The Cause of Our Pain

Meaning in Psalm 38

Alfred D. Byrd

TROUBLES will find us wherever we go,
And we want to know just why we face them.
Sometimes, the cause of our pain is dark,
And we groan because the world is senseless;
Sometimes, however, that cause is clear,
And we find in knowledge a kind of healing.
Many may suffer for reasons unknown,
And none should say, "Because of your sins,"
But I confess that I meet with hardships
Mainly because of what I've done wrong.

A list of my sins could go on for pages.
Given so much, I've done so little
Pleasing to God or helpful to neighbors.
Selfish concerns have wasted my days,
Yet given my heart no pleasure that lasts.
Amid distractions, I lose my way
And forget the One Who made and saved me.
Giver of life, I'm living in vain.
How often I'm deaf to what I should hear
And blind to wrongs that go on around me.
Speaking, I sound at times like a fool,
But I fail to speak when I have a chance
To praise my God or to help the weak.
How dare I complain when I see for my sins
The roof cave in and the floor fall through?

What I do, or fail to do, affects
Others around me — myself the most.
I feel as if I'm stuck in a swamp
The waters of which, revolting and slimy,
Cover my head and stifle my breath.
Bad thoughts can harm one's body, you know:
My flesh grows weak, my head is swimming,
Twinges of pain enfeeble my joints,
And I want to rest, but must go on.
How absurd I must seem to the eyes of God.
I wish to run off, but flight won't help:
Wherever I went on my quest to be free,
I'd take along my problem, myself.

My sins are clear to the world around me.
Neighbors regard me as strange and worthless;
Kinsmen, I've pushed away from my door.
I fancy to hear outsiders whisper,
"Nothing is real with that guy over there.
He calls himself a child of his God,
But does no better than any of us.
He's acted so big, but now he's little.
Someday, I tell you, he's going to fall.
He'll get what's coming and give us a laugh."
My neighbors have problems enough of their own,
But find the time to make fun of others
Fallen in sin and feeling its sting.
Just watch the news. You'll know what I mean.

It's time for me to confess my sins,
To turn from the world, and to turn to God.
The One Whom I've spurned is faithful to me;
The One to Whose words I've shut my ears
Will listen to me when I slay my pride
And fall on my face before the Throne.
My God has ordained for the world a law
That gives each act its judgment in kind,
In good for good, in evil for evil.
Often, I've tested this law to my hurt.
If all that could come to me were justice,
"Hopeless," you'd call me; I'd yield to despair.
My God, however, provides me with grace,
The freedom of God to bestow on the bad
A gift of goodness created in love.
My God, I come to accept Your Grace.
Reshape me, I beg you, as what I should be,
And make me a beacon drawing my neighbors,
Spurning the dark, to the light of Your truth.

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.

Trouble the Seekers of Wealth

Meaning in Psalm 37

Alfred D. Byrd

ENVYING doers of wrong makes sense
If you see their success as destined to last.
The ones who care for themselves alone
Will do what it takes to get ahead.
They make their plans for gain and for ease
Without regard for truth and justice,
Troublesome concepts for seekers of wealth
Who want the world no matter what comes.
To them, the poor are no more than prey
That they hunt for the sake of a coin or two—
Enough of the poor, and the coins pile up.
The ones who speak of truth and justice
Trouble the seekers of wealth in their work
And become a target for lies and for laws
That favor the worldly ahead of the just.
The ones who want to get rich right now
Will borrow a bundle and scorn to pay back
A penny as long as evil prospers.

Anger arises within our hearts
When we see our neighbors do well from wrongness.
Anger at best can yield us redress
When we keep control of how we respond
To what has moved us to rise and do battle.
Anger, however, can be deceptive,
Leading the righteous to wrongs of their own.
The fire of anger within our hearts
Can burn out reason and lead us astray.
The counsel of anger seems strong and sure
To one who gives in to a fire of rage;
At last, however, that fire dies out,
And ashes alone may remain behind
To mock the one who trusted in feelings.
Often, one's anger destroys oneself.
To hold a grudge is to eat one's own heart
With envy and grief, the jaws of despair.

How little or much a person possesses
Matters far less than how one gets it.
Serving our God is why we are here.
To work with one's hands the thing that is right
And to share with others truly in need
Fulfills the will of the One Who made us.
Honor the light and work while it's day.
Although the world rewards the wicked,
Even the worst prefers to rely
On one who's faithful in doing one's job.
Our God has told us to give good value,
Never to slack, or renege on a debt,
And to pause at times to honor our Maker.
Doing our tasks as servants of truth,
We may hold without guilt whatever we earn.

In time, we'll see what comes of evil,
Pleasant without, but rotten within.
As it grows, it bears within it a seed
That will sprout to yield destruction and death.
How often the one who draws a sword
Will sheathe that sword within one's own heart.
The One Who designed and shaped the world
Has decreed for each act a return in kind:
In good for good; in evil for evil.
Briefly, wrongdoers may flout good counsel;
Finally, justice will have its day.
The fat that builds up from greed and from theft
Will burn at length in a fire of judgment;
Nothing but smoke will remain in the end
Of what one has done apart from our God.
The one who borrows and means to default
May laugh and dance in a time of grace,
But will mourn at the words, "Your payment is due!"

For those, however, who seek to do good,
Desire the truth, and bow to their God,
The road ahead will reach salvation.
Rescue will come from the Throne on high
To those who call on the One in faith.
The world is the work of the hands of our God,
Who retains the title to all that is,
Whatever voices of evil may claim.
Our God will give the wicked nothing—
Darkness and death, not life and light!
To others, however, humble and trusting,
Setting their Maker above all else,
Our God will give the status of heirs
Who share a world created for good.
If we trust our God amid the darkness,
Heaven will bless us at length with light.

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.

Until the Bill Comes Due

Meaning in Psalm 36

Alfred D. Byrd

MANY who treasure the world too much
Have said in their heart, "The One is nothing."
Finding the laws of our God restrictive
(Keeping the strong from robbing the weak),
They cross the line and do as they will.
If they gain the present, the future may rot.
The ones who cling to the world remember
Flattering speeches instead of the truth.
"You're a man who grasps just how the world is:
You're out for yourself, and you'll do what it takes
To reach the top and enjoy the best.
Go eat and drink up! Tomorrow, you'll die."
The man who gets fooled will stay awake
And think in bed of what he can do
To gain advantage over his neighbors:
"Evil is good if it yields success."
Until the bill for one's sins comes due,
What's wrong can yield one a season of glee.

Above all others, however, there stands
The Righteous, the Faithful, the Loving — the Judge.
To those who seek their Maker's shadow
(Heaven's wingspread is shelter and shade),
The One will give the water of joy
And the food of the Word that proclaims the truth.
To those, however, who trust themselves,
Prideful actions will bring destruction.
Heaven has willed for evil to end;
The hateful will fall, unable to rise.

Each soul awoken by God to life
Must choose within it evil or good.
If you wish to live in the truth, you must seek
The fountain of life that flows from the One
And drink of water that quenches all thirst.
The water is life, the life of the One,
The life that fills believers with light.
The One is the Light, amid which darkness
Vanishes, leaving no image behind.
When we see the light of the One unveiled,
We'll recall no longer our loss and our pain,
The fruits of evil confined to this world,
But we'll know our hope in the Word to be true,
And we'll sing evermore in praise of our God.

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.

Apart from Evil and Death

Meaning in Psalm 35

Alfred D. Byrd

LET US call out together in praise,
"No other is like the One, our God!"
Without beginning, without an end,
Alone the Maker of heavens and earth,
The One is apart from evil and death.
A worker of wonders, fearsome and awesome,
Heaven's ruler grows angry at sin,
But greets with joy the one who repents,
Rejecting darkness in favor of light.
In the end, our God will rescue the weak
From the hands of the strong who prey on despair.

The ones of us who have turned from our past
Desire in our heart to be like our God
In showing mercy and kindness to others
Fallen in evil and feeling unloved.
At our best, when we yield our hearts to the truth,
We weep for others as much as ourselves.
When we hear of harms and of grief in the world,
We deny our bodies pleasure and comfort.
Kneeling in prayer until we are heard,
We rise to give the clothes on our back
To those who wander, tasting disaster.

Many, however, answer our kindness—
Evil for good — with fear and with hate.
Without a cause in terms of the truth
(Perhaps the light brings pain to their eyes),
They watch our steps and seek to trap us,
Heedless of danger, whenever we slip
As creatures of flesh are prone to do.
If we fail to fall, our foes will lie,
Accusing the guiltless of shame and deceit
To end the reproach of lives lived well
Against the one who prefers a pigsty.
Sometimes, we, too, must face disaster;
No one escapes the griefs of this world.
Whenever we suffer, guilty or guiltless,
Enemies mock us, holy, yet hurt.
It seems to our fears that we serve as food
To those who honor cannibal instincts,
Preying on humans, helpless and weak.

How good it would be for those who hate us,
Mercy prevailing, to open their eyes
And be filled with light that changes their lives!
From foes to friends, from killers to kin,
Our God can turn the doers of evil.
Nothing can part from the love of the One
The one who listens to words of the truth.
To those, however, who choose the darkness,
Sudden destruction will come unforeseen.
The one who has set a trap will spring it—
Victim, not victor, the trapper will be!
The one who mocks will mourn for evils
Funny in others, but foul to oneself.
Confusion will come to those who were sure
Of paying no debt for laughing at light.
In the end, the haters of truth will be
Like dust on the wind, untreasured and lost.

To those of us who have called on our God
To come to our aid amid misfortune,
Rescue will come, though we have to wait long.
(A lifetime may be to the One but a day,
But to us is endless when filled with grief.)
Our God will open the jaws of our trap
And free us to follow the path to the Throne.
Our God will heal our wounds and fill us,
Holy vessels created for good,
With joy poured out in praise of the One.

In the day of our God, when we see the light
Undimmed by darkness, unsullied by evil,
Nothing but songs of praise can express
The love that we feel for the One on the Throne.
Assembled together unfettered by fear,
But joined as one by faith and by hope,
We proclaim evermore the goodness of God.

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.

The Exile Returned

Meaning in Psalm 34

Alfred D. Byrd

DRIVEN away from his home and from God,
An exile destined to rule his people
Groveled before a king of strangers.
Hoping to find acceptance, a refuge—
Somewhere to linger apart from his foes—
The exile received, however, rejection.
Even foreigners called him accursed.
In the night of his soul, in the depths of despair,
The exile returned to his faith in the One
And called on his God in hope and in trust.
Our God would listen! The exile would find
A path that led on to the throne of promise.
Here is a song of that man of faith.

"ANSWER a question! Who is the one
Who wants to live on because there's good
In a world that shows us often but evil?
The one who lives on is the one who trusts,
Though it seems to some that we have no hope,
In our God to hear and answer our cries
For rescue from those who despise the truth.

"The truth is simple: the One is fearsome,
Able to do whatever is needed.
Rescue will come to those who bow down;
Judgment, to those who stand defiant.
Fearing the One Who can do all things
Is the path of reason leading to life.
For the one who turns away from darkness—
Evil's abode, where we win for a while,
But come up empty paying the bill—
And seeks the light of our God, the Maker,
Blessings below and above await.
The evil, however, are empty of hope:
What they do will be done in turn to them,
And none will recall their deeds when they're gone."

("Not a bone," the exile told us, "will break
In those delivered by God from the world."
The exile's promise would find fulfillment
Centuries later within Messiah.
Falsely accused and tortured to death,
He stayed intact throughout His ordeal
Until He chose to send His spirit
Heavenward, having completed its work
Of making a way from darkness to light
For all who will call on His Name in faith.
Messiah has shared our pain and our grief,
And wishes for us to share in His joy.)

"BECAUSE the One is Light and is Love,
And because our God will listen and act,
I'll sing of the Name of God forever.
Join me, brothers and sisters of faith,
In shouting the Name of God so loudly
(Lovers are known for showing their love)
That it shakes the world from sloth and from sleep
And brings the humble, broken in heart,
To a place of healing and joy with our God!"

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.