Response to Psalm 40
by Olga Rosales
Joys of knowing water
that runs through fingertips
a crimson bridge suspends
a single prayer
that saves
love solid as an ice cube
love that only vapors
from within
I know a God that quenches
desiccate and lonely people
a perfect resolution
suspended by a 2000 coiled promise
that will never let us fall or fail
because of all my searching
my heavy lifting
my bending knees
and miss-marked maps
I finally take the X you’ve marked
and find myself in all your absolution
all your Glory
thick as blood
that saves like tears
so I can walk again
because I’ve fallen Lord
in all my wretched misery
all my weak and stained abandon
all my very being
begs for you to stay
stay and teach me love
suture all my broken
bring light into my shadows
the one’s I’ve had
the one’s I will
when you’re heart knows sin
when you’re skin sheds in shades of shame
when the hell you’ve lived bruises those who hear it
the word Savior
doesn’t define saving
rather life itself
because my death has happened
yet I live again
loud
in love with breath again
I can’t help but need your very being
Yahweh come quickly
save me from cliffs
sharp enough
to cut open all you’ve sown together
Mighty Lord, deliver me.
(Psalm 40 - versus 1-2)
I waited patiently for the Lord
to help me and he turned to me and heard my cry
He lifted me out of the pit of despair out of the mud
and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.
