May 20, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 16, one of my very favorite psalms.
I like to pray with this transliteration by Steven Mitchell – A Book of Psalms
Unnamable God,
I feel you with me at every moment.
You are my food, my drink,
my sunlight, and the air I breathe.
You are the ground I have built on
and the beauty that rejoices my heart.
I give thanks to you at all times
for lifting me from my confusion,
for teaching me in the dark
and showing me the path of life.
I have come to the center of the universe;
I rest in your perfect love.
In your presence there is fullness of joy
and blessedness forever and ever.
The psalmist’s prayer is so beautiful that I will just leave it without my interpretations today. Instead, here are a few settings – poetry and music – to lift this gem of a psalm before your prayer.
Let each phrase rest in your spirit.
Breathe with its rhythm.
As you savor it, let it release
a precious and holy truth
into your life.
Poetry: Two of my poems, both written when I was very young in my spiritual journey.
Awaking
Sunrise paints
the hedge’s morning side
rose-petal gold.
But I choose
the western side.
There, midnight’s purple leaves
awake in lazy grey,
then stripes
of green and silver.
There, the awesome
grace of living
rises slowly in the heart,
a liquor savored,
a prayer lingering
in genuflected silence.
Contemplation
It happened in that distant winter, deep
in pristine mornings like Venetian glass.
Everyday I’d turn to face You
as frozen orange sun
slid up a whitening sky.
Every day, You would be silent,
until finally You folded me
in silence, like a nestling child
comes quiet in the rhythm
of its mother’s breath.
Even now, on such a morning
I remember how it was
when first I came to love You
from the inside, out
– the way the leaves love green.
Music: Two pieces today:
1-The Fullness of Joy – Shane and Shane
2-Hymn to Hope from Sacred Garden
Lavish Mercy 