A World without Light

Meaning in Psalm 77

by Alfred D. Byrd

SOMETIMES, I lie awake at night
And think of all that's wrong in my life—
Of all that's wrong in a world without light.
In darkness, it's easy for us to conclude,
"The light of God is gone forever."
Feeling the night grow cold around us
(Troubles seem thickest when we're alone),
We may come to doubt the help of our God.
"My God rejects me," I'll think as I toss
On a bed that gives me no comfort just now.
"He's angry with me. I've lost His favor.
Judgment, not mercy, is what I'll face—
If I come, that is, to His mind at all."
At night, our fears — our weakness — tells us,
"Even the love of our God can fail."

A person of faith can reflect on the past—
On Scripture, which tells us of hope of rescue.
Children of God were living as slaves
In a land apart from the Land of Promise.
Crying to God from the depths of pain,
They got an answer of judgment — of freedom.
Moses, a prophet, a speaker of truth,
And Aaron, his brother, a priest of the One
Who redeems with blood a people from death,
Confronted a king of wealth and of pride—
A man who thought his neighbors cattle.
Wonders of water and wonders of wind
Persuaded the king, his land destroyed,
To let the Children of God go free.
The Children of God would pass through a sea
That parted before and closed behind them—
Water will turn to walls for our God!
They came to a hill that glowed with fire,
And they heard the voice of God as thunder
Giving them orders to live in the truth.
The God Who spoke was the God Who'd lead
The children, once slaves, now free, to their home.
If you look for them, you'll find them today!

Each night has ended at length in dawn.
Our God remembers. Our God restores.
The presence of God is with us in darkness.
Comfort of knowing "Our God redeems"
Allows us to reach a time of rest.
As I toss on my bed at night, I can say,
"My God, I trust You. My God, You're here.
When I sleep, You'll wake me again to light.
If I sleep, You'll wake me again to life."

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 Story Repeats Itself

Meaning in Psalm 76

by Alfred D. Byrd

OFTEN, we've seen oppressive rulers
Trample the rights of children of God.
Each time, a story repeats itself.
A ruler will brag and strut for a while
As he does much harm while he has his way.
At times, the children who feel his whip
May say, "Our God has left us to die."
Our God, however, remembers justice.
Payment for evil will come in kind.
A man who made the nations tremble
Dangles in space at the end of a rope,
Or takes his own life in a hole in the ground.

In Scripture, we read of God's response
To one who claimed the world for himself.
A king of the east, "a wolf in the fold,"
Came west to besiege the City of Peace.
He sent a herald, both loud and crude,
To tell its people, "Your God won't help you.
No one has found a god to oppose
The strength of Asshur, the god of my king.
The ones who've tried to resist his might
Have gone to their grave, their names forgotten.
Show me some sense! Give up, and you'll live,
Though you'll leave behind the homes you've known.
If you fight, you'll lose, and your death will be bad.
As you starve, you'll stuff your face with filth
That stinks so much, it'd gag a jackal."

Laughing, the herald went back to his king.
The son of David who ruled the city
Pleaded, however, with God for help.
Our God responded to pride with death—
To meekness with life, a gift of love.
By night, there was sent a plague to the camp
Of the king of the east. At dawn, he found
A camp of corpses. The siege was lifted.
Running for home, he prayed for help
From gods no more than statues and names.
While he prayed, his sons rose up against him.
Slaughtered by kinsmen, he came to his end.

The One Whom we've met is sometimes fearsome.
Caution is best in dealing with God.
If you make a vow, it's best to keep it.
Cheating ends badly, we've learned from the past.
When you come to a king, you should bring a gift.
For the King on the Throne, the gift that's best
Is the fruit of a life that spurns what's wrong
And does what's right for the sake of love.
The one who loves both neighbor and God
Receives from God a gift in return—
The gift of knowing "Our God is Love."

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.

We'll Look at Wonders

Meaning in Psalm 75

by Alfred D. Byrd

THANKING our God for the gift of life
Is the start of living a life of peace.
When we turn our gaze from a world gone wrong
To the One Who caused the world to be,
We'll look at wonders and learn to rejoice
In being the works of the hand of God.
The earth exists, persists, and will end
Because our God has spoken a word
That turned a thought into what we see.

Our God has said, "At a time of My choice,
I'll judge the world by the rule of truth.
The one who boasts and the one who loves wrong
Are like bulls that wave their horns in a rage.
Unless the bull is restrained, it causes
Terror and harm to persons of peace.
I'll bend the necks of bulls in a rage
And put an end to their hate — to their pride.
The horns of the proud are signs of trouble.
Righteous persons have horns just like theirs,
But bow them before the will of God.
The horn that bows is the horn that will rise.
If it bows to God, it'll rise in the world
With the strength to do what's right in the truth."

WHAT'S RIGHT appears in the use of wine.
The ones who reject the way of peace
Have changed the wine, a gift of our God,
From a balm for pain to a cause of grief.
The one who drinks to slake his desires
Will strike a neighbor, abuse his own kin,
And kill a stranger without a thought.
For the ones who defile the wine of God,
Our God has prepared a wine of their own:
A wine of judgment, foaming and red.
They'll drink to the dregs, but drink no more.
The ones, however, who long for peace
Will drink a wine that brings communion:
Union with neighbors united with God.
To the One Who brings the peace of the truth,
Let us bow our horns as we sing in praise.

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 Wicked Stand Strong

Meaning in Psalm 74

by Alfred D. Byrd

SOMETIMES, we think, "Our God has left us."
Nothing goes right, the wicked stand strong,
And we hear in the mouths of the rich and pretty
Slanders against the Name of the One.
We looked for prophets to give us the light,
But men with scriptures have led us astray
With tales of an end that failed to come true.
The laughter of skeptics is harsh in our ears.
In our fears, the reign of darkness will grow
Till it fills the earth and leaves us no room.
In times of darkness, our path grows dim.
It's easy for us to feel abandoned—
Nothing but sheep in a ring of wolves.

We need to recall the past of our faith.
Misfortunes have come to those before us.
Hammered by hardships, they staggered and fell,
Yet they lived to pass on the word of the truth:
It came through a fire to be learned by us.
Remember the Temple, Solomon's glory!
Haters of God, like loggers with axes,
Hacked it to pieces, plundered its gold,
And set it aflame. It burned to the ground.
The ones who trusted in wood lost hope;
The ones who trusted the Word found sight.
A building was lost, but the Word went on
To change the lives of all who could hear
The voice of the truth — the summons of God.

Our God is hardly an idol of wood,
Or a ghost that haunts us in dreams by night,
But turns to mist when we glimpse the dawn.
Our God has made the sun and the moon
And set them amid a heaven of stars
Too many for sages to count and name them.
Slanders can't reach as high as the Throne.
Our God has shaped the bed of oceans,
Emptied rivers, and opened fresh springs.
The darkness of night and the depths of the sea
Can hold no terrors for God, their King;
They obey the will of the One on the Throne.
Against the One, the Maker of all,
The laughter of skeptics is croaking of frogs
That fail to perceive the bear in their swamp.

When we think of the One Who made the world
And the faith that outlived the fires of war,
We should pray for God to uphold the Word
And show the skeptics, the selfish, the vain,
And the ones who wander for lack of the light
How great is our God — how small are we.
May our God remember suffering children,
Comfort the grieving, give strength to the weak,
And show a people that seeks in darkness
Glimmers of light to lead it to hope—
The path to the Throne, where we'll look at our King
And praise the Source of life and of love.

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.