Psalm 51
with Callie Feyen
Hello, Poetry Friend
I have a friend who I talk with on Mondays (she of the red teacup coffee shop). When she is in town, we meet at a local spot. When she is away, we visit by phone. She knows the sorts of things I bring to Reconciliation (aka Confession). And she always knows when I need a rainbow. Or two.
Psalm 51 comes up a lot in the lectionary—on Ash Wednesday, in Lent, at Easter Vigil, even in Ordinary Time, not to mention when it pops up on the daily. I’ve sung it to multiple tunes. I’ve prayed it. And even though I’ve poemed it, my words will never approach the beauty of the original.
Callie shared her version over at Tell Me A Story That’s True.
And here is mine:
Psalm 51
O God, unsin me. I cast myself out,
got off trail somewhere, somehow.
I was so proud of my tent –
the one destroyed by hail; curtains rent,
pegs gone and flooded away.
All my fault. I know that today.
O God, I want to swim in your Spirit.
To inhale the exhales of all who fail without limit.
Mothers whose cry is urgent: Father,
if you want to conform this daughter
to the image of your Son,
even to the Cross, your will be done.
O God, on Sunday I’ll sing this psalm
in a minor key, will it to calm
us, to build mercy like a wall
around all who say, Your call,
to me, Lord, I behold it.
Do unto me as you have told it.
Happy poeming!
Megan
Beautiful! Perfect for a Friday morning since Psalm 51 is always the first Psalm for Morning Prayer on Fridays, which means I just finished praying it before I logged on.
I really like "unsin me", it's a perfect unusual word that feels new even if it's actually very old and it captures the overall sense of the psalm.
"I cast myself out" is a nice reversal of "do not cast me away from your presence", a recognition that it isn't God who casts out the sinner, but the sinner who cast out themselves.
And I love the tent image that captures the pride of self-reliance, "I was so proud of my tent", and the specifics of the hail and the rent curtains (such a lovely call to the curtains of the Holy of Holies rent on Good Friday!), the pegs and the flood.
"Swim in your Spirit" is a beautiful image.
"To inhale the exhales" that phrase takes my breath away.
"Mercy like a wall" that's really beautiful.
And the way you weave in both "your will be done" and "do unto me" as the final phrases of the last two stanzas.
"mercy like a wall"
I'll be thinking on that image for a long time.