Psalm 140—Rescue me from fools, villains, and violent men.

"Lord, you are my God. You see me. I am here on the floor. Hear my prayer."

Rendition of Psalm 140

Rescue me from fools, 
villains, and violent men.
Guard me from those who devise distress
And who hatch strife 
From the nest in their hearts
Where evil broods and breeds.
They sharpen the knives of their tongues
And their smiles are dagger-bladed.
When they bite, it is rage.
When they speak, it is poison.
Slender snakes hide in their words.

Oh Lord, keep me out of their grasp.
I say again: protect me from violent men.
They have laid snares for my feet
And would wile me into them.
With head high, they’ve made a glamour
that—if I gave myself to it,
Would eat me alive. 

Instead, I sought you in the stillness and said,
“Lord, you are my God. You see me.
I am here on the floor. Hear my prayer.
You are the strength of my strength
And the hope of my hope.
You have already given me enough
For the day my trial finds me,
Even as I ask you to keep me from it.
If you must collapse 
The schemes of evil men
Down upon their heads
By the very act of rending their lines
In my flogged flesh, 
Then may it be so.
If your servant will suffer
To know the care of your care
In the life of my life, 
Then may it be so.

As for those who would make evil,
And eat us like bread—
Send their harm flooding back toward them.
Kindle in their own laps
The fire they hoped would burn.
Put them in the pit
They dug with their precious time
And show them it was even deeper
Than they hoped.
Shatter at a stroke the fearsome
And brittle works hate built.

Lord, I know that you have never forgotten
We poor who cry out to you,
Who name our afflictions day by day,
So we are not afraid.
We already stand in your presence.
We already shelter under your name.

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Catching up with the Darkling 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) paired with original poems.

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, 118, 121, 123, 130, 131, 137, 142, 147.

Psalms only: 3, 23, 50, 54, 62, 75, 91, 100, 110, 114, 117, 119, 120, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 132, 133, 134, 139, 148

Psalms complete: 62/150—41%

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