Psalm 12

"Come to our aid, O Beloved!"

darkness seems to pervade the earth;

Where is the faith, the integrity 

that once lived in the hearts of your people? 

Where is the truth, the trust 

that made its home in us?

 

O Lord, cleanse us from our double talk, 

Create in us new and single hearts, 

Spare us from those who think, 

'Our speeches will win over all. 

Words are our weapons; 

no one can master us!'

  

Stay close by throughout these dark days

where unloving hearts seem to abound. 

Come to our aid, O Beloved!"   

 

Psalm 12 

Psalms for Praying, Nan C. Merrill    

  

In one of the small groups I meet with, we recently began a discussion about the psalms - about how difficult they can be to read. We wrestled with Psalm 11, and quite a bit came up for each of us.  As a result of this conversation, one participant asked if we could read the whole Bible this way.  Another chimed in, so yes, we are going to begin this endeavor. I think this is the gift of the psalms. They instill in us a tenaciousness for the long journeys of our lives, regardless of the terrain we must cross. Eventually, in the core of our being, we know God is doing something in our lives, and we yearn to know what that something is.