Psalm 119—The Complete Rendition

"Revive me with your word."

Aleph

Happy are those who sojourn with a sound heart,
Who walk in the Lord’s laws.
Happy are those who keep watch with his word
And who seek him with their whole selves.
They do not turn aside for injustice,
But walk steady in his ways unwavering,
For God has not withheld his word
But given it for keeping.
Oh that his laws would be founded in me!
And my life guided along his way.
Then I will set shame aside
When I see the beauty of his commandments.
Then I will thank him with a pure heart.
When the ways of his righteousness are carved inside me,
Then I will live by what he has ordained.
Remain near to me, Lord!

Beth

How can the young walk the path 
Without shame or fear or fault?
By hewing close to God’s word.
After seeking you with my whole heart,
Do not let me wander from your ways.
I have hidden your word inside me as a treasure
So that I will not sin or stray.
I kneel before you, Lord.
Teach me. I want to learn.
I have told of the goodness of your judgments.
I have rejoiced at the givenness
Of your rich world.
I have thought long on the way you’ve ordered things
And sought your paths.
These things delight me.
I will not forget your word.

Gimel

Allot my portion with mercy, Lord.
So that I can live and obey your word.
Open my eyes so that I can wonder
At the goodness of your ways.
I am only a sojourner here;
Do not conceal your commands from me.
I am crushed by longing
For your justice to come.
You rebuke the proud and curse
Those who wander from your ways.
Spin away all contempt and scorn 
And disgrace from me; fling it back.
For I stand the watches 
Of the night with you.
Even if the kings of the earth denounce me,
And all folk turn against me,
I will continue to follow you 
And muse on all your ways.
I will draw my delight from the deep wells
Of your commandments.

Daleth

My soul is caked with earth;
My body bends toward the dust.
Revive me with your word.
You know my story. You have answered me
Many times when I return to you.
Now teach me your laws.
Open my mind to understand your ways.
Hold your wonders before me until I know them
Deeply enough to matter.
The well of grief inside me
Brims and overflows.
Strengthen me with your word.
Clear away from me the lies I followed
And the lies I’ve made.
Charter me again into the grace
Of your instruction.
I have chosen faithfulness.
I have placed your justice squarely before me.
I cleave myself to your laws.
Do not let me be ashamed.
But enlarge my heart
To run long on the path of your ways.

He

Show me the movements
Of your ways in the world, Lord.
Give me the grace of understanding
So that I can stand watch with your laws
And keep them with my whole heart.
I want to follow the trodden path
Of your commandments 
And take delight in the journey.
Pitch my heart toward your law
And away from dishonest loves.
Turn my eyes away from the glittering,
Empty things and revive me with your truth.
Arise, Lord. found your word in me again.
Teach me to fear the right things and
Still my trembling at lesser fears than you.
When you rule, it is good,
So I long for your law to come.
Revive your bright justice
And revive me with it.

Vav

Heavenly father, your kindness come.
Release the salvation you have stored up in your word.
So that I will give an answer back 
When the truth is in jeopardy.
Return the trust I place in your word one hundredfold.
Plant it as a seed in my mouth
As I wait for your justice to come.
Keep my way so that I can keep
Your laws forever.
When I walk with you,
I will walk free.
I will seek everywhere 
Your deepest, hidden things.
I will open my mouth and give
The ripe fruit your word made
To kings, to anyone.
Your word is not dull;
It is my delight. I lift it up
And it lifts me up.
I hide it inside myself
And it grows.

Zayin

Remember what you said to me, Lord,
When I put my hope in you. 
This is my comfort in my affliction:
Again and again your word has revived me.
My enemies have only derision for me,
But I will not turn aside from your law.
I draw my consolation from your word
Though I burn with anger when I look
From left to right and see the ravages of evil.
Yet your laws remain the songs of my pilgrimage.
Yet I remember your name in the night.
Yet I will always keep your commandments.
This will always be my path:
That your laws watch over all my ways.

Heth

Lord, you are my portion.
I have sworn myself to your word.
I begged to see your face with my whole heart.
Now turn to me and open the leaguer of your love
So that grace would rush toward me.
I stilled myself and watched the way I’d come
I hunted back through the path
That brought me here and set my feet again
To walk in your ways.
I will hasten and not delay
In keeping your commandments.
Even when my way is pocked with snares
And pitfalls, I will remember your law.
In the watches of the night, I rise 
To give you thanks for your unhasting
And unresting, relentless justice.
Those others who want to keep your ways,
I grapple to myself with enduring bonds.
Show us the truth you have scattered 
With such a broad hand.
The whole world is full of your glory, Lord.

Teth

Lord, you have made me well.
Now teach me what is good,
So that I can see and taste and know
The sweet fruit of your law.
Before I suffered, I was proud
And wandered from the way.
But now I am lowly and quiet
And I wait for your word.
You are goodness itself.
I wait for you. Teach me.
I still have enemies
Who would cook up lies 
And feed them to me,
But - with all my heart -
I will delight myself in your ways.
They have grown fat on their deceptions,
But I have a different food
They know nothing about.
It is good that I have known the pain of hunger
So that your ways could be founded inside me.
Your word is better
Than the richest lies.

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.

Mem

Your law tumbles at the top of my heart, Lord,
Going shiny as brass.
Wisdom billows out inside me
For your commandments are mine forever.
As I devote myself to your ways
Insight gathers toward me
Like water through a tree’s roots.
I can see things others do not
Because I learn what is good from you.
I have kept my feet from evil paths
Because I want to keep your word.
I have not turned aside from your judgments
Because you have been my teacher.
Your commandments are like honey to me.
I have gained everything I have from them.
Now I can see what is right
And what is wrong.

Nun

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light on the path ahead of me.
I have sworn myself to you
And your righteousness shines in me.
Yet I am bowed down and afflicted;
Revive me with your word.
My words multiply your truth
I offer them back to you. 
Show me what justice is.
Danger waits for me on every side,
Yet I will not forget your law.
My enemies would snare me in traps,
So I will not stray from the path
You have lit in front of my feet.
I and my people have inherited your word
And the joy of it follows and leads us.
Chasten our hearts and hasten our feet
To walk the path with you where it leads,
Even to the end.

Samekh

Some split their hearts in half
To follow one master each,
But I will give you my love only.
You are my hiding place
And the shield above me,
So I also give you all my hope.
I wish the ones who would heap evil on me
Would be turned aside and cast backward,
So that I would be free to walk with you as a I would.
You let those who stray for your ways
Find the lies they are looking for.
Lift away the evil in the land like dross
So that those who would follow you
Can follow freely.
Then the whole earth would rise and tremble
At the fear of you. For no evil
Can stand against your justice.

Ayin

Lord, I have tried to please you.
I don’t deserve this. Don’t leave me
To the hounds hunting my backtrail.
You have made a pledge and seal:
Your plans for me are good.
Yet I am still in flight.
I am still in the fight
For my life. I can’t look
At the salvation you promised.
That longing is so much mine
I keep it hidden. Now I only endure
By enduring. Be gracious.
I am still yours. Teach me.
Form fully my imperfect, stumbling loves.
The hope of your kindness is all I have.
You have the power to act, so act.
Why wait for my enemies to break your law
And me with it? I have loved
Your commandments above gold.
Though the things I fear most
Hide themselves ahead of me
And those fears I faced
Still bay behind me,
I will walk the path you set
And I will not run.

Pe

You scattered yourself like seed.
You chased so much into the world
That is worth loving.
So I seek you.
Your word is light. It awakens me.
It is simple enough for the simple
And wide enough to hold your wisdom.
I opened my mouth and panted
For the fruit of the seeds you planted.
Walk my footsteps before me
And follow fast behind.
Lord, do not let evil master me
But buy me back from what I’ve been taken in by.
Make your face to shine on me
And teach me your ways.

Tsadhe

Evil has no place with you, Lord
And your judgments are always true.
Justice goes out from you
And vast and unshaken faithfulness.
My banked zeal blazes when
Enemies deride your words.
Your words are rich and pure. 
They are gentle and patient,
And quick as a striking snake.
I love them because they cut and console me.
They are right even when every
Other spoken word is a lie.
I am only small and slight,
But your billowing word remains 
Small enough for me to hold.
Though long anguish visits,
Your word remains with me.
Though time takes and takes,
Your word has made its home in me.

Qoph

I make this plea with everything I have: 
Answer me, Lord. I will obey.
I am asking you to save me.
I swear I will keep your word.
I will wake in the dark.
I will  pray and then hold myself quiet
Listening to the dawn chorus
And your voice in the stillness
Before the day begins.
I will meet you in the night watches
And turn and turn your word
Around inside myself.
When I speak, you hear me.
I ask you again: revive me.
You are good and faithful.
You are far from those 
Who make evil their master.
You are near to those who seek
The truth of your commandments.

Resh

Lord, don’t you see what is happening to me?
I have not forgotten you,
Why have you forgotten me?
Rescue me, plead my case,
Run to my side. 
Revive me with your word.
I know what the wicked do not:
Your law is life.
Your mercies can’t be counted.
Your justice raises us up.
Even though my enemies teem and plot
I will not turn aside from your path.
I hate what they are doing.
I have hewn close to your word,
But they have wandered from it.
So I say again: revive me
Because of your love for me.
Sow your truth again in me
And make it grow and bear fruit forever.

Shin

I am harassed and harried for nothing.
Though I tremble in this trial
And cry out and beg off,
I still rejoice in your word.
I still wonder at your ways.
I feel I have found a great treasure
And it is mine to keep.
At my best, the happiness that comes 
From following your law is enough.
What would it mean if you could boast
Of my days as I boast of you?
Peace follows those who follow you.
They plant each step firmly and do not stumble.
Though they stumble, they do not fall.
Though they fall, they are not crushed.
Though they are crushed, they rise again.
So my days are full of hope in you.
I will do what you say.
I will store your words inside me.
They will churn in my heart
And burst into its hidden chambers,
And you will finally master
All my secret loves.
For none of my ways are hidden from you.
Be my treasure. Bring me peace. Reign.

Tav

Lord, hear my prayer
And let at last my cry come to you.
Give me understanding from your word,
So that I can order my prayers, 
My longings, my fears, and loves aright.
Save me and I will finally find the gift
Of praise, of rest, and of consolation.
I will sing again and write and laugh.
After everything, give me your hand
And help me. You are the one I’ve chosen
And the one I want to long for.
Revive me  and I will praise you
And order my life by  your justice.
I have spent so many lost years
Wandering like a sheep,
But you sought me and took me in
And I will not forget it.

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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, 4, 5, 6, 7),139, 148

Photo by Dana DeVolk on Unsplash