psalms – Kate Bluett

You saw me in the darkness
within my mother's womb;
in every hope and heartache
I have been known to you.
I flee you and I fight you;
I turn from you in shame,
but I cannot deny you,
and still you call my name.

In rising and in sinking,
in falling, there to lie,
all that I long have hidden
is here before your eye.
My secrets and my shadows
to you are bright as day,
and all I long to ask you,
you know before I say.

When I would shrink in terror
there's courage that you give,
who know me in my failure—
You know, and you forgive.
And still you call, O Father;
beside me still you stand.
Too great for me, this knowledge,
that I am in your hand.

Based on Psalm 56:

Have pity on me, O my God;
have pity, God, I pray,
for evils trample on my heart
and fill my mind each day.

Relentlessly they press me, Lord,
and put my hopes to rout,
that at their feet now I have poured
more tears than I can count.

Yet though my tears are numberless,
you count them as the stars
and gather them into the flask
where you keep all our scars.

My days and nights are filled with fear:
Fill them still more with trust,
and if I cannot feel you near,
yet meet me in the dust.

Oh, come, take hold of both my hands
and fill them with your strength,
so I may fight—or merely stand—
beneath the blows that rain.

But one by one shall they turn back:
They see you here and flee,
and when you come to fill my lack,
what can they do to me?

So you will rescue me from death
and stand with me in strife.
You fill my body with your breath
here in the land of life.

Tag: psalms

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