The Kind That Hates You

Meaning in Psalm 13

Alfred D. Byrd

SOMETIMES, my God, I feel forgotten,
Beaten with sorrows that come from a world
That uses Your Name as just a curse.
As days go by, it appears to me
That it's best to be the kind that hates You.
Lovers of self instead of the truth
Have things their own way and laugh at the faith
Of us who wait for Your Word to come true.
The lovers of self call out to us,
"For all that we see, your god doesn't care
About your pains of body and mind.
For all that we see, we might be his friends,
And you, his foes, the ones whom he hates.
Just look! You're slipping. It's we who'll win."
They'll throw a party when they see our fall.

Please send me, my God, the light of Your face
To open my eyes before I sleep
In a death in life, or in death for all time.
I need Your answer to why things go on
In a way that pleases the ones who spurn You.
Tell me an answer to ease my fears!

The answer? You give a time of testing,
Showing what lies in the depth of each heart,
To all who live, both the false and the true.
The answer is love, the love eternal
That You showed in telling all things "Become!"
And show by keeping the world in being.
Sunlight illumines righteous and wicked.
Evil may triumph; its end is sure.
The selfish will get the pay that they've earned;
My God will save the faithful from darkness.
Rescued from doubt, I'll sing to the One
Whose work began, and will end, as good.

If this poem spoke to you, you may enjoy my Biblical epic poems

A Song of the One, the age-old account of Creatlon, Fall, Redemption, and Glory retold in verse for a new millennium, and

The Stars Bow Down: An Epic of Joseph, the timeless tale of a favorite son whose brothers sold him into slavery, but whom God raised from a prison to save the known world from famine.