Psalm 119 (Part Four)— I am still held in the palm of your love. Now comfort me.

"I have reached the end of my own salvation. Now I will wait for yours."

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter of the Bible, so we’ll break it into seven parts. It is an acrostic poem, with one stanza for each of the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Here are the stanzas for Yodh, Kaph, and Lamedh.

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Rendition of Psalm 119 (Part Four)

Yodh

Lord, your hands built me from the earth.
Now give me your wisdom.
I want those who fear and revere you
To see your goodness demonstrated in me
And be glad as I wait for your word.
Though you made me well, I am unfinished.
I know no evil has its source in you
And when you let the hard hand of affliction
Take me, I am still held
In the palm of your love.
Now comfort me, Lord.
Your loving kindness bursts every boundary.
Now send me your word.
May your mercy rouse me and gather me in.
May your instruction delight me.
May those who harry me fall away
As I turn my mind to meditate on your ways.
May those who fear you turn with me
Back to your instruction, back
To blamelessness, free 
From shame forever.

Kaph

I have reached the end of my own salvation.
Now I will wait for yours.
I can’t move, I can’t see, and I can hardly think
For longing for your relief 
To come as you promised.
When will you comfort me?
I am a husk. I have become brittle 
And frayed and I blacken at my edges.
How many days of this remain?
When will you rouse yourself
To chase away all the things arrayed against me?
My path hides pitfalls that I did not make.
I am hounded by lies and
I have nearly been destroyed.
Help me. 
I have not abandoned you
And you remain faithfully at hand.
Revive me because you are good
And I will yet bind myself to your word.

Lamedh

Your word outlives the stars themselves.
Your faithfulness spans generations.
You set the earth on its foundations
And it stands because of you ordained it.
All things serve you.
If I had not found delight in your law
My misery would have swallowed me.
I will not forget your word
Because you have brought me back from the brink.
I sought you and you saved me.
Though you have not yet removed
The evil things that lay in wait for me,
You are my lot and my portion.
I have set myself to understand your ways.
I will wait for you
To bring all things to their good end.

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Catching up with the Darking Psalter

If you are new to the Darkling Psalter, it is a project to create renditions of the Psalms (artistic rewordings based on the original Hebrew) and original poems to pair with each one.

Psalms with poems: 1, 2, 6, 8, 13, 14, 16, 19, 22, 29, 31, 32, 34, 38, 39, 40, 42, 46, 51, 53, 65, 73, 74, 84, 86, 88, 90, 107, 121, 123, 130, 131, 137, 142, 147.

Psalms only: 3, 23, 62, 117, 119 (part 1, 2, 3),139, 148

Photo by Om Prakash Sethia on Unsplash