To Die in a Land of Strangers

Meaning in Psalm 68

by Alfred D. Byrd

LOSING our way in a world that's lost,
We became a people condemned and enslaved
To serve and to die in a land of strangers.
Hardly, indeed, did we stay a people:
Families scattered, we lived as exiles;
Widows had nothing, and orphans would beg.
Apart from our God and without a law,
We labored for others by day and by night
And lost all thought of hope for ourselves.
In times of joy, we'd turned from our God;
In times of sorrow, however, we wept,
Recalling our God and crying for help.

Above the clouds and across the heavens—
Peerless in glory and worthy of praise,
Our God was riding upon the Throne.
A host of angels attended the King,
Our God, Who'd shaped us and filled us with life.
From the Throne, our Maker, hearing our cry,
Descended to help us. Breaking the land
That held us in chains, our Maker led us,
Frightened and grumbling, into a desert—
Water and food are from God alone—
To lose our past and to learn the Law.
The one who clings to the past will die,
But the one who turns to the Law will live.

The way to our home would not be easy.
Nations opposed us, and we grew faint.
With the help of God, however, we won.
When we fought on our own, we tasted defeat,
But we walked in triumph behind the King,
Who fought on our part and vanquished our foes.
The One Who rides amid the heavens
Thundered, causing the earth to tremble.
Making a way through sea and river,
Heaven's Commander led us onward.
Seeing the tumult, rulers of nations
Faltered and fell, or ran for their lives.
The land, though it seems beyond belief,
Was ours while we loved and served our God.

A temple stands now amid the land.
Our God has chosen a mountain to be
A place for the Name to receive our praise
And for us to call on our God in faith
That we'll get a blessing, a gift from the King.
To the heights where stands the house of our God,
We make procession to show our love
For the One Who answered a cry in the dark.
The ones who wept have started singing;
Children of slaves are known as princes
Leading a people of faith to its hope.
The temple will stand while we love our God.

Not we alone approach the temple.
Maker of all, not only of us,
Is the One who summoned the world to be.
Across that world, from near and from far,
The kings of nations are coming with gifts
For the One Who made all humans alike.
The God Who Is isn't just for a tribe,
But for all the peoples that share the earth.
Both the world and all who live in its midst
Are works of the hand of the One Who is all,
And our God will call from each tribe and each land
A people to love and to serve the Name.

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.

A World That's Gone Astray

Meaning in Psalm 67

by Alfred D. Byrd

BLESSINGS on us who worship our God
Are not for the sake of us alone,
But are signs to a world that's gone astray
Of where the lost can turn for safety.
No one created exists for oneself,
But for God, Who shaped both earth and heaven.
Maker and giver of light and of life,
Our God is like the sun that rises,
Banishing darkness and bringing relief,
On furrows in which the seeds of hope
Lie buried, awaiting a call to grow—
To fulfill their purpose, the yielding of fruit.

With plants or peoples, the path is the same:
There's plowing, sowing, and tending before
The harvest arrives, and the One Who sowed
Will gather the grain into peace and joy.
No weed will slip in amid the grain:
Our God is a judge who accepts what's true
And rejects what's false, to be cast from the light.
Each nation will yield our God in the end
A host of lives that have turned from the world
To the One Who made it. With songs of praise
For the One Who guided the seed to full growth,
The nations assembled as one at the Throne
Will bless the One Who has blessed us all.

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.

A Place of Testing

Meaning in Psalm 66

by Alfred D. Byrd

SOMETIMES, our walk with our God is hard.
It starts with us in a place of testing.
Servants of those who've taken our freedom—
Servants, still worse, of sin in our hearts—
We labor in darkness until we call
On what alone provides us with hope—
On You, the Source of light and of life.
Our testing, we learn, hasn't been in vain:
We felt within us a fire from Your hand—
A fire that purges our hearts of dross
And leaves us spotless — gleaming silver.

Israel living in Egypt as slaves
Is a sign to all who have eyes to see
Of how our God responds to humans.
Calling on God while they lived in chains,
They got an answer, a speaker of law
Who opened a sea and led them through it—
Barriers crumble, meeting our God.
In a place away from lures of the world,
A people was tested with fire for years
Until the ones who honored the light
Were ready to enter the land of their hope.
Their time of testing made sense to them
When they reached their goal with the help of God.
They built a temple, a house for their God
To live in their midst and receive their praise.

Let us praise our God with songs of joy!
Amid a world that feeds us despair,
Our God provides our lives with meaning.
Nothing dismays us, standing with God.
The word of our God illumines our path;
The Spirit within us empowers our walk;
The light of the Throne proclaims our goal.
When we turn from love of lies of the world,
We can pray to God and know that we're heard:
We can come to the Throne and find acceptance,
Welcome from One Who's loved us always.
Choosing to save us, our God comes near
And calls us from darkness to live in the 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.

Return to Peace

Meaning in Psalm 65

by Alfred D. Byrd

MAKER of heavens and earth, our God,
To You, by right, belong our praises.
Mountains that tower above our heads
Are there because You raised and shaped them.
Tempests that tear the face of the sea
Grow still when You say, "Return to peace."
The sea of nations, frightened and angry,
Settles to rest when You come with judgment.
Often, we turn aside from Your ways
To twist the truth and to do what's wrong,
But You, still loving the works of Your hands
However they've learned to misshape themselves,
Teach us our errors and lead us ahead
On the path that takes us to peace at Your throne.

The world that You made is a place that You love—
A garden for us, Your creatures, to tend,
Recalling each day that we'll fail unless
Your hand supports us and shields us from harm.
You made the water that fills the seas
And fashioned the cycle that forms the clouds.
As rain, the water comes down on the fields
To waken the earth to life, Your gift
To the world that You love and will come to restore.
The grass will spring up to feed Your flocks;
The grain will grow to sustain us sheep,
Your children, who wait for the sound of Your voice.
At Your call, the ones whom You love will come
To attend a feast with You as its head.
When we see the harvest, we'll shout for joy.
How happy are those who've learned what You do!
We'll come to Your house with gifts in our hands—
With gifts that we have because of Your love—
To see Your goodness — to live in Your 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.