Psalm 17

God As Judge

1. O God, as judge of everything and all,

hear my plea of innocence, this cry, this prayer;

it does not come to you from lips that lie.

2. You be the judge

and let what vindication there is to be,

Come from your presence,

O you whose eyes discern the right and wrong.

3. You visit me at night in search of truth,

you assess the heart, so test me for impurities.

4. My mouth speaks no offence as others do,

for I follow only what falls from your own lips.

5. I walk in truth and beauty on your smooth path,

I walk before you and all your ways are mine,

O God.

6. I call to you and hear the answer of your voice,

for your ear is ever near my lips to hear my words.

7. You show to me the wonder of your love,

and grasp me in your strong hands to hide me safe.

8. O guard me ever there in you,

and keep me as the apple of your eye,

protect me in the shadow of your outstretched wings,

9. Safe from the assaults of evil foes

surrounding me.

10. You know how they have closed their hearts to mercy, Lord,

their words so full of pride and arrogance.

11. They come close and pressing in on every side,

watching carefully to capture me.

12. Like lions, greedy for the prey,

they lie low and hidden in the grass.

13. Rise up, O God, and from your hiding place,

confront them all and bring them down,

Release me from this evil

by your swift, sharp sword of truth.

14. Let your strong hand deliver me

from those whose only goal in life

is to seize and own this world of yours;

15. Who fill their bellies and gorge their souls,

with goods of earth,

or pass it to their children.

16. But I, when I awaken,

shall see your face my God.

I shall gaze upon your image and be satisfied.

The Gospel of Thomas: Logion 16

Yeshua says,

Some of you are thinking perhaps

that I have come into the cosmos

to bring it peace.

No! You do not yet realize that I have come

to throw it into utter chaos

through burning, blade, and battle.

Five will be living in one household.

Three will face off against two, and two against three.

Parents will rise up against children,

and children against their parents,

until at last they shall stand as one on their own feet.

Psalm 16

1. Protect me, Lord, for I have taken residence,
as refugee in you.

2. I said, “You are my Lord and Master,
and my God;
what gifts of life I have all came from you.”

3. I take delight in all who trust in you,
who have settled in your land,
and made your good their every gain,
their livelihood.

4. But those who sport with other gods,
the ones they own,
will only multiply their troubles here.

5. I will not offer self or sacrifice to these,
nor take their empty names upon my lips.

6. Lord you are for me all that I truly need,
and all that’s good.
I raise the cup of life you give and drink,
and live in full what you have cast for me as lot.

7. Inside the boundaries of my life
there is a land so broad, so good,
I never earned it all, nor was it ever “mine,”
but sent as gift, inherited from you.

8. And there you teach me all I need to know.
So I thank you for these instructions of the heart.

9. I keep your face before me as I walk;
with your strong presence at my side I never fall.

10. My inner life is filled with you, my heart is glad,
my soul is ever satisfied,
my body rests along the way in peace.

11. And when it comes, you will not abandon me in death,
nor allow your beloved ones to vanish
and be no more.

12. You lead and guide along a path called Life,
and there your presence is the source of joy,
For from your hands there flows
a never-ending stream of bliss.

Love's fire

The day love’s fire was lit,

lovers learned the way of burning.

This burning and melting is all the Friend’s doing.

If the candle were never lit,

the moth would never burn.

—Abu Sa’id Abi’l Khayr

Turning with the stars

If you are seeking your true self,

then come out of yourself.

Leave the tributary and flow toward the River.

Why carry the burden of heaven’s millstone on

your back, when you could be turning instead

with the choir of the circling stars?

—Rumi

The Beloved's Desire

As the Beloved One, 

I want no lordship,

no mastery.

I want astonishment and devastation.

But like monks, you hide away 

in your cloisters of security.

I want you to give up everything 

and roam the world like a free being (dervish).

—Attar

The Gospel of Thomas: Logion 15

Yeshua says,

When the time comes

and you are able

to look upon the Unborn One,

fall prostrate in worship,

for you have found your own true Father,

(your Source and Origin at last).

Psalm 15

Friends of God

1. O God, who of us may approach

the summit of your mountain strong?

Who may come, invited to your presence there?

2. Only those who live their lives devoid of blame,

who do what’s right,

and from whose hearts truth is the only word;

3. Whose mouths are free from hateful words

and hands from wrong,

who treat their neighbors as their own, their kind;

4. Who do not give a place of honor to the evil one,

but only to the friends of God.

5. Whose promise is as good as any word they ever give,

even in the face of loss or gain.

6. They give and give, and ever give again,

without hope of getting in return,

and never take a bribe or speak against the innocent.

7. All these shall come at last to you,

all these, secure and overcomers, all!

All these are ever yours;

they’re proven true as your own friends.

Remember the Truth

The soul is love and affection -—

so grow to know the soul.

But the Truth of forgetting yourself is ecstasy.

When “I” and “you” are present,

you’re thinking from the place of the ego.

So when you hear those two words,

remember this truth and go beyond the ego.

—Saghir Isfahani

Psalm 14

The Seeker and the Atheist

1. Foolishly the heart that says, “There is no God,”

acts out these words in deeds of crime and violence,

forsaking any good.

2. God sees it all from heaven’s height,

and looks to find the good in them,

God hopes to find some seeker there.

3. But these have given up the search,

to follow hard upon their evil ways,

and none of them are doing good at all, not one.

4. Where has their knowledge, their awareness gone,

these folk who eat the people up like bread

without a thought or prayer?

5. Behold, their time of fear shall come,

for God has taken sides, not theirs,

To care for all the lowly ones

who seek the right and serve the good,

6. The very ones they’ve mocked for seeking hope

and refuge in their God.

7. O deliver us,

restore our many losses here on earth we pray.

Come from your dwelling place,

Your holy mountain, your eternal city strong, Jerusalem,

and make your people glad and filled,

yes filled with joy.