Unbroken by Life

Meaning in Psalm 63

Alfred D. Byrd

DAVID, again, was far from his home.
Who knows what foe had sent him to exile?
Absalom, maybe, best loved of his sons,
Was fighting his father. The Word doesn't say.
What we know is this: in exile, he sang
Of his hope in God, the One Who'd save him.

"Hateful persons who dream of my death
Have turned my homeland into a desert.
Empty and hopeless is life on the earth,
A bed of a stream devoid of water—
Stretches of sand unbroken by life—
As long as I live away from my God.
In the waste where I dwell, I've become the prey
Of those who hunt and feed in darkness.

"Deserts will bloom when we see our God.
An eagle that flies above the sand,
Our God enshadows the land with wings
That give us shelter, a rest from the heat.
This rest, however, isn't our goal;
The eagle flies off, inviting us onward
To seek a place where we'll live with God.
I'll run through the sand in the blaze of noon
To find the temple, the house of light
Where I'll stand with a crowd before the throne
Of the One Who fills my life with meaning.

"Lovers of darkness, who hate the truth,
Won't find the temple. They'll die as they lived.
The hand that kills will be killed in turn;
The lovers of darkness will go to the depths
In which no light will bother their eyes.
To those, however, who love the light,
A vision of glory will rise and not set.
A king on the earth will praise the King
Who reigns forever. Let's worship the King!"

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.