Psalm 65

Let us stand before destruction and sing this psalm of creation.  As painful as it can be to accept, one cannot exist without the other.  My original intention was to simply include a portion of this psalm, but its beautiful and comforting words flow, taking us from one line and image to the next.  The psalmists believed that Jerusalem, sitting on the mountaintop, was the center of the world.   We learn that sense of sacred centeredness is within each of us, and we find the courage to believe.   

 

Please, say or chant this psalm aloud for those who find singing impossible this morning.      

   

"O God, we praise you here and everywhere, 

we praise you from the center of your city

and from the mount on which it stands, Jerusalem.

​From these we offer up our loyalty and praise. 

To you who hears our prayer shall all flesh come 

bearing burdens of brokenness and shame. 

For these are far, far stronger that we ever are, 

so you must lift them off of us and blot them out again. 

Blessed and burden free are all who choose to come to you, 

whom you draw deep into your courts, into your presence there,

For whom the beauty of your house and holiness 

becomes a temple that can fill and satisfy our hearts, 

From which you show us awesome things, 

and paths of right-relationship, restoring all. 

And every place on earth shall know this hope 

all distant lands and seas shall taste and see.  

For you have made the mountain ranges sure, 

securing earth with might and strength, 

That stills the crashing chaos 

of the new-born seas. 

You bind with hope the peoples filled with fear. 

You make each dusk and dawn to sing your praise. 

You visit earth to make it rain abundantly. 

O God the river of your life is brimming full and overflows. 

You give us grain and seed, 

and shower earth abundantly with rain. 

That softens grounds and blesses it with green 

and gives us food. 

And through the passing years, 

each wears your golden crown of good, 

for all your paths are filled with plenitude. 

The wilderness itself is rich for beasts of every kind, 

for these you love, protecting them

and covering every hill with flocks. 

You fill the valleys with your golden grain, 

so all creation stands and sings 

aloud with joy the wonders of your name. 

Amen

  

Psalm 65, Ancient Songs Sung Anew 

Lynn C. Bauman​