David's Crown: Sounding the Psalms

by Malcolm Guite

Psalm 78: LXXVIII Attendite, popule He led me out of darkness into light And now I will proclaim all he has done To rising generations. My delight Will be to share the story of the one Who came to me before I came to him, Whose love still greets me with each rising sun. But neither will I hide my sin and shame; The many times that I refused his grace And turned my back on him, forgot his name And sought my former darkness, turned my face Away from my redeemer. I’ll confess My own perversity, and dare to trace My wilful trespass in the wilderness And how through all of this, my Lord stayed true And pulled me through with patient tenderness.

Some speak the truth, but speak it without grace And, calling others out, are merciless. Lord, join together all that we have sundered That we may flourish in your tenderness.

So we and all things pass, And God endures beyond us. Yet he cares For our brief lives, his loving tenderness Extends to all his creatures, our swift years Are precious in his sight. In Christ he shares Our grief and he will wipe away our tears.

We reserve Our judgement, but the psalmist makes it clear Justice is coming for God’s poor. We serve Him best if we can also serve them here, Rise up and take their part against the proud Deliver them from harassment and fear. We have been pietistic, quiet, cowed But we must come out publicly and cry For equal rights and justice, cry out loud.

For equal rights and justice, cry out loud! Then come before God’s presence and be glad, And harden not your hearts.

His call To bring our lives, and our whole world to him Resounds in all of us. Could we but hear, Our Saviour, King and Shepherd calls us home.

Therefore to come at last beyond the gates Of time and space, and with the saints to taste That joy for which the whole creation waits. But whilst we wait there is no time to waste In keeping faith with each new generation, And showing them his mercy and his grace.

Psalm 101: CI Misericordiam et judicium

Praise Be to God that Christ has come, my joy And my deliverance, whose steadfast gaze Looks on me not with judgement but with grace.

Psalm 106: CVI Confitemini Domino

My judge is still my saviour and my friend.

Psalm 109: CIX Deus laudem The water of my life may turn to wine, This psalmist turns it into vinegar, Such is his bitterness, and his design To wish the worst upon his foe, to bear Down on him with vengeance and to see His children suffer too. No pity here, Only the anger of an injury Unhealed, and an injustice unforgiven. ‘My heart’, he cries, ‘is wounded deep within me I go hence like a shadow, I am driven Away’. And so he cries aloud ‘Oh save me’! And my heart too is wounded, broken, riven I also ask, O Lord, that you should save me: Save me from bitterness and heal my heart That even for my foes I might ask mercy.

The Judge condemns the sin, but lest We should despair, the Priest comes down to save The sinner. Like Melchisedech, he bears Both bread and wine for us. For these he gave His life in sacrifice and now he shares Our suffering. He is the wounded King Whose holy wounds are always healing ours.

He is the hope Of all the earth and soon he will renew His whole creation in the risen Son Whose love is steadfast and whose word is true.

For though I lift my eyes up to the hills There is no help from them and no release From all my restless troubles, all the ills That still oppress my soul. My help will come From God alone, whose loving presence fills And overflows my heart.

but still I wonder If he was right to call on God to smite His enemies. As though that holy thunder Were just a private weapon, and the fight Were always just, and God was on our side And we were always only in the right. Better to ask for mercy, mercy wide As the wide ocean. If my enemy And I both ask, we will not be denied.

Through the mystery Of your atonement, you take our despair, If we will only offer it to you, And turn it into hope. Because you share In all our suffering, we know that you Will bring us with you through that suffering To share your glory, as we worship you.

Delighting in this psalm, which played a part In my conversion, forty years ago. An unbeliever then, I thought I’d start To read the Bible as a poet, so I started with the psalms. And I recall The single verse that changed me and would show Me hope at last: The Lord upholdest all, All such as fall, also he lifteth up All those that are down … the eyes of all Wait upon thee. And then a sudden hope Sprang up in me, that somewhere in that all I might be found. I knelt down, and looked up!