The 6th poem in my corona on the psalms

flinging them back before his growing light

Today’s poem from my new sequence is a response to Psalm 6 from the Book of Common Prayer Psalter. Here are links to the earlier poems in this series: V  III and IV  II I

This is one of the darker psalms, and the psalmist seems at once fearful of God and forgetful of his mercy, so it opens:

1. O LORD, rebuke me not in thine indignation: neither chasten me in thy displeasure.
2. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed

But the psalmist works through these fears and misgivings and is able to say just before the end of the psalm:

The Lord hath heard my petition: the Lord will receive my prayer.

It is this honesty about difficulty, fear and misgiving which makes the psalter so compelling and gives its moments of joy and recovery their full force and authority. In my own response to this psalm I picked up a phrase from verse 5 that ‘in death no man remembreth thee’ and used it to explore the kind of forgetfulness and amnesia that sometimes darkens our spiritual life. One function both of scripture and of poetry is to re-awaken our good memories of God. You may like to look at the psalm alongside the poem. As always you can hear me read the poem by clicking on the ‘play’ button or the title.

VI Domine, ne in furore

Whose mercy wakes me at the break of day?

I feel my weakness, all my bones are vexed

And all the faith in me seems worn away

 

As though I’ve lost Love’s memory. Perplexed

By false complexities, I mime faith’s part

I keep the book but cannot read the text

 

Unless you come, and write it in my heart,

Unless you help me read it through my tears

And hear me out, and, hearing, heal my hurt.

 

How could I think you punished me? My fears

Just magnified the shadows that I cast

Till you were lost in shadow too. Love hears

 

My cries and clears the shadows of my past

Flinging them back before his growing light

Until I recognise his face at last.

 

If you are enjoying these posts, you might like, on occasion, to pop in and buy me a cup of coffee. Clicking on this banner will take you to a page where you can do so, if you wish.