Psalm 54

"Apa Pambo, one of the ancient Desert Fathers, was once questioned by a searcher after truth regarding the means of salvation. He replied, 'Find your heart and you will be saved.' He was advising the disciple not to seek external things, but to begin an inner quest. To find one's heart is to penetrate to the deepest level of one's being, unlayering stage by stage all that is unessential. To find one's heart means discovering also that at one's inmost center one is not alone."

Michael Casey, Towards God     

   

"In honor of your own good name, O God, 

save me by your strength, 

take up my cause and defend it as your own. 

Hear this very human prayer of mine.

As I speak it, listen to my every word.   

Take all the evil that stalks the good 

and crush it, Lord, 

till it is forever gone. 

Then in honor of your name I will offer up to you

whatever by all right is yours, my God, 

For you're the one who rescued me, 

and I myself have seen with my own eyes, 

how the ruthless ones, 

and all the arrogant do fall."

Psalm 54:1,5-7 

Ancient Songs Sung Anew 

Lynn C. Bauman