Oxygen from Psalm 9 -- Occupy Masada

1 I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;

      I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.

 2 I will be filled with joy because of you.

      I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.

 3 My enemies retreated;

      they staggered and died when you appeared.

 4 For you have judged in my favor;

      from your throne you have judged with fairness.

 5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;

      you have erased their names forever.

 6 The enemy is finished, in endless ruins;

      the cities you uprooted are now forgotten.

 7 But the Lord reigns forever,

      executing judgment from his throne.

 8 He will judge the world with justice

      and rule the nations with fairness.

 9 The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed,

      a refuge in times of trouble.

(Psalm 9:1-9)

Sovereign King:

I have stood atop wind-blown Masada

under the blazing Judean sun,

ancient fortress, David's refuge,

where he ran from Absalom

and penned this prayerful soliloquy

to Your faithful majesty.

I have walked along its summit,

smelled salty air blown from the Dead Sea,

walked among its ancient ruins,

of long-dead kings and dynasties

that once did occupy this fortress high

and left their marks for passers-by. 

Cisterns hewn from days Solomonic,

Roman seige-ramp and surrounding camps,

warehouses for the Maccabeans, 

Herod's palace, Zealot synagogue,

Byzantine chapel, all now dust for eons,

an ecunmeical witness to failure

and the folly of pride's allure.

Lord, You establish and overthrow

kingdoms geo-political;

use them for Your own ends

to accomplish what You deem critical:

Hammurabi with his law,

Rome for its roads and later fall.

Even Israel, Your one chosen nation,

was brought down and overthrown,

for gross idolatries committed,

for following gods not their own,

proving it's not a new political start

that people need, but a change of heart.

Every peoples' revolution

ultimately inaugurates

a tyrant worse than before

with promises inchoate,

of hope and change and brotherhood,

but gives instead chains and wormwood. 

I have climbed the Acropolis,

where stands the mighty Parthenon,  

site of temples now in ruins,

paying homage to Aegean gods;

nearby the Temple built for Zeus

now a patch where dogs run loose.

All these temples lay in ruins,

at its base the modern Greeks,

whose politicians pile up debt,

turning their children's future bleak,

undermining by their largess

what worthless Euros once could purchase.

I have stood atop the the Eiffel Tower,

above the old League of Nations soars,

where progressives put their hopes for peace,

just before two world wars

bathed the world in blood,

made of realized eschatology a total dud.

I've stood atop Washington's obelisk,

heard the politicians rant

about the incandescent lightbulb,

ignore trillions owed in Chinese debt,

spending as if there's no tomorrow

and they could be right, to our sorrow.

Across this fruited plain last year alone,

were half a million souls aborted,

millions more left destitute

by pharmacopia distorted,

searching for some cheap transcendance,

and maybe what passes for romance.

Lord, can our demise be long behind

that of the every ancient Empire

that sought its refuge in human wisdom,

and were consumed in folly then fire,

destroyed by something deep within,

beyond the realm of government?

The sane have nowhere else to turn,

but to You, for saving power.

Democracy has run amuck of greed

and fast comes the tyrant's hour,

when frightened citizens trade liberty

for the illusions of security.

We have met the enemy and they are us!

Our stewardship has been appalling

of the freedoms You bequethed. 

Have mercy on us! Hear us calling.

We confess you King of Kings,

Sovereign over everything.

Oh, that Your Kingdom would be born

within our hearts and renewed minds,

the Kingdom only Christ can bring,

a Kingdom men can never find.

Speak Your Gospel in every accent

in this interlude between Your advents.

Come to us, Emmanuel,

we Your shelter and refuge need,

Reign, King Jesus, in our hearts,

and let Your Kingdom earth stampede,

draw to a close the tyrant's time.

Bring new heaven, new earth sublime.

Your Word is our true security,

Your covenant love our safe abode

as sin's ravages unfold

to claim our bodies, but not our souls.

Our hope and refuge is Christ alone,

whose coming turns to dust Masada's stone.

Amen.