OUR LOSS, THEIR GAIN!

Meaning in Psalm 143

Alfred D. Byrd

ENEMIES chase us from dawn to dusk
And give us no chance to sleep by night
Because our wealth, as poor as it is,
Can enhance their own. Our loss, their gain!
Like grain within a mill, they grind us;
Prisons of darkness will be our home
Unless we do whatever they say.
In lives like ours, what hope can we see
Unless our God will answer our pleas?

OUR GOD, please hear our request for help!
We ask because You're truthful and kind;
We ask because You've done for others
Wonderful actions worthy of praise.
You made all things with Your hands and breath;
You've kept a people faithful to You
Throughout misfortunes that kill the lost.
A god of mercy, the Giver of life,
Are You, in Whom we trust for rescue.

SAVE US, our God, from haters of right!
Our spirits, of breath that comes from You,
Are feeble, battered — ready to fail.
If You hide Your face from what we feel,
We'll be like corpses filling a grave.
We need to see Your mercy revealed.
On You, our Maker, heaven's Ruler,
Enemies stumble, losing their way.

OUR GOD, we know ourselves as sinful.
No one is perfect beneath Your gaze.
If You judge our hearts by law alone,
We'd all fall down, condemned by our lies.
Please spare our lives from judgment deserved;
Please teach us, our God, what's right with You.
Please lead us gently on paths of peace —
On paths of service, praising Your Name —
As far as the Throne from which You reign,
The King Whose Word is perfect in all.

Faith and reason in the ancient court of Athens.

MARS HILL: Paul v. The Philosophers

WHEN HE HID IN CAVES

Meaning in Psalm 142

Alfred D. Byrd

DAVID, chosen by God to be king,
Was having troubles. The man in charge,
A man of courage, but not of sense,
Desired his life and chased him with swords.
His death by Saul would end a promise
Spoken by God, and therefore secure,
But there seemed to him no hope of life
On nights of fear when he hid in caves.
In times of darkness, he called on God,
And God remembered, easing his fears
And sparing his life to gain a throne
That comes from God — the Maker's blessing:

"SOMETIMES, it seem to us that we live
In a world in which our lives don't count.
We feel like prey, as deer are to wolves;
Our foes pursue us from dusk to dawn.
When we say, 'We've found a place of rest,'
We spring a trap. Our foes are clever,
Blocking our path behind and ahead.
If we turn to fight,, we'll find our strength
Too little to make our foes retreat.
We're all alone. No help will arrive
From those who face distress of their own.
Our life's a prison without a door.

"IN DEPTHS of bondage, let's think of God.
Our God remembers. Our God will hear
Our cries from a heart in pain for help.
Our God, though far away, like the stars,
Is as near to us as life itself.
Our God understands how weak we are,
And listens with love to what we say.
Our God is a rock on which we stand;
Our God is better than gold for wealth.
The one who has the riches of God
Will find a place among the righteous,
Lovers of God rewarded with love."

Four hundred years of silence was broken.

The Bible's Hidden Years

TO SEEK OUR KING

Meaning in Psalm 141

Alfred D. Byrd

SOMETIMES, our lives get thrown out of step,
And we turn to God with cries for help.
Misfortune turns out to be our friend
When it leads our hearts to seek our King.
Let's pray to God, "Come quickly to us.
As we raise our hands to point to You,
Accept our words, though broken and strained,
As if a priest were burning incense,
Holy upon an altar of gold."

HOW MANY pathways lead us astray!
We need a guard to protect our mouths
From falling open with lies and hate.
The world around us bubbles and pops
With lovers of wrong, robbers and thieves,
Who prey on us and take our living —
Little, we have, yet it should be theirs —
Or, worse, they tempt us to take their path
And become at length far worse than they.

WE NEED a mentor to say, "Wake up!
If you go ahead like this, you'll fall.
Today is the time to change your life.
If you spurn what's wrong and choose what's right,
You'll be recalled as a friend of God."
The anger of friends does more for you,
If it leads your steps away from death,
Than the smiles of those who take your life.
Their way will lead them over a cliff.
They're planting their seed within a grave,
A place of beauty cluttered with bones,
And nothing will grow but weeds with thorns.

WE LOOK to you, our God and our King.
You offer refuge in times of storm.
Please keep our lives from shame and from death.
The ones who hate the light of your truth
Have littered the world with traps of lies.
It's only justice for those who trap
To be trapped in turn by what they've set.
Please keep us from traps — we set our own —
And lead us safely homewards to You.

An Epic of the Exile Who Rose to Rule an Empire to Save God's Children

The Stars Bow Down

LOVERS OF TRUTH

Meaning in Psalm 140

Alfred D. Byrd

KNOWING of God's protecting the weak
And granting justice to those in need
Should move the righteous, lovers of truth,
To praise their Maker and give their thanks
To the One Who fills the world with life.
The ones who love their Maker love peace,
But many will choose a way of war.
Protect us, our God, from those whose will
Is to break the peace, to start a fight,
To soil their neighbors with lies for gain —
To make the lives of others bitter.
Poisonous serpents, humans can be
When they sting a friend with words of shame.
Another likeness: trappers who set
A snare beside a path to deprive
A neighbor at peace of home and hope.
The world is heartless without our God
To light us a path to reach the Throne.

LET'S SAY to God, "We belong to You,
The Mighty to save, our Friend in fights.
Please hear our pleas for rescue from harm.
Don't give the haters of truth their way.
Success will feed their pride in evil.
Mocking their God, they'll grind their heel
Against the face of the poor and weak.
Please show the wicked how wrong they are
By turning their plans against themselves.
May they feel the heat and spring the trap
Intended for us who love what's right.
Defeat their evil and turn to good
The hearts of those who love to do wrong.
You win, our God, by changing a heart
From choosing darkness, hiding its deeds,
To seeking the light that comes from You."

A Teenage Girl's Adventure in Ancient Egypt

Asenath's Tale

THE ONE SEES CLEARLY

Meaning in Psalm 139

Alfred D. Byrd

PRECIOUS to us are the thoughts of God.
Above and beyond what's known to us
Is what our God has planned and has done.
The ways of God are too great for us
To hold within our thoughts and our words.
When we glimpse our God, we have to blink;
What's bright and pure defeats our vision.

"WONDERFUL" surely describes the One
Who designed our form and watched our birth.
Because of God, Whose vision is clear,
We have our life, our will, and our hope.
Within the darkness that fills a womb,
The One sees clearly, shaping a path
For a life that starts and ends with God.
A book in heaven records the days
And the deeds of each who lives below.

THE ONE who sees the secrets of birth
Sees, too, the heights, the plains, and the depths.
No place to hide from God will we find
If we rise on high or sink below.
Wherever we run, our God is there;
The hand that touched us before our birth
Is still upon us. Darkness and light
Don't matter to God, Whose gaze can pierce
Whatever curtain we seek to raise
Between our acts and the Judge of all.

DON'T THINK of your thoughts as locked away.
The One Who made the mind of humans
Sees it clearly. No lie can fall through
The sieve of our God, who sifts our thoughts —
Indeed, who knows, before we can think,
What comes from hearts that have learned in life
To choose what's right or to do what's wrong.

OUR GOD, please cleanse the world of evil!
Many despise the sound of Your Name,
Regard their neighbors as beasts of prey,
And shed the blood of victims to steal
A whiff of pleasure ending in pain.
The ones who live for themselves create
A temple of grief from what You've made
To bring delight to lives that are pure.
We hate the kind of world that we see —
A world of lies parading as truth.
Please fix this world, our God, our Maker;
Make it remember Your road to light.

PLEASE START with us. We're prone to evil.
Sadly, we, too, can wander from light.
Please test our thoughts for rightness with You.
We need Your guidance to shun what's wrong
And to choose what's right — what shows Your truth.
Amid our darkness, send us Your light
To guide our steps as far as Your Throne.

The story of Divine Light as revealed by Hebrew and Christian Scripture.

The Light

CLOUD OF LIGHT

Meaning in Psalm 138

Alfred D. Byrd

OTHERS may speak of gods that are false,
But I will bow down to You, my God.
With thanks within me for what you've done,
I'll bend my knee before Your temple,
Holding, concealed in its heart, the Throne
On which Your cloud of light is resting.
Nothing can hurt us when You're around.

YOUR NAME is too great for lips of flesh,
But by it You've sealed a pact with us —
A promise, keeping what You've made Yours.
Recalling Your word, I walk unfazed
Through troubles making my flesh grow weak.
I call on You, and You hear my pleas;
You give me courage to face my foes.
You are, my Maker, Yourself the shield
That keeps the foe from taking my life —
My life, You're holding within Your hand.

ALTHOUGH You sit enthroned in the heights,
You see the humble, observe the proud,
And give to each what's just by Your Law.
A day will arrive for all to see
Your Glory unveiled, a sight of awe.
The kings of the earth will praise Your Name
Because You kept Your promise to us.
They'll sing of You, our God and our King,
"The Glory of God? Too great for words!
The love of God goes on forever,
Keeping secure the lovers of truth."

An age-old story retold in verse for a new millennium.

A Song of the One

A KINGDOM OF GOLD

Meaning in Psalm 137

Alfred D. Byrd

CHILDREN of exile, driven from home,
The Chosen of God were turned to slaves
Compelled to serve a kingdom of gold.
A city of brick amid the sand
Replaced the hill that had held their heart,
The Temple of God, reduced to ash
By hands of those who held them captive.
Babylon's rivers swallowed their tears
When they heard their lords demand a song,
Delightful ditty from slaves at rest,
To lighten moments that lead to sleep.
No song of joy, but a plaint of grief,
Replied to the ones whose will was law.

"WHAT SONG of God can we sing to you
In a land that turns our dreams to dust?
Our heart retains the City of Peace,
The Temple of God, the Ark of Law,
And the Light Who made both skies and earth
As treasures beyond what lies at hand
In this, your pride, your kingdom of gold.
Let illness shrivel the hand that plays
Unless it plays the City of God.
Unless we recall the hill of Light
And make it our love, our hope — our joy,
Let heartbreak silence the voice that sings."

IN PAIN of hardship, in grief of loss,
The Chosen of God desired revenge
On those who slew, and on those who watched
And cheered the deeds that wrecked a city.
"Edom, neighbor, brother now lost,
May God remember how hard you were!
When you saw our foe invade the Land,
Surround our city, and start a fire,
You shouted, 'Burn it! Burn it to ash!
Let what they've built be turned to nothing!'
Babylon, heartless wrecker of dreams,
May you receive for wrongs that you've done
A measure equal to all that you gave!
You killed our babies! May death claim yours!"

[OUR HEARTS, when they see a dream destroyed,
A loved one slaughtered — what's good laid waste —
Respond with anger. It's what we are.
Let none condemn a call for revenge
Unless you've suffered a loss as great
As the loss that spurred the cry of pain.
Our God, Who has shaped each life from birth,
Has suffered each loss — the pain of all.
Our God, the Maker, demands of us
That we rise above our rage — our grief.
Move past the hurt, prepare to forgive,
And work for peace that comes from justice,
Doing what's right with humans and God.
The ones who yield their grief to the One
And walk a pathway of light and hope
Will see the Temple of Light arise —
Will play and sing at the Throne of God.]

One misunderstood system of faith and practice explained to another in its own terms.

Kabbalah for Evangelical Christians