Beneath Your Wings

Meaning in Psalm 17

Alfred D. Byrd

GIVER OF LIFE, my God and my King,
I call to You from a world gone wrong.
I love Your truth, but it's a struggle
Keeping Your ways when I see so many
Violent persons sitting pretty,
Getting their way as they flout Your will.

When I pray to You, I thank You for strength
That's kept my heart from wanting what's wrong,
My mouth from speaking the lies of this world,
My feet from taking a path to death,
And my hands from making harmful devices
Pleasing the world, but grieving the heavens.
Watching my deeds and probing my heart,
You have found in me no trace of wrong
Because, my God, Your love has kept me
Spotless (at least in Your eyes of love)
Amid a world that's drowning in filth.

My God, please guard me like one who guards
One's eye's from those who'd quench their vision.
Keep me, I pray You, beneath Your wings
And beside Your heart, a place of safety.
Wonder fills me when I think of love—
Of Your love, which triumphs above all wrong.

This world is fat from greed and from lies
That give the greedy success awhile.
They hunt the weak like deer as their prey
And slander or slay the speakers of truth,
The ones who try to expose their greed,
But You, my God, when they've had their day,
Will abase the wicked and raise the righteous,
Praising Your coming to bring them them freedom.

Going to bed in a world of grief,
I know that You watch my sleep, my God.
As I trust my life each night to Your hands,
I have Your promise, giving me comfort:
Someday, Your Presence will rise like the dawn
And show the faithful (Your servant among them)
A world renewed, Your kingdom of light
Where I'll sing, among Your children, Your praise.

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.