Dead Weights

Meaning in Psalm 61

Alfred D. Byrd

TROUBLES abound on the earth today.
They come like a flood in which one can drown
Unless a helper pulls one to safety.
Worldly treasures provide us no help;
They're burdens, dead weights that drag us downwards.
Battered by waves and crushed against rocks,
I can do nothing else but call on my God.

Please pull me, my God, from the flood that flings me,
Helpless and frightened, wherever it runs.
Please set me in safety amid Your fortress.
Guarded by You, a rampart of stone,
An eagle whose wings enshadow Your nest,
I can turn from fearing for life and for limb
To praising Your Name and keeping Your law.

On the earth, You guard our lives through rulers
Chosen by You to fulfill Your mission.
Shepherds, Your rulers are meant to be,
Not wolves that eat the sheep of Your flock.
A ruler must guard the people from foes
Who come from without to kill by force,
Who come from within to kill by stealth.
A ruler must make the governed prosper,
Gaining the good of the work that they do
As they live in peace with neighbors of peace.

The peace that lasts is the peace that grows
When we live in light, in law, and in love.
We live in love when we kneel before God
And say, "We begin and end in You,
For You are Maker, sustainer, and Judge.
We die to ourselves to live in You.
The life that endures is the life of God."
When we rise, let's do the will of God,
The work of love that results in peace.

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.