The Exile Returned

Meaning in Psalm 34

Alfred D. Byrd

DRIVEN away from his home and from God,
An exile destined to rule his people
Groveled before a king of strangers.
Hoping to find acceptance, a refuge—
Somewhere to linger apart from his foes—
The exile received, however, rejection.
Even foreigners called him accursed.
In the night of his soul, in the depths of despair,
The exile returned to his faith in the One
And called on his God in hope and in trust.
Our God would listen! The exile would find
A path that led on to the throne of promise.
Here is a song of that man of faith.

"ANSWER a question! Who is the one
Who wants to live on because there's good
In a world that shows us often but evil?
The one who lives on is the one who trusts,
Though it seems to some that we have no hope,
In our God to hear and answer our cries
For rescue from those who despise the truth.

"The truth is simple: the One is fearsome,
Able to do whatever is needed.
Rescue will come to those who bow down;
Judgment, to those who stand defiant.
Fearing the One Who can do all things
Is the path of reason leading to life.
For the one who turns away from darkness—
Evil's abode, where we win for a while,
But come up empty paying the bill—
And seeks the light of our God, the Maker,
Blessings below and above await.
The evil, however, are empty of hope:
What they do will be done in turn to them,
And none will recall their deeds when they're gone."

("Not a bone," the exile told us, "will break
In those delivered by God from the world."
The exile's promise would find fulfillment
Centuries later within Messiah.
Falsely accused and tortured to death,
He stayed intact throughout His ordeal
Until He chose to send His spirit
Heavenward, having completed its work
Of making a way from darkness to light
For all who will call on His Name in faith.
Messiah has shared our pain and our grief,
And wishes for us to share in His joy.)

"BECAUSE the One is Light and is Love,
And because our God will listen and act,
I'll sing of the Name of God forever.
Join me, brothers and sisters of faith,
In shouting the Name of God so loudly
(Lovers are known for showing their love)
That it shakes the world from sloth and from sleep
And brings the humble, broken in heart,
To a place of healing and joy with 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.

Our God Spoke Out

Meaning in Psalm 33

Alfred D. Byrd

FOREMOST of truths of the One is this:
Our God spoke out, and the worlds became.
The heavens above and the earth below
Appeared at a word, a command, from on high.
From nothing, the One has made all that is,
From the heights of the stars to the depths of the seas,
As a home for life that serves its Maker.
Even our hearts were shaped by our God
To perceive the light, to obey the law.
Before we were made, our God had planned
The goal of our lives. The plan will prosper!

Many, however, have failed to perceive
The scale of being. They see themselves—
They're giants, perhaps, in a world of dwarfs—
As able to do whatever they wish.
A man may seem tall until he stands
Beside a mountain — much less beside God!
The ones whom we choose to lead us may trust
In guns and in tanks, in planes and in bombs,
To keep us secure, to make us mighty.
Weapons, however, can do no good
Against a force of decay from within;
Our God will make whatever empire
Topple at last, dominion over.

Only the one who trusts in the One
Will reach the goal apart from sorrow.
Only the nation that honors the law
Of justice and truth can be secure
Amid a world of greed and of lies.
The One Who made us and loves us watches,
Keeping an eye on all that goes on,
To free the loved ones from hardship, from death.
Our God is a shield for those who trust,
But a sword against the ones who defy,
The word of truth: our God is the One!
Whatever we do, for good or for bad,
Goes on beneath the eye of our God:
Let's do what's righteous to please the One
Who is First and Last, without an equal.

Heaven has blessed us with music, with song.
Let us use these gifts to honor the One
Who gave us voices for use in praise.
Let's play with skill, let's sing with delight
Of the One Whose word is faithful and true.
Let's sing with love of the One Who is Love,
The love that's made and sustains our lives—
The love that gives us a life without end!

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.

Forgiveness of Wrongs

Meaning in Psalm 32

Alfred D. Byrd

HAPPY are we when we get from God
Forgiveness of wrongs that we think or do.
We were made for good, but have turned aside
To seek whatever pleases our eyes.
What leads us astray need not be evil:
Excess of good can put us to death,
And things that are good in their place and time
Can be our bane when we leave the path
Designed to lead us safely to God.
Whatever we do that ends in grief,
We do with things made good by the One
Whose light we ignore and Whose gifts we abuse.
When we see a sign that says, "Don't do it,"
Something within us bids us rebel
Against a law to keep us from harm.
At our worst, we become, apart from God,
Like beasts of burden — horses or mules—
Led on by a bit that tugs us wherever
Sinful master desires us to go.

Amid a life devoted to self,
The ones beloved of God receive
Unpleasant summonses calling us homeward.
Holding our peace when we look at wrongs,
And praising those wrongs with word and with deed,
We feel in our hearts the goad of God—
A goad that drives us to reach a place
Where we see what's true — and ourselves as false!
Unable longer to flout the truth,
We cry, "We've fallen! We're lost to what's right
Unless, our God, You've made us a way
To turn from our dark to the Light that is You."

How happy are we because, out of love,
The One Who made us also redeemed us!
Innocent, precious, the blood of a lamb
Has covered our sins from the sight of God—
The blood of the Lamb has washed us and made us
Holy and spotless, able to stand
Accused of no wrong before the throne
Where we see the Light, our God, revealed.
The Throne provides for us a refuge—
Nothing evil abides the Presence,
Awesome and pure, of the One Who is all—
From a world condemned to be purged by fire
To end what's wrong and to show what's right.
Let's say to each one who comes from darkness,
"Follow the path that leads to the Throne!
Don't look aside to left or to right;
You'll stray and stumble, either direction.
Only ahead will you find your goal,
A place for praising our God with 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.

To Trust in Follies

Meaning in Psalm 31

Alfred D. Byrd

MANY of us have languished in troubles
Making our lives too harsh to be borne.
The world around us despises our faith
In a God perceived as absent or cold.
The world prefers to trust in follies,
Empty promises, glitter and gloss.
To those who look no further ahead,
Today is all the time that exists.
The here and now is all that matters;
Nothing is left for the world to come.
The ones caught up in buying and selling
Slander the lives of persons of faith
And lay a net to catch us in deeds
For which the world can put us to death.

Within the world, we have no refuge.
Battered and broken, we wander about
And sigh for how weak our hands have become.
When we look for help, our neighbors run off,
Afraid of our faith, though it seems to them
No more than the cause of our pain and grief.
To be in the world without our God
Is to feel forgotten, destined for death.
If we had no hope beyond this world,
How empty and useless our lives would be!

Rejoice! There is hope beyond this world.
When we call to God amid our sorrows,
Heaven opens, and blessings come down
On lives redeemed and restored to hope
By love that defeats the lies of the world.
Amid its testings, we find a refuge—
Heavenly fortress, a rock of strength—
On which we can stand while we sing from the heart,
"The goodness of God is too great to be told."
Because our God is both Light and Love,
The pride of the world will come to nothing;
Heaven will reign, and the truth will prevail.

We yield our spirits to God in faith
Because our God has known our sorrows.
Sending a life of the One among us—
Taking our likeness, the Life endured
A life of testing, a death of shame
To raise the fallen to hope on high—
Our God has felt each pain that we face,
And has made a way of escape for all
Who turn from darkness to light that shines
Forever undimmed in the house of faith.

In days gone by, we would curse our foes
And ask our God to put them to death.
The triumph of Love, however, gives us
Courage to bless the ones who curse us.
Enemies, heaven can turn to friends
When we find within us the will to forgive
And the words to ask our God to send
The Spirit of Light into hearts grown dark.
The will and the words are gifts from our God.
We were once, ourselves, the foes of the One;
We are now, through our God, the children of light.
May You send, our God, Your light to those
Who wander in darkness, and turn them about
To bring them, renewed and transformed, to You
As children of light, our friends in 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.

Giver of Life

Meaning in Psalm 30

Alfred D. Byrd

CHILDREN of light that comes from the One,
Let us sing our praises of God, our ruler,
Giver of life and shaper of living—
Singing of God is why we are here!
Remember each breath the One Who lives
Above all darkness, despair, and grief,
And has set the children of light apart
From death in life to life in the truth.

The truth is easy for us to lose
Amid the world of cares around us.
Seeing the world with eyes of flesh,
We look at evil and fear its triumph.
Nothing, it strikes us, can stop the march
Of greed and hatred to seizing a throne.
We fear the silence of death and the grave—
Confined to a box, we'll lack the strength
To raise our hands or our voice to God—
And we let despair deprive us of hope.

The night's embrace enfolds us in terrors
Making the mighty cry out like a child,
But morning will come, and then we'll rejoice
To see the light disperse all phantoms—
Frightful when glimpsed, but weak when revealed.
The face of God grows angry at lies—
At seeds of darkness that sprout in shame
And yield a harvest of evil and death.
The One, however, by nature is love.
The face of God is ready to change:
To show forgiveness — a smile of hope—
To all who turn from lies to the truth.

By turning from God, we have made our lives
A life in death and a death to the truth,
But this death need not be the end of hope.
In this death, we can still receive from God
The eyes of spirit that see past the grave.
We receive from the One unclaimed by death
The will and the strength to send our pleas
To the King Who sits on the Throne on high
For mercy, forgiveness, and life renewed.
The One rewards sincere repentance—
Turning away from lies to the truth—
By taking a life that has lived for itself
Within the circle of life on high.

The truth is plain to the one who hears:
Our lives are not our own, but the One's.
By right, the made must serve the Maker.
Only a life that is lived for God
Endures forever untouched by death.
To live in the light, reject your darkness—
Nothing within it will earn a reward—
And accept the life that comes from the Throne—
A life of praising the glory of 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.

Beauty and Terror

Meaning in Psalm 29

Alfred D. Byrd

LET US GIVE to God the praise that is due
The One Who made both heavens and earth.
All creatures — humans or angels — are dust
Before the King Who sits on the Throne.
The glory of God exceeds description.
Beauty and terror unite as one
In the face of our God — in the rays of light
That pierce the veil that shields our gaze
From splendor too great for our eyes to bear.
(To see the Maker unveiled would be
The moment of death for flesh and blood.)

When we see our God appear before us,
Earthquake and storm assail our senses.
Treetops bow down, and mountains tremble—
Mighty on earth, to heaven they're weak—
Whenever the voice of God is heard.
Our God has made both mountains and trees
To withstand the tests of sun and of rain,
But has brought a flood upon the land
To sweep them away, and someday will send
A testing of fire to measure the worth
Of all that exists. The dross will burn,
But ore that is true will last forever,
Precious to God, in sight of the Throne.
The one who is weak before the Maker
Gathers a blessing of guidance and strength.

When we turn our thoughts to the One on high,
Our voices should break at once into song.
If we see our God as high and mighty,
Nothing on earth should keep us from saying,
"Glory belongs to the One alone!"
As we leave the things of this world behind us
(Baggage slows us en route to our goal),
Let us speed our steps towards the Throne
On which the One presides in glory
Over a throne room, the temple of light,
In which the ones who bow will be raised
To the heights of hope — to a home of 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.

A Silence Coming from Heaven

Meaning in Psalm 28

Alfred D. Byrd

SOMETIMES, our God appears to be deaf
To our cries for help in times of grief.
We dread a silence coming from heaven:
Only the grave, we fear, awaits us—
Creatures of flesh whose lifespan is brief—
If we get no word from the One on high.

We seem at times to be one with the lost—
With those who are blind to the light of God
And go their own way to do what seems right
In the eyes of those who see death as the end.
They may smile at us and call us their friends,
But need or greed will make them our rivals,
Taking our goods or our lives for themselves
To feed the moment — forever be scorned!

If we see our lusts as pets to be fed
And spurn the future for thrills of the now,
We have no cause to complain of woes
That come when we see the future arrive
To test the works that we build today.
How easy it is to break and to burn;
How hard it is to build and to learn!
The One has told us, "The one who sows
Will reap a harvest of what is sown.
What is sown to darkness will end in death;
What's sown to the light will blossom with life!"

Both we who mourn and those who mock us
Needn't despair. The One remembers
Children of flesh and has opened a way
For all to turn from gloom to the light.
To God, both righteous and wicked are kinsmen
Needing only forgiveness for peace.

Beyond the darkness that fills this world
Resides forever the light of the Throne—
The place of the One, the goal of hope—
To which we all who are lost in this world
Can turn our gaze and find acceptance.
Heaven is open to all who seek it.
Shepherd, Fortress, and Giver of gifts—
The One, our God, awaits our response.
To those who persist in raising their hands
To the Throne of light, the temple of hope,
Will come a call to advance to receive
The blessings of light in a home of 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.