Yesterday Carol Robinson and I stood in a hospital room with a family who watched their mother die. Outside a strong storm was building. I don't know that I would have thought of Psalm 25 as appropriate for such a moment, but David's song ministered to me as I thought of my own future, taken off the respirator when medicine has run out of options.
I lift up my life to You, Lord.
My God, I trust in You.
Do not let me be disgraced.
Do not let my enemies triumph over me.
More than me, let everyone trusting You
not be disgraced.
Disgrace the treacherous who come to You empty-handed.
Make Your ways known to me, Lord.
Teach me how to get from here to there
by following You in Your truth.
You are the God of my salvation;
Every day I wait for You.
Remember your tender mercies, Lord,
your acts of covenant love through all time.
Do not remember the sins of my youth
nor the transgressons of my later life.
Remember Your covenant love to me, Lord.
You are so good.
Good and upgright are You, Lord.
You show sinners the way.
You guide the meek in judgement
You teach the humble your ways.
These paths all lead to kindness and truth
for those who keep your covenant and Word.
On account of Your covenant name, Yahweh,
pardon my utter depravity.
Who reverences Yahweh?
Yahweh chooses whom He directs.
His life is lodged in goodness;
His family is given land.
His circle of friends come into covenant with Yahweh.
My eyes are focused continually on Yahweh.
If my feet get entangled he will not let me fall.
Let me see your face and grace
for I am lonely and disgraced.
My troubles multiply.
Free me from my distress.
Look! Lift me from the disgrace and pain
of all my sins.
Look! My enemies multiply and they hate me violently.
Guard me! Rescue me!
I dare not be disgraced having come to You for shelter.
Integrity and uprightness shall preserve me
as I trust in You.
Ransom Israel, God, from all their distresses.
Pslam 23 (DKB Interplation)
Lord of the Ageless Covenant:
I saw slack-jawed Death yesterday,
witnessed its dark shadow sway
the destinies of families,
slap children with its icy hand,
bring them to tears in that dark land
where only Christ escaped alive.
Respirator removed, life leaking away,
beneath the waxy sleep of ages,
how disgraced we all appear,
when, like the vulture,
Death comes to claim our carrion;
mouth left agape, Satan mocks our helplessness.
Outside, the storm-lowered sky
drives before it every thing
not nailed down or under shelter.
Hide me, Lord, in the refuge of your love
that when my walk on earth is done
I follow Christ, my Pathfinder through the storm.
Remember not the sins committed
while I lived, but Your mercy remitted
be my only claim in Jesus' name,
Who paid the ransom to this Wraith
who holds my body slack-jawed for a time,
but emptied of the prize within.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment