Shelter amid His Foes

Meaning in Psalm 56

Alfred D. Byrd

DRIVEN by Saul away from Judah,
David took shelter amid his foes—
Philistines who mocked the God Whom he served—
Because God's people had gone astray
When they picked the handsome over the good.
Among the foes, some voices called out,
"It's David, who killed our hero, Goliath.
Sentence this killer, O King, to death!"
The exile, desperate, acted crazy,
Letting his spit flow down on his beard,
And the king, who thought a madman sacred,
Let him get off with his life that day.
As he ran again in search of shelter,
David called out to his God in song:

"I need Your mercy today, my God.
Whoever I meet comes on like a lion,
And I'm no more than a hunt and a meal.
A pride of lions has come to hunt me.
Persons who claim to be for my God
And persons who think my God a lie
Have conspired to make me helpless and hurt.
Whatever I say, they call a lie;
Whatever I do, they twist into sin.
If the law of God doesn't suit their ends,
They make up a law to suit themselves.
They use the freedom granted by You
To do whatever their heart desires
Regardless of how it affects their neighbor—
Innocents suffer from sins not their own—
Or grieves the One Who formed them from dust.

"My God, You can change the hearts of humans.
No one can do an act of evil,
Turning what's right with God into wrong,
Unless the Maker allows what is done
For reasons unclear to us on the earth,
But clear when seen in the light of the Throne.
The ones who flout their Maker, their King,
Will find in the end no way to escape
The judgment on acts that lead to death.
As for me, I'm sure of seeing Your mercy.
Memory never will fade in my God.
Each tear that I shed, You'll store for all time;
Each step that I take in exile and shame
Goes down in a book to recall the darkness
Banished by joy when You come in the light.
With Your love as my lamp, I'll keep Your law
And serve the light amid the darkness.
Someday, my God, the darkness will end,
And I'll walk without fear or pain in Your sight."

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.

Evil Run Rampant

Meaning in Psalm 55

Alfred D. Byrd

OFTEN, what makes us return to God
Is facing a world of evil run rampant.
Voices of foes inventing slanders
Poison our lives with the fruit of lies;
The traps that are laid to make us stumble,
Threatening gestures, violent actions—
Sometimes, we want to fly like a bird
To a nest of safety hidden on high.

The worst that we face may come from a friend
Who's turned through time and chance to a foe.
We've learned to bear the hatred of strangers—
Prejudiced speeches and actions don't sting
As much as baiting and blows in our homes—
But we lose our heart when we deal with treason.
Walking beside us and talking of God,
A person may win the love of our heart,
But then betray us. A hole in our lives!
The one who best knows our secrets, our fears,
Has learned the means to hurt us the most.

With fear and trembling, we face a world
In which kind words may turn into knives.
Our heart is filled with dismay and with grief;
We want to die to end our hardships.
Nothing tastes good when we have to eat
The fruit of evil, bitter and hard.

Our God, we call in distress to You.
Don't hide Your face from a world gone wrong.
Deliver our lives from the hands of those
Who twist Your good into shame and pain.
May it be on the earth as it is in heaven!
Open their eyes to the wrong that they've done
And lead them to turn from the way of death.
The fruit of evil, You've told us, our God,
Will wither and die, and come to nothing.
Often, the one who profits from wrong
Will go to the grave with decades unlived.
The wicked, however, may last forever,
Rescued by You from the jaws of death.
Please change the hearts of those who love wrong
To treasure and take the path of the 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.

David Was Hiding

Meaning in Psalm 54

Alfred D. Byrd

FLEEING from Saul to life in exile,
David was hiding in hills of Judah.
Surely, he thought, my homeland is safe.
The people of Ziph, however, betrayed him.
David, they said, is hiding with us.
The king set out in pursuit of a man
Whom he thought a foe that sought his throne,
But who was in truth devoted to him
As the one anointed by God as ruler.
Only reports of war in the west
Kept him from hounding David to death.
Embittered, David hid out in caves
And told our God of anger and hurt.

"Neighbors, my God, have acted like strangers
Seeking advantage from selling my life.
To gain the ear of a king gone mad,
They've betrayed a man who'd been their friend.
They've set aside the law that You gave:
'Each person embodies an image of God;
The blood of humans cries out for judgment;
Bloodshed for bloodshed maintains a balance.'

"Save me, my God, through the might of Your Name:
The One Who Is is the One who can
Deliver the weak from the hand of the strong.
My Master, my Helper, protect my soul
By paying evil to workers of evil.
Darkness will fall on their ways of death.
When I see Your justice prevail in my life
As the foes of the truth go down to their death,
I'll load Your altar with gifts of praise
To show my love for the One Who is good."

(TO THOSE of us who follow a way,
The Law of Love, much later than David's,
Calling for death for our foes is wrong.
"Give good in exchange for evil," God says.
We must pray for God to open their hearts
To the light of the truth that is life for all.
When they turn from darkness to seek the light,
Their evil will die; their lives will begin.
Transformed by love, they'll now have become
Our brothers, our sisters — new lives in 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.

Evil Won't Have Its Way

Meaning in Psalm 53

Alfred D. Byrd

SOMEONE who wants to live for himself
Will deny the claims of God above him.
Hardship for others is often the price
That he pays without thought to have his own way.
Tomorrow, for death; today, for pleasure!

Looking below from the Throne on high,
Our God desires to see a people
Living with wisdom in peace born of love.
Instead, what meet the eye of our God
Are hatred, bloodshed, deceit, and grief.
A people created to share in joy
A world that God Made as a home for life
Has turned aside from the path of hope
To fight in darkness a war of despair.

The children who follow the path of light—
The children who come at the call of God—
Have been the victims of those who spurn
The light of God for the lure of darkness.
Slandered, plundered, beaten, and murdered,
Children of God are nothing but food
To those who hunger to live for themselves.

Can we face such a world and not live in fear?
Our God has said, "What you fear is nothing."
Evil won't have its way forever;
Justice will come when we see our King.
Today is a day of pain and sorrow.
Seemingly endless, minutes tick by.
At a time, however, chosen by God,
The ones who've lived without love or shame
Will be swept away like dust on the wind.

"How soon?" the victims of evil cry out.
In a time of pain, we can think of nothing
Other than finding a way to relief.
Indeed, the time of pain may linger;
Abraham's children have suffered so long!
Our God, however, has granted a space
For lovers of self to turn from their ways
To the path that runs to the home of peace.
The ones made captive by lovers of self
And the ones made captive by love of themselves
Will be freed by God to live in the truth.
United with all who've turned to the light,
We'll rejoice to see the day 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.

The King Went Crazy

Meaning in Psalm 52

Alfred D. Byrd

FLEEING from Saul, who wished to kill him,
David arrived at the house of God
And asked its priests to give him assistance
Needed, he said, for a work of the king's.
Accepting the word of David, well loved,
They gave him a meal for him and his men,
And the sword with which he'd killed Goliath,
Merciless giant who'd mocked the faithful.
David went on to hide amid rocks,
But the priests would have to face their king.
A man named Doeg, a servant of Saul's,
Observing the priests and David together,
Hurried to tell his master the news
Of those who'd helped his foe to safety.
Hearing the news, the king went crazy,
Killing the priests who'd acted in faith.
Just one of the priests escaped to tell
The one who'd got help of how much it had cost.
In grief for friends who'd died unjustly,
David expressed his feeling in song:

"Are you proud of what you've done, big man?
Your tongue has spoken, and lives have ended.
Surely, your tongue is like a razor
Cutting whatever it touches apart.
The ones who do right, you've sent to their death;
The truth, you've spurned to serve a madman—
Evil seems better to you than good!
The mercy of God, which lasts forever,
Didn't restrain a heart of darkness
Willing — no, eager! — to shed men's blood.

"Today, you've won, but you'll face a future
Showing your God as Judge of your acts.
The One Who gave you your life has decreed
A balance that tests whatever you do.
What's done determines what comes in return:
An act of good will earn its reward;
An act of evil will earn destruction.
Heartless oppressor, the tongue that brought death
Will be torn by its roots from a mouth that smiled
When you saw your victims butchered like lambs.
You'll lose your home along with your life
When you see what comes from blood shed in hate.

"The hope of seeing evil destroyed
Sustains the faithful amid their grief.
They'll watch the one who who dismissed his God
And put his faith in riches and strength
Go down to darkness in which he belongs.
When he's gone, the truth of God will remain.
The ones who put their trust in that truth
Will flourish like trees whose roots run deep
By a stream that flows from the house of God.
They'll wait with patience for justice to come,
And they'll sing forever in praise of the One
Whose love will transform our pain into joy."

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.