In psalm 73 the psalmist expresses a sense of frustration with the way things are going in this world which I think we can all share. Especially his frustration at the seeming injustice whereby wicked people who exploit their fellow human beings and indeed the world itself, seem to prosper and get away with it:
They come in no misfortune like other folk: neither are they plagued like other men.
And this is the cause that they are so holden with pride: and overwhelmed with cruelty.
Their eyes swell with fatness: and they do even what they lust.
But as the psalm proceeds the psalmist in his perplexity goes into the sanctuary of God and has a vision, an insight in which he sees that we are all in God’s hands and that his Justice, as well as his truth and mercy will ultimately prevail: Yea, even like as a dream when one awaketh: so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the city.
So in my poetic response I also seek to live in that ‘truth behind the daily veil’. I also take occasion by this psalm to honour and give thanks for the truth and beauty to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures.
These poems will all be gathered together and published on January 30th under the title David’s Crown. There is already an Amazon page for the book if you wish to pre-order it Here
Though one day the whole world will live in him
The story of his saving love began
In Israel and still we honour them,
The prophets of the coming Son of Man
Whose poetry and scriptures form our mind,
As with this psalmist, sharing all his pain,
His doubts and his frustrations. For we find
That all his old misgivings are our own.
So in this psalm he rails against the blind
Injustice, as it seemed to him, when men
Who lived by exploitation did so well
At the expense of those they cheat. But then
You showed him truth beyond the daily veil
How wickedness will vanish like a dream
And when we wake in you all will be well.
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Malcolm Guite 