Returning to our psalm sequence we have come to psalm 28, another psalm which calls for and summons up strength and comfort, and, something more than comfort -Joy. For me, and for many others the key verse of this psalm is verse 8:
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart hath trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart danceth for joy, and in my song will I praise him.
There is a beautiful movement there from strength and protection into trust, and through trust into joy, and arising from joy the song of praise which is the psalm itself. And yet the psalmist is well aware of the struggle with evil, with ‘wicked doers: which speak friendly to their neighbours, but imagine mischief in their hearts.'(verse 3) The trust and joy towards which the psalm moves are all the stronger and more persuasive because they are not naive, because they engage with, rather than evading the problems of the world.
My poem in response to this psalm enters into the same paradox, how to keep tuning into and hearing the music of Heaven, even amidst the cacophony of hate, how to let go of the ego and receive again, how to keep turning, again and again to Christ as he calls us.
As usual you can hear the poem by pressing the ‘play’ button if it appears, or else by clicking on the title. For the other poems in my psalm series type the word ‘psalm’ into the search box on the right.
To dare each moment’s death, that I might live
Means both repentence and a plenitude
Of grace. Means letting go to let him give.
So Christ I beg for that beatitude
The grace to simply let go and receive
From your unsparing hand the amplitude
Of your beneficence, to have a heart
That dances to the measure of your music
Even here where evil seeks to part
Us from each promised good, and where the sick
And sickening cacophony of hate
Might deafen us or wound us to the quick
And break us down. May it not be too late
To turn to you again and start to live
Call us oh Christ, and open up the gate.
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Malcolm Guite 