed my life into the hole,
He has made me live in darkness,
Like those who’ve long had death’s address.
4 Therefore my spirit’s overcome
Within me, my heart’s trouble’s sum.
5 I remember the days of old,
I meditate on Your works bold,
I muse on the work of Your hands.
6 I spread out my hands to Your bands,
My soul for You in thirsty lands.

Your own beloved, David, once prophesied
Of the foe who pursued a soul more wide
Than any known before, to crush the right
And slay the righteous ones in heaven’s sight.
The words of David in my heart unbless
As I remember Karbela’s address.
I too spread out my hands from day to day
In supplication in the desert way,
And pray for water for the long dead child
Who once skipped on the sand upon the wild.
My prayer’s too late, and yet I still repeat
The words, perhaps another child is mete
To gain the blessing spent upon the grate
When no salvation came, or came too late.

7 Answer me quickly, YHWH, for fails
My Spirit! Do not hide with veils
Your face from me, lest I be like
Those who go down beneath the strike.
8 Cause me to hear Your loving-kindness
In the morning, for in my blindness
I trust in You, cause me to know
The way in which I ought to go,
For I lift up my soul to You.
9 Deliver me from foe, O YHWH,
In You I take shelter, I do.
10 Teach me to do Your will, for You
Are my God, Your spirit is good.
Lead me in upright land as should.
11 Revive me, YHWH, for Your name’s sake!
Bring my soul for Your righteous sake
Out of trouble. 12 In Your mercy
Cut off my every enemy,
And destroy all those who afflict
My soul, for I’m Your servant picked.

When sweet Husseyn this Psalm in cantillation
Repeated before his annihilation,
Did he know the great sacrifice that he
Was called upon to raise and faithfully?
I think he did, and took in his free will
The weight and burden of a wicked hill.
When sweet Husseyn repeated these hard words
Beneath a cloudless sky’s unpitied birds,
Did he know that the arrow should find well
Its mark upon a child? Yet into hell
He did not send the frightful enemy.
When sweet Husseyn walked on the sandy lee,
He found these words his solace for all grief.
Beloved, bind me to sweet Husseyn’s belief.

PSALM 144

1 A Psalm of David. Blessed be YHWH
My Rock, who trains my hands to do
War, and my fingers for battle,
2 My lovingkindness and my full
Fortress, my high tower and Saviour,
My shield and in whom I find store
Of refuge, who subdues my folk
Under me. 3 YHWH, what is man’s smoke,
That You take knowledge of the bloke?
Or son of man, that You remember?
4 A man is like a breath or ember,
His days are like a passing shade.
5 Bow down Your heavens that You have made,
O YHWH, and come down, touch the hills,
And they shall smoke. 6 Flash forth the drills
Of lightning and scatter them, shoot
Out Your arrows, destroy the brute.
7 Stretch out Your hand from above, and
Rescue and save me on the land
From out of great waters, from hand
Of strangers, 8 whose mouth speaks vain words,
And whose right hand with falsehood girds.

You were a rock, Beloved, a fortress and
High tower and Saviour, shield of the command.
And yet Man was a passing shade upon
Karbela’s sand, a smoke and flash at dawn.
When Husseyn prayed for saving at Your hand
To see Your arrows strike the stranger and
Rebuke the vain words and the false remand,
He saw the vision of Your tears that flood
Euphrates with the sorrow of his blood.
He saw You bow the heavens at the stroke
And veil the angels’ faces with a cloak.
I cover too my face today in grief
To see injustice pluck the fresh green leaf,
But hold fast to Karbela’s firm belief.

9 I will sing a new song to You,
O Ælohim, on harp construe
Ten strings to sing praises to You,
10 The One who gives salvation to
Kings, who delivers David His
Servant from deadly sword that is.
11 Rescue me and deliver me
From the hand of the enemy,
Strangers, whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose right hand with falsehood girds,
12 That our sons may be as plants grown
Up in their youth, our daughters shown
As pillars, sculptured in the style
Of palaces, 13 That our barns’ pile
Be full, supplying great produce,
That our sheep may bring forth, unloose
Thousands and ten thousands in fields,
14 Our oxen well-laden in yields,
No breaking in or going out,
No outcry in our streets about.
15 Happy are the people who are
In such a state, and happy are
The people whose God’s YHWH by far!

When Husseyn prayed this prayer he sought
A blessing on his lovely children taught.
The enemy was all around and vied
To slaughter mother and the child that cried.
But in the midst of slaughter Husseyn died
With prayers for his own children on his lips.
He prayed that they might be kept from the slips
That felled the others on the river edge.
He prayed they might be pillars in the wedge,
And palaces abundant with the rich
Divine guidance to keep all from the ditch.
As plants green in the field his children lay
Down in their death, and yet his prayer held sway
In Ali’s praises to Your name today.

PSALM 145

1 A Praise of David. I’ll extol
You, my God, O King, and my soul
Will bless Your name as seasons roll.
2 And every day I will bless You,
And praise Your name as always true.
3 Great is YHWH, greatly to be praised,
Unsearchably His greatness raised.
4 One generation shall praise Your
Works to another come before,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
5 I will meditate on the facts
Of Your majesty’s glorious splendour,
Your wondrous works as a defender.
6 Earth shall speak of Your awesome acts
Of might, and I’ll declare impacts
Of Your greatness. 7 The memory
Of Your great goodness they’ll decree,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
8 YHWH is gracious and full to bless
With His compassion, slow to be
In anger and great in mercy.
9 YHWH is good to all, and His tender
Mercies are on all His works render.

Above the bloody fields of world and strife
Rises the splendour of the divine life
That overcomes like dandelion clay
And concrete spread upon the glowing way.
Beloved, I seek the glory above all
The truant places where good men may fall
Beneath the cutting blades of hopeless vent.
I seek the paths where Hussein once was sent.
The silence of the morning greets the flood
Of what at evening filled the earth with blood,
And year on year opens the lips to spell
Renewal of the faith the stones must tell.
Beloved, above the wrath Your mercy shines,
Beyond death resurrection draws its lines.

10 All Your works shall praise You, O YHWH,
And Your saints shall surely bless You.
11 They’ll speak the glory of Your reign,
And talk of Your power in refrain,
12 To make known to the sons of men
His mighty acts, and glorious pen
Of majesty throughout His reign.
13 Your kingdom is everlasting
And Your dominion everything
Throughout all generations’ ring.
14 YHWH upholds all who fall, and raises
Up all who are bowed down with praises.
15 Expectantly the eyes of all
Look to You, and You give at call
Them their food in due season’s fall.
16 You open Your hand, satisfy
The desire of each living guy.
17 YHWH is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all the works He lays.
18 YHWH’s near to all who call on Him,
To all in truth who call on Him.
19 He will fulfil the desire of
Those who fear Him, also in love
He will hear their cry and save them.
20 YHWH preserves all who take His hem
With love, but all the wicked He
Will destroy. 21 My mouth shall agree
To speak the praise of YHWH, all flesh
Shall bless His holy name afresh.

Your saints come to bless Your name with their lives
And with the blood that in this world contrives
To bear the witness to Your law and throne.
Your saints come to bless You with heart and bone.
All flesh must bless Your name indeed, the wight
Winged despots as well as the sons of light.
All flesh must come again before the face
Of every face after the darkened chase.
Beloved, desire rises to You alone
And scratches its petitions on the stone
Of Karbela until Your hand is filed
Against the wickedness irreconciled,
Until all evil things fail in the lamp
Of living and go down into the damp.

PSALM 146

1 Praise YHWH! Praise YHWH, O my soul, praise!
2 While I live I’ll praise YHWH, I’ll raise
Praises to my God while I’ve being.
3 Do not put your trust in the seeing
Of princes, nor in son of man,
In whom there is no help nor can.
4 His spirit departs, he returns
To his earth, in that way he learns
That very day all his plan burns.
5 Happy is he who has the God
Of Jacob for his help and prod,
Whose hope is in YHWH his Exalted,
6 Who made heaven and earth unfaulted,
The sea, and all that is in them,
Who keeps truth forever a gem,
7 Who executes justice for the
Oppressed, who gives food to hungry.
YHWH gives freedom to prisoners.
8 YHWH opens the eyes of blind fers,
YHWH raises those who are bowed down,
YHWH loves the righteous in the town.
9 YHWH watches over the strangers,
He relieves the fatherless and
Widow, but the way of the hand
Of the wicked He turns around.
10 YHWH shall reign always, and your God,
O Zion, to all on the sod
Of earth for generations due.
Praise YHWH! Again I say, praise YHWH!

Put not your trust in princes, so You say,
Beloved, then show the world another way.
If Son of Man saves none for all his crosses,
At least leave us our kings and union bosses.
Do You say no? Then what a disappointment
In Palestine it is a vain anointment
To crucify a man! It won’t set right
The wrongs of any world or woe for spite.
But that is all a prince can think to do.
I set things right by whirling, crying Huu!
If any man think such an act is vain,
Then let him see what bombing does for gain.
I put my trust in You, Beloved, in whom
I care not whether there’s a grace or doom.

PSALM 147

1 Praise YHWH! For it is good to sing
Praise to our God in pleasant ring,
And praise is beautiful. 2 YHWH builds
Up Jerusalem, gathers guilds
Of the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted well
And binds up their wounds by a spell.
4 He tells the number of the stars;
He calls them by their names and bars.
5 Great is our Lord, and great His power,
His understanding hour by hour.
6 YHWH raises up the meek, He throws
The wicked on the ground in rows.
7 Sing to YHWH with thanksgiving’s voice,
Sing praise on harp to Ælohim,
8 Who covers skies with clouds of choice,
Prepares the rain for earthly stream,
Who makes grass on the mountains team.
9 He gives to every beast its food,
To the young calling ravens’ brood.
10 He delights in the horse’s strength,
Though none in a man’s legs at length.

Though I do not share Your passion to see
The horses racing round the track to be
The object of men’s bets and fights and flights,
I understand Your disdain at the sights
Of men who try to run a race as well.
I also deride human flies at spell.
Instead of horses, I consider best
The jumping grasshopper, from east to west
The winner of gold medals for its feats
In jumping far more body-lengths for treats
Than any man can dream of. I like those,
Beloved, more than the animals You chose.
I sit with the grasshopper on the leaf
To listen to Your word beyond belief.

11 YHWH takes pleasure in those who fear
Him, and hope in His mercy’s gear.
12 Praise YHWH, Jerusalem, and praise
Your Ælohim, fortress and maze.
13 He’s strengthened the locks on your gates,
He’s blessed your children in their states.
14 He makes peace of your borders, fills
You with the finest wheat in bills.
15 He sends out on the earth His laws,
His word runs quickly on its paws.
16 He gives snow like wool, He spreads out
The hoarfrost like ashes about.
17 He casts forth ice like bits and pieces,
Who can stand where His cold increases?
18 He sends out commands and they melt,
He makes His wind blow helter-skelt,
And the water flows and releases.
19 He shows His word to Jacob and
His statutes and judgements still stand
In Israel’s sight as He has planned.
20 He’s not dealt so with any nation,
And judgements, they’ve not known the ration.
And so praise YHWH. And so praise YHWH.

No other nation has received the plot
Of Your law in the total memory slot.
Rather among the Gentiles some men rise
Alone to witness of Your mercy’s guise.
Your Scriptures have been kept in quiet need
By Jacob and Abraham’s dearest seed.
For this I praise Your name, Beloved, and say
That the treasure vouchsafed becomes a ray
To every nation, those within Your pay
And those also who long have gone astray.
Beloved, I come of every nation, I
In whose veins every blood runs and to vie,
Of every nation but the one You chose.
I still take my place in the hallowed rows.

PSALM 148

1 Praise YHWH! Praise YHWH from skies above,
Praise Him in heights! 2 Praise Him in love,
All His angels, praise Him, and all
His hosts! 3 Praise Him, sun diurnal
And moon, praise Him, all you stars of
Light! 4 Praise Him, you the heavens above,
And you waters above the skies!
5 Let them praise YHWH’s name, who are wise,
For He commanded and they were
Created and the lovelier.
6 He also established them there
Forever and ever, a fair
Decree He made that shall not pass.

Eternity is a word beyond match.
I wonder if the Psalmist at the latch
Intends to invoke all of that in catch.
If not eternity for sun and moon,
If not for ever under light of noon,
If time does not place anything in boon,
At least I am certain that by Your word
All things are once created and then stirred.
Beloved, I praise Your word because I am
A syllable upon Your earthly cam,
Established for eternity to blow
A moment here beneath the love and show
Of summer fleeting out toward its death,
Of grace in perpetration of a breath.

7 Praise YHWH from the earth, you great sea
Creatures and all the depths that be,
8 Fire and hail, snow and clouds, and wind
Of storm fulfilling disciplined
His word, 9 mountains and all the hills,
Fruitful trees, all cedars with skills,
10 Beasts and all cattle, creeping things
And flying fowl, 11 and earthly kings
And all peoples, princes and all
Judges of the earth at their call,
12 Both young men and maidens, old men
And children. 13 Let them praise again
The name of YHWH, His name alone
Is exalted, His glory’s known
Above the earth and heaven shown.
14 And He has exalted the horn
Of His people, the praises born
Of all His saints, of Israel’s folk,
A people near to Him that spoke
“Praise YHWH! Praise YHWH!” and Him invoke.

Hanna, the mom of Samuel in her day
Made the first prophecy of horn in sway.
After that time the horn arose to be
The sign of Your anointed on the spree
As well as sign of power infernal where
Men made their empires on the empty air.
Let Your horn and appointed rule my life,
Deliver me from all imperial strife.
Beloved, I see the fruitful tree, the till
Of cattle lowing, and sheep on the hill,
The wealth of earth come from Your power and hand
And seeing, try again to understand
What worth is in Your word in silence spoken,
A gauge of right and wrong and beauty’s token.

PSALM 149

1 Praise YHWH! Sing to YHWH a new song,
His praise in congregation long,
Where saints 2 of Israel rejoice,
And Zion’s children lend their voice
With joyful praises in their King.
3 Let them praise His name high and sharp
With dancing, let them praises sing
To Him with the timbrel and harp.
4 For YHWH takes pleasure in His folk,
He’ll beautify salvation’s cloak
For every humble one and broke.
5 Let the saints be joyful in glory,
And sing aloud in beds their story.
6 Let high praises of Ælohim
Be in their mouth, and like a stream,
A two-edged sword held in their hand,
7 To work vengeance on every land
And nation, punishing the people
8 To bind kings with chains under steeple
And their nobles with iron fetters,
9 Executing on them their betters’
Written judgment. This honour all
His saints have to praise YHWH withal!

Grandfather used to say to me aloud,
“Sing at the table and sing in the bed,
The bugger man will get you ‘fore you’re dead!”
I come out of this childish fear like cloud
To hear You say that I can sing aloud
In bed and out. You are more modest far
Than audiences today and their star.
They do not tolerate the couch performance,
With rare exception in an opera dormance.
You, on the other hand, accept the voice
That I may have with or without my choice,
And welcome song both standing and inclined.
Indeed Your tolerance is rare, I find.
Beloved, in this I quietly rejoice.

PSALM 150

1 Praise YHWH! Praise Ælohim in His
Own sanctuary, praise in His
Great firmament! 2 Praise Him for His
Great acts, praise Him according to
His excellent greatness! 3 Praise Him
With sound of trumpet, and praise Him
With the lute and the harp! 4 Praise Him
With timbrel and the dance, praise Him
With stringed instruments and flutes too!
5 Praise Him with cymbals loud, praise Him
With clashing cymbals! 6 Let all things
That have breath praise YHWH yes, praise YHWH!
All things with breath and feet or wings!

Beloved, the instruments of great and good
Tell praises to Your name as well they should.
My instrument of praise is only breath
That comes and goes each moment in the death
And life that keeps me in Your well-praised heart.
While men and angels praise You with great art,
I only have, like ten beads on a string,
Ten syllables in feeble praise that ring
No longer than one breath and then are still.
And yet my vanishing pearls come to fill
My praises with the shy saints of the field
And forest where lone dervish lifts a shield.
Beloved, You hear my praise of You as I
Breathe waking or asleep beneath the sky.

PSALM 151

1 Among my brothers, I was small,
In Father’s house youngest of all,
And I tended my father’s sheep.
2 My hands made me a harp to keep,
My fingers fashioned me a lyre.
3 And whose is the ardent desire
To declare the thing to my Lord?
The Lord Himself is He who hears.
4 He sent His messenger like sword
And took me from my father’s sheep,
Anointing me above my peers
With the anointing oil and deep.
5 My brothers were handsome and tall,
But them YHWH was not pleased to call.
6 I went to meet the Philistine,
Who cursed me by his gods and wine.
7 But I laid hand on his own sword,
Beheaded in name of the Lord,
Removed reproach from Israel’s vine.

Beloved, how You loved David with his sheep!
I see the boy by day and in my sleep
I dream his melodies above the fields.
I hear the sting of stone in sling he wields
As well as the bright sounds of harp and lyre.
He picks up sword in both hands when You speak
To tell him what new and strange song to seek.
The love of David sets my heart on fire
And so I join You, my Beloved, in this
Passion for David in both dark and bliss.
Eternal throne of David stands beneath
Your footstool, my Beloved, upon the heath,
And all around the swallows swoop to hear,
The silver notes he sings fall on the ear.

How many Davids are there in Your way,
Beloved, before the sinking of the day?
The one whose name is found only by half
In the claim of archaeologic staff,
The one who graced Damascus with his magic
To entertain with comic and with tragic,
The one who founded twelve convents to keep
The Sabbath by prayers day and night and weep
And praise Your name with work like ox and prayer,
All three breathe on me life and faith from where
Their witness still remains from Palestine
As far as lack of Cambrian grog and wine.
Beloved, let this be now my trinity,
Dawid, Dawud, Saint David on their spree!

Kaddish

Be magnified and sanctified
His great name in the whole world wide
Which by His will He does create.
May He establish in its state
His kingdom in your life and days,
In the life of all in the ways
Of God’s house, even speedily
And at a near time may it be,
And say all truly “Let it be.”
Let His great name be blessed indeed
Forever and always succeed.
Blessed, praised and glorified, exalted,
Extolled and honoured and unfaulted
Be magnified and lauded too
The name of the Holy One who
Be blessed, though He be high above
All blessings and hymns, praises’ love,
And consolations which are spoken
In the world, say Amen as token.
May there be peace abundantly
For us and for each and every
Prince of God, and say “May it be.”
He who makes peace in His high places,
May He make peace for us and faces
Of every prince of God and know
To say each one “May it be so.”

Beloved, I speak with faltering, failing tongue
The ancient words for many centuries sung
For Your praise in the lands where they far-flung
Have been heard in both hoping and in sorrow.
This morning I repeat them, and tomorrow
May I again recite the praiseful store.
I follow the sweet syllable through door
And gate of law onto the loving shore
That looks up into Your high places’ peace.
May that Islam I see there never cease,
But bring all people into its submission,
So that as You are One by definition
And by Your essence, so may mankind be
One in Your reflected eternity.

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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