Neighbors Living in Sin

Meaning in Psalm 73

by Alfred D. Byrd

PURENESS of heart is pleasing to God,
But wins no praise from the lips of the world.
When I turn my eyes from the throne on high
To look at neighbors living in sin,
I lose my way and feel self-pity.
Nurturing anger, the fruit of envy—
Measuring others, I shorten myself—
I lose sight of my goal in things of the now.

Today, the ones who ignore my God
Are doing just fine. They earn a bundle,
Gobble good food, and guzzle good wine
In houses to awe the kings of the past.
The houses are empty; the wealthy have flown
On wings of the wind to a land of gold.
On carpets of crimson, they mingle and smile
To be seen by those who would sell their souls
To stand in their place, at least for a night.
A crime has been done? A lawyer will fix it.
Nothing need trouble one's flow of delights.
The one who lies escapes a whipping;
Murderers ponder no date with a noose.

For the high and mighty, the world is enough.
They speak of my God with doubt or with scorn.
"A king on a throne? Please, darling, be real!
Any god that may be is too far away
To bother its mind with thoughts of us.
A god of judgment? How lame can you get?
Don't lose perspective! Nothing awful
Happens to persons as pretty as us."

It's easy for us who recall our God
To let the worldly trouble our faith.
The lure of riches — the fear of laughter—
Causes the faithful to go astray.
Filled up with the earth, we lack room for heaven.
Only by turning to things of our God—
To the words of seers who looked at the light;
To the place for many to meet as one —
Can we see what lies beyond the present.

Flouters of God are standing on heights
From which a fall will end in heartbreak.
Beauty, though sword, is seldom a shield.
The rains may come, or the earth may shake;
The house on a cliff will slide to the sea.
A treatment to keep one's looks from aging
Makes one a target for gossip by friends.
A drug to turn one's pleasure intense
(Or to dull one's mind to a life misspent)
May stop a heart and stagger the world.
The one who tracks the flow of riches
Gathers how fragile their glory has been.
Today, a star may shine on a stage;
Tomorrow, detectives are prodding a corpse.

The life that's lived for the world alone
Is bright for a while, but goes down to darkness.
Only a life that's lived for the One
Extends beyond the curtain of death.
The one who accepts the guidance of God
Will walk on a path that leads to the light,
The glory of One, Who sits on the Throne
Where we'll see our lives conjoined to the life
That starts, endures, and ends in our 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.

A Path That Ends in Peace

Meaning in Psalm 72

by Alfred D. Byrd

SETTING a ruler upon a throne,
A people should seek the guidance of God.
What starts in the truth goes on in the light;
What starts in lies goes down to darkness—
Terror for all who live in the land!
A ruler who governs by ways of the world
Has chosen a path that ends in grief;
A ruler who governs by ways of the One
Has chosen a path that ends in peace.
A person who wants the best for the land
Will pester our God to lead its ruler
Wisely and well for the sake of that peace.
To pray, however, is hardly enough:
One must work with one's hands the thing that's good
To produce a harvest, a time of joy.

The peace of God depends on justice,
Righteousness forming the basis of acts.
True justice combines both mercy and strength
To produce the beauty of peace in the land.
True justice respects the rights of each,
But leans to mercy, protecting the weak.
The ruler who causes the poor to prosper,
Comforts the sick, and crushes oppressors—
Haters of peace find none for themselves!—
Has done the will of the One on the Throne.

A ruler who governs in mercy and strength
Will receive the honor of nations afar.
Their rulers will greet that ruler at home
With gifts that strengthen the bonds of peace.
All nations that guard the people's due rights,
Protect the weak, and restrain the strong
Can live together secure from war.
The ruler, however, who leads a people
Downwards to darkness shatters the peace.
A ruler who hides his eyes from the light
Can ruin a land and ravage its neighbors—
Bloodshed in rivers, we've seen in our time!—
Before the cause of justice prevails.
Unless, untiring, we seek the light,
A time of darkness will end our safety.

Some day — the One alone can say when—
Our God will come to redeem the world.
Messiah, a ruler Who comes from the Throne,
Will walk through the land and restore the light
To eyes whose hope has gone down in darkness.
Hungry for hope, we'll see a harvest.
Hidden in darkness, a seed of God
Will sprout from the land, grow tall, and blossom,
Filling the earth with the fruit of peace.
In hope of the day when we see that peace,
Let's praise the Name of the One on the Throne—
The One Who rules with mercy and strength
To produce the beauty of peace 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.

A Place of Troubles

Meaning in Psalm 71

by Alfred D. Byrd

ONLY in God can I hope to be safe.
The world has become a place of troubles
Threatening daily distress and death.
In tempests, temblors, and tumults, I see
How fragile one's hope of life can become.
The worst of threats are neighbors who hate me.
Speaking against me, they work for my fall.
They say, "A child of God? Unlikely!
Really, he's flesh and blood like ourselves.
He feels temptations just like our own
And may fall to depths he'll share with us."
I defend myself and learn a truth.
When I fight on my own, I fall, outnumbered;
No one alone can take on the world.
When I flee, however, to God, my Rock,
I find in the heights secure defenses.
"Fortress" is one of the names of the King.
The One Who made me will keep me from harm
As long as I trust in the word of truth.

My God concealed me within a womb
And brought my mother safely to term.
My God was with me throughout my youth,
However distant I felt from the Throne.
Despite distractions of self and of world,
I learned the words revealed to seers
Sensing the Spirit Who moved in their hearts.
The words have helped me in times of troubles
Coming from nature, from humans — from God.

It isn't false witness for me to say,
"Sometimes, my troubles have come from God."
To lead me to turn from wrongs I've done,
To help me develop a strength of faith,
To teach me the folly of trusting the world,
My God has let misfortune touch me.
Often, I've failed to learn a lesson;
Nothing is easy for us of the Fall.
When I gain, however, a truth from the Throne,
I may find a hardship redeemed as blessing.

Watching the years march on, I've become
No longer a youth. How strange to be old!
As I feel my joints grow stiff and painful,
Confidence falters. Facing the world,
I think, "Have I lost my use to God?"
I feel like a car with a lot of miles;
It makes sense for God to make a trade
Replacing a wreck with something with style.
This wreck, however, has mastered lessons
Worthy of passing to youths on the rise.
They seem as naïve as I was first.
Please let me, my God, keep speaking of You.
Let me send to the world the truth it needs:
"Our lives are empty unless our God
Has filled us with purpose, to love and be loved
With the love that starts and ends in the One."

Let's pray and look for an age to come
In which our God is enthroned in light
Amid a world both peaceful and holy.
Harpists, flutists, and singers as one—
May we praise with joy the One on the Throne—
The One in Whom our lives are renewed.

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.

Eyes of the World

Meaning in Psalm 70

by Alfred D. Byrd

SEEING myself through eyes of the world,
I find that I'm poor, confused, and helpless.
Dangers surround me wherever I go.
The greatest of dangers? My neighbors, false friends.
They laugh whenever I slip and fall;
They want to hurt me; they're seeking my life.
The ones who put their trust in the world
Will say for a time, "We do what we want."
In the strength of the world, the wicked prevail.

Seeing myself through the eyes of God,
I find that I'm rich, well guarded, and safe.
Whatever dangers may lurk in this world
Will flee from the sight of the One on the Throne.
My God will hurry, the time being right,
To vanquish evil — to save the good.
The ones who put their trust in the One
Will be glad as they say, "Our God be praised!"
In the strength of my God, the righteous rejoice.

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 Sky Gone Mad

Meaning in Psalm 69

by Alfred D. Byrd

TORRENTS of rain from a sky gone mad
Are turning the land to a sea of mud.
The ground can hold the water no more:
A flood is rising as far as I see
And leaving for safety nowhere to stand.
The waters threaten to sweep me away
Unless, my God, you pull me to safety.

Danger, in part, I've brought on myself
By thoughts and by deeds displeasing to You.
I've followed desires of my heart when they're wrong,
I've listened to voices counseling evil
(Blaming a tempter won't free me from guilt),
I've held my peace in the face of crimes,
And I've harmed my neighbor — no need to say why.
If I drown, I can't say, "My fall is unjust,"
Yet I call to You, my God, for rescue—
Patience and mercy are traits of a king—
Because You love the works of Your hands.

What makes my trial yet worse than it is?
My neighbors, mocking me, watch me drowning.
Enemies trumpet my sins to the world
(My God, please spare my kindred in faith
From shame that comes from wrongs that I've done)
And sing a song to deepen my grief:
"The one who claimed to be so righteous,
Worshiping heaven and having no faults,
Has fallen as far as any of us.
The high and mighty is low and weak!"

My God, I call for relief from my foes.
How long must I hear ungodly voices?
Silence the tongues that make fun of my grief.
Please give my foes the judgment of death—
The kind of fate that they wish on me.

The One Who came from the Throne of God
To know our life and to bear our death
Has felt, though spotless, guiltless of wrong,
The pain and the death that belong to us.
A friend betrayed Him; the jealous judged Him—
Harmless, a lamb was condemned to death.
While He heard our taunts, He suffered in public
Torment and shame in the place of us.
The blood of a lamb, according to Law,
Delivers the wicked from judgment by God.
A death and rebirth is a gift from the Throne
To us who would die if left to ourselves.

The waters recede; the flood is over,
Leaving open a way to the Throne
For all who trust in our God to take.
The ones who lay deep in the flow of sin—
The ones who were foes, detesting each other,
Mocking in neighbors the faults of themselves—
Are now a household united in peace
To serve and to praise the One on the Throne.
Our King is able to make from the worst
The best of servants — the best of friends—
When we lift our gaze to the light 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.

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.