In Port - Meditations on the Psalms: Volume 2: Volume 2

By Edward A. Vinson

This is the second volume of poetic meditations based on the
Psalms, written as prayers for the Peace of Jerusalem and all
Israel. The fi rst meditations in this volume were written in the
port of Ashkelon, Israel on board the authors small vessel that
he sailed to Israel from America in 2010on a Modern Odyssey,
leaving her there to be used by modern warriors suffering from
PTSD. The rest of the meditations were written next to the
stained glass pictured on the cover, overlooking battlefi elds
where the United States of America won her liberty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469156644

Edward A. Vinson

If prophecy is not to be despised, the author is called as an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven to be a voice and write, inspired by God's Spirit. To this end he has lived out an amazing three-strand testimony, written on his heart to illuminate God's Love for Israel. The strands involve God's Death-defying deliverance of the author, his wife, children and parents. Fruit of the explosive treasure in this testimony ('TNT' ) is given the poetic voice as he seeks to sail life's seas and “speak...in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19).

Book preview

Psalm 73—a Meditation in Praise

In praise of what? In praise of Whom?

In praise of Him, the One unseen, the unknown G_D

      Who would be known.

By each and every one of us.

And who are we? And who am I to speak of this?

One flesh with you, made one in Him, by Him, through Him,

the hidden Mystery in our midst,

the Word thus sent that framed the wondrous world we see.

In faith, by faith, I speak to you, O Israel.

Oh, hear me now for He has called and I have come

and He has heard my cries for you

at ends of cut-off railroad tracks

within the gates, of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Camps.

I have been sent, not by my self, and not alone—

with more than meets the eye, to stand

within thy gates, Jerusalem, O city of the King of kings.

Have angels thus been entertained, as those who have been

taken in, and fed, and harbored, kept from harm

on Sabbath’s eve

as Peace was spread abroad and shared?

Oh, at the Mystery of it all—His Name within such messengers!

Oh, at the Glory found therein—the weight of Hope made manifest,

the Hope that Changes Everything, announced and given praise

      by men.

He is the only Good there is,

God’s Goodness lavished on His own, His son,

His tiny nation Israel,

poured out on those ‘upright of heart’,

still standing in dark circumstance,

an unseen noose around their necks

tightened by hands that seek the blood of innocents

of whom the LORD has said these Words,

Thy sins have been forgiven thee… ?

Storm-tossed, afflicted, lacking comfort from the world,

I come, a sign, of Comfort lavished from On High,

with Mercies to be sown, made known, made manifest and shown

as in the days of Noah, now, in waters from a window, wide,

that color all I see with Love,

a door through which true Light is poured

to flood the world you know as dark,

death’s shadow swept away by faith

as we stand still and see the Hope

salvation come, Salvation come on clouds, in Him

for Whom the whole earth groans, in pain, birth pangs,

crowning the Son Whom we have pierced

with arrows of our unbelief.

Oh that He might come to us, and swiftly in our day, bring Peace.

Oh that His Voice might light on us,

with Word that sets us free from fear,

healing the land from inside out.

Oh Lord, that You might come to us,

and we, in Your eyes, be found pure,

given new hearts and a new spirit that is Yours

that makes now to be a Light to all the world,

a city set upon a hill, a rock that is immovable,

not hewn by human hands, but Yours,

forming the Presence we require

against which terror’s waves now break, and must recede

from threatening to annihilate

the firstborn son

that You call Your small Israel.

For this some have been named and drawn,

identified with You and Yours, married to Yours,

to be one flesh, a vines entwine to be one stick within Your hand,

      producing fruit.

And thus I come with seed of song

to be deposited through love

within thy gates, Jerusalem.

The issue of this heart bears Hope

for it this heart is God-circumcised.

O, Mystery of such passion known!

The consummation came and comes,

again and yet again, with cries, as I am stirred

to sing before the dawn, of Thee, and in communion taste and see—

the Good within the land is You!

You have done this, that we might see

and get a taste of Who You are!

But as for me, my feet have almost slipped,

were gone almost, over the edge, of the abyss.

I envied foolish men their wealth

who, in their arrogance, prospered

in ways that laughed at others’ loss.

‘What man has done to man’, is loss;

its wickedness, like nets, snares me;

I have tripped-up where I have walked,

caught in the snares of evil men.

The pangs some suffer, they know not;

un-smitten, they appear to walk, unplagued by sorrows I have seen.

Pride has adorned their necks like gold, like golden chains,

the weight of great positions held;

while violence, like a garment, seems

to grace their way, paved with the victory of the cruel,

the history of which fouls the world.

Their thoughts ignore, the ancient boundaries You have set.

Imaginations burst all bounds

to overflow the land with lies, with folly

that invades the heart.

The heavens and the earth both groan.

But You have seen

and have decreed an end that comes

to things ignoring Your desires.

"Is it in vain, that I have sought Your will and ways,

seeking to be, both willing and obedient,

in spite of simply being dust?"

If I had spoken thus, to You,

and had not stilled myself, to know,

I could have been proved quite untrue

and dealt, with treachery, with Yours,

the children of this day and time.

Within You sanctuary, drawn; within Your harbor arms, kept safe;

beneath Your wings, to hear Your heart,

I come to understand the Ends

of those I briefly envied here.

The wicked stand on slippery slopes;

beneath them are no waiting, everlasting arms.

To them Your arm is not revealed,

or is not followed if it is.

Their chosen way and path will fail.

Ruin and destruction wait on those

who seek the blood of Israel

and would that Yours, go unremembered

      into night.

In but a moment, those deemed strong

who seek our blood, to make Your Word of no avail,

and nullify Your Covenants—in but a moment they are gone,

become a desolation, gone, consumed with terrors they designed

to pour on those You chose as Yours

to be a Light through what You give

and Who You Are as He-Who-Is-Alive in us,

the Mystery soon to be revealed.

Why do men rage? Why do some plan such vanities?

I do know not but I am grieved

for in Your image they were also made to shine;

their loss is Yours.

You take no pleasure in their deaths.

I too was like a bruitish beast, foolish and stupid in my ways,

wise in my own eyes, blind in Yours, both deaf and dumb in

what I heard and spoke of You.

In countless ways, on endless dawns, You sought to save me

      from myself.

If I had not been drawn by You,

I could not stand where I now do.

By my right hand You drew me forth

from waters deeper than my soul,

and things I could not comprehend.

Whom do I have, but You to thank?

None else can save.

May I now show, the Mercies You have shown to me?

You are my portion day by day.

This is the only good I find: that I, thus drawn, may come to You,

draw close to know and to be known.

For this is Truth: Behold, those far from You shall die,

shall perish in the press of ‘things’.

I give You praise; my praise is Yours; all praise is Yours.

You are my Refuge and my Hope.

You are my Strength.

Enable me to speak for You,

and to tell forth Your wondrous works…

Empower me, and I shall be empowered, Lord.

Selah. Amen.

Psalm 74—a meditation

on the Timeliness of G_D

The tide has turned, waits for no man

but carries us, deposits us on island shores

that wait for feet, called faithful by the Faithful One,

feet called, to Go and walk life out

down every narrow strand of beach.

Life is a beach that stretches merging into mist.

Thus, from of old, a life thus framed by God, departs,

the journey blessed with timeless Peace.

This gift I carry is from You, the Master of my brother’s house.

Thus now I hear, Your Voice of many waters formed.

The waves that come ashore now speak:

"Turn to the Psalms, and meditate.

Do not now turn back, or shrink from what you see of Me.

Proceed posthaste, to run the race before you set,

that which I term, ‘the Great Grain Race’, of vessels such as you

thus sent, laden with grain,

provision for what is at hand:

old Trouble rears its head again, to trouble precious Israel.

Clouds gather with a rain not Mine.

If men attack, their hatred is not born of Me,

is foreign to My broken heart.

From Me, know this—there is a Heritage that’s yours.

Receive; prepare yourself to give; lift up your voice;

and as a horn, trumpet salvation that is Mine.

Send forth My words that shall rise up;

angels will catch them, scoop them up in waiting hands,

to carry them to be performed where I desire.

They will not fall to earth to die.

Speak life to Mine.

The time has come to now, ‘Play ball!’

This is ‘the only game in town’.

For this you once were chosen, called

and thus have sailed to distant shores

married to Mine, returning in My Name with gifts

and giftings given from I Am."

The day once prefaced has begun.

And I must turn, to this the task that is at hand,

to take up pen and write of Hope.

When life, its tree and branch and root and seed,

seems shut up like a long-locked book,

its promise closed like Noah’s door

with all the light of hope, inside, shut off—

then, "Turn to Me, whispers The Voice,

the Tree of Life, the Branch once broken off for you,

both Root of David and the Shoot, eternal Seed,

ancient of days, I AM, the Door

and call on Me, for I am there.

You search the Scriptures, but neglect to come to Me;

return, I stand, the open Door.

And what I open, who can close?

Be still and know that I am G_D, the Lord, with you,

      for good, not ill.

Yes, hope and wait; do as the garment you have worn

and wrap me in your tent of flesh; take Me to heart

and wait, and meditate upon the Psalms.

Am I a man that I should lie?

I do not speak with tongue that’s forked,

nor do I seek to strike you dead.

My gift is Life, and that abundant, to the very uttermost."

How long, O Lord? Till all lays waste?

Till Death itself has overtaken us?

Until the enemy, deemed last, has struck

and poison fills these veins of leaves

and all are stripped bare of all hope?

Till roaring clouds, like waves, roll down

to break upon us, dark with hate?

What is unleashed to hound us to the grave that waits?

Can these bones live?

How long, O Lord, how long have You rejected us?

Pray not forever, Lord, or we are lost, the name of Israel no more,

forgotten, and remembered not.

How long and why?

Deep calls to deep, in ponderings,

and I, over my head, am here.

Your anger seems to smolder, Lord,

a fire that’s banked against Your sheep,

the flocks of pastures, Yours to keep.

Oh, lift the veil, that Your true light may shine on us,

the face that we have longed to see, to kiss with tears,

relieved at last, of burdens beyond bearing here…

Come, O Master of the field, and make us Yours.

Why does Your anger smolder thus, and against these?

Do I dare dream and hope for this—that it is like a wick, snuffed out,

that anger’s flame expires, burned out, extinguished for all time to come?

And that a Door stands open here, before us now,

for us to enter in, renewed, in Covenant with Who You Are,

into the New, that You have promised would come?

O, that it might be! That Love unbroken might be ours,

never again to leave these shores.

That Peace, a river, ever flow

and bring us blossoms of Your Love.

Come, scent our world with Who You Are,

with—what is this?—life from the dead

to be bestowed on all the world…

O God that we might enter in

to that beyond which we can dream

or think or dare imagine, grows.

Let this be our new lot on earth, Your Israel’s,

our End surpassing what men plan.

You are our Start and Finish, Lord, our Source and End.

Remember, LORD, Your Covenants.

Remember us, a people purchased from of old,

peculiar treasure hidden here within the shadow of the wall.

A noose has tightened on our neck.

We wait on the Revealing, Lord,

of Yours, the arm and hand and face

to smile on us with sure release.

For otherwise I can’t endure what is to come.

Remember, from of old, Your tribes

and all the seed of Abraham,

bought at a price, but without silver or by gold.

The earth is yours, blood-bought by right,

even Mount Zion where You dwelt—

and to which You shall soon return.

Come forth through everlasting ruins;

reveal the only Hope of Peace.

Your foes still roar within the place You met with us,

their standards set as signs of our demise on earth.

They act like men, with axes chopping at our roots

to cut the vineyard of the LORD.

They slash and burn, defiled the holy dwelling place

that held Your Name

and say that You shall not return

to shed Your Love abroad on us.

Their plan is this: to crush completely those You chose.

They seek to send us up in flames,

like incense, where we worship You.

Is this the praise that You inhabit as our King?

You have a Plan to bring to pass

and all our times are in Your hands.

How long will our oppression last?

The foe reviles Your Name in us.

You are not deaf.

Your arm has not grown short to save.

Do not withhold Your hand, O LORD;

remove it from the folds of garments where You live.

Awaken to this cause and roar;

Come, Lion of Judah, take Your throne,

Your anger turned away from us.

May all things work, together, for the good You plan.

Bring Your salvation on the earth,

a flood of streams that make You glad

without which we, laid waste, expire.

Come, save us as in days of old

in this the Second Exodus.

Have we not cast, a lance into Leviathian,

thus sent to do Your will on earth,

its tip anointed with the Oil that is his end?

Your Oil of Gladness is our strength.

for You provide, Your Grace sufficient

for our Need.

It’s You, O LORD, Who split the sea

and by Your power, make a way,

brake every head of every monster in life’s deeps,

their heads served up as food for beasts,

for ‘desert creatures’ of the depths

where water is like desert sand

that slakes no thirst in us for You,

the Spring of Waters that we need.

You crushed the head, Leviathian’s,

severed as once Goliath’s was,

to overshadow us no more.

You open up both springs and streams

in every desert we have known.

Sustained by You alone, we live.

The day is yours, also the night,

and so are we, established as the sun and moon,

to give both light and faithful witness of I AM.

Our boundaries You have set, O Lord, to be restored.

Though men have moved the boundary stones,

You keep Your ancient covenants.

The seasons You ordained will yield

Your will as it is done on earth!

Like doves we have flown home, to nest;

give us not over to wild beasts.

We ask that ours, the songs You give, be heard within the land again,

throughout its length and breadth and heights,

and that our feathers, be not scattered, stained with blood

in mockery of Your great Love.

Afflicted as we now have been, do not forget our lives, Great One.

Our hope remains in You; we wait.

O be not long in coming back.

Regard Your Covenants of old

for violence haunts the darkness here,

in caves where our sons have been stoned.

Their blood which stains the earth, cries out.

O let us not retreat, disgraced;

draw us, O LORD, and lift the veil.

Send angel armies out to fight,

and may all mankind praise Your Name.

Come still the waves that roar with hate.

Rise up, O God, defend Your cause,

for Your Name’s sake and not for ours

for we have sinned and fallen short;

swallow their waves

with Yours, the Wave of Exodus.

Psalm 75—a meditation

Preserve and Destroy Not

O God of Covenants of Salt, of pillared warnings

      and of Love,

our Maker and our Husbandman—

come gather us beneath Your wing

and in Your feathers hide us, stilled,

I seek the heartbeat of Your heart;

I seek the Life in Your face shining down on us.

O may Your Countenance be ours!

Do not destroy O Lord, my King;

extend Your scepter that we live.

Thus here I stand, my journey blessed,

within my Master’s brothers’ house

to speak of Love, unbound, a gift; out-poured, a boon,

a Blessing I cannot contain.

My way through seas has led me here

and in Your Name streams mark, beneath my eyes, my face.

I know that You have heard my cries.

Ignited by Your Love, I smoke;

the incense of my prayers, this song,

the only one I have to give and loose

ascends with praise, day after day.

From this I shrink not back dismayed;

I run this race, still carrying

Your wife of youth, the object of Your own desire

alive and well in Christ in me.

The labor has begun, is here, the very End for which I live,

formed in the womb that is my heart

to come forth in the seed of song.

For such a time as this, I live.

Thus do my thanks go forth to You

Whose Name is in me, near, unseen,

the Mystery soon to be revealed

within the very midst of Yours.

Thus do I tell of deeds and speak

of things too wonderful for me—

the feast, the table You have spread

beneath the shadow of the death

that Darkness as a cloak would spread and cast on us.

Though death stands waiting at the door,

outside the door, to rain on us,

through You we live and move and breathe

and have our being where we are.

Shall we be moved?

Once more a shaking comes ashore, a great high wave,

standing to fall, remove all walls, till all that can be is removed

with only Your Word left to stand.

Your body manifests such fruit.

O may it be alive in us, abiding in our seed, to live.

This much I ask, through me, Speak Life.

Let not the Words implanted here, within this fertile crescent’s heart,

fall to the ground, to bear no fruit.

Dispatch Your angels, LORD, with me, as messengers of Covenant

to catch each word and send them forth

empowered from on high, by You

to swiftly fly and be performed, Your will on earth

      Peace and Goodwill.

Such things are only Yours to give.

Did You not choose the times appointed for such things?

      "I did, My son; I chose appointed times to judge, uprightly,

between both sheep and goats and men,

some to the right, some to the left;

and I will cause the sheep to stand

and to inherit what I give.

Draw close, thus blessed, favored of God, appointed to receive My will,

the Kingdom I prepared for you.

Some things were laid before the earth’s foundations formed.

My Love has long been laid on you; you are the chosen of the LORD.

Toward you My anger has been brief, its end appointed in your time.

Eternal Love is Mine to give, and to bestow on whom I will

the tender mercies of I AM, the comfort found

in Mine the everlasting arms, your names engraved upon My palms.

.

When men and all the earth will shake, when nations quake

My mercies are renewed each dawn, remaining sure;

the pillars of My Wisdom hold, uphold My house of living stones.

I seal your forehead with a kiss, for Mercy has a human touch.

Your lips are sealed, with Fire from off My Heart’s altar;

There does Love burn, incarnate Love.

The Living Word made flesh, stands sure, the Living Stone,

that shall not be removed by men.

The humble I will lift to Me; the arrogant will be cast down.

The hour is close and now at hand when all the sands of time run out

with no more room for men to boast, time is no more:

men are relieved of the illusion that they rule.

There is one God and King, no more; there is none other than I AM.

To all the wicked I decreed, ‘Lift not your horns

against the cry of heaven’s heart,

and do not speak with outstretched neck’

or I will surely cut you off."

There is no one from East or West

that can exalt a man to be

that which the LORD desires to see.

Only the Lord can do such things.

Unframed by faith, not drawn by Him, no image forms in us of Him;

His image in us is not seen, goes unrevealed, if we refuse to come to God

and are not called to be stripped bare and be reclothed,

heart-circumcised by Christ in you.

God brings one down and He exalts another king.

As it is written, so it is.

Illusion fades, but Truth remains the only Way to Him Who calls.

Within His Hand a cup is raised, extended, poured

to overflow the limits of our lips and ways.

Thus far, He says, no farther shall your proud waves reach;

drink this, the wine that foams, is mixed with all the spices that He chose.

God pours it out upon all flesh; the wicked of the earth shall drink,

not just a sip, but to the very dregs, emptied,

of what they poured out on His own.

Full circle, blessing and the curse, return.

For me this is the End of it:

I will declare His Name and Goodness unto men.

I sing of Him, the GOD of Jacob, giving praise.

And as a sword I lift my voice, and as a trumpet raise a sound.

Forth from my mouth, a blade cuts off

the horn that rips small Israel, the seamless garment of the land;

an utter end must be declared, to seeds that fill the heart of men

that harden into tracks of iron

that carry Jews in cattle cars to ovens heated seven times.

Upon the dawn and in the dusk, Never again! echoes in me.

Horns of all the righteous, lifted up, shall sound the Victory of the LORD.

May it be unto me and men, both meat and drink

to hear and do, and not rebel.

Rebellion is, as witchcraft, in the eyes of YAH

wherein, reflected, is the apple of His eye.

And if the motive be not love

and from a heart not circumcised,

beware of how you touch His wife…

Zealous and jealous is our God

of those He chooses as His own

peculiar treasure in the earth.

Selah. Amen.

Psalm 76—a meditation,

‘Broken, to Break’

God breaks us free, of ‘things’ that have distressed us here.

Restored by Him, all is not lost.

There is a remnant that remains

for us to strengthen in our days.

Broken for us, He breaks us free

and sets us free indeed at last,

the End from the Beginning known

by He Who formed us in the womb

and launched us on

a passage through the seas that roar,

making a way where no way was.

Through Him we gain the other side,

the promised shore, the promised land,

the city built by God, not man,

that city sought by Abraham.

O at the Mystery of it all!

He, in our midst, performs it all

while yet remaining quite unseen.

Much to the shame of those who mock

and seek the blood, of those He calls His innocents,

He keeps His Word and does not lie

for He… remembers covenant.

Thus do I sing, thus do I call

lest blood deemed innocent be shed.

For this I have been given voice.

For such a time as this, I stand

to sail across the great divide.

This vessel has a star to guide,

an Esther and a King on high.

O at the Mystery of it all!

Here on these shores, with relatives of He Who Comes,

I leave my footprints in the sand.

A sent one as a servant walks

to drink from wells the world forgot.

In Judah I have known my God.

In Judah, God is known I find.

His Name is great in Israel, even in me;

I have been named after His son,

His firstborn, tiny Israel

and married to the daughter of Jerusalem

to enter her with seed of song

as an ambassador of Love.

Once broken, I am knit again—

broken, to break an ancient yoke

upon the neck of Israel.

After the fashion of I AM,

the Mystery, Christ in you, does this

for He is in us to this End,

and with us to perform His Words.

His tent is pitched at Salem’s door;

His dwelling place at Zion’s gates.

Within such gates I come to stand

to call Him back, to enter in.

I am a messenger of Hope,

the HOPE that CHANGES EVERYTHING.

How can it be?

All things are possible with God.

Nothing is new, under the Sun:

God ‘has it covered’ with His Light.

What once has been, will be again;

He Who was with us, shall be more

than we have ever thought or dreamed.

He speaks a Word, and in the End, it is performed.

This Heritage He gives to us:

He puts His Words of Life in us

to speak them forth at His command,

to see the Will of God break out

in All-Consuming Fire, to sweep

a broken world, with the Anointing, breaking yokes.

This is the Freedom men have sought:

Broken, to break, thus the Anointed One breaks forth:

Upon the clouds, He shall return; His dwelling place on Zion’s throne.

Enthroned in praise, He now inhabits, yet unseen,

the tents of Jacob, one by one.

We walk by faith and not by sight,

that He, unchanged, will bring and be the Peace we seek.

Broken, to break, He breaks the weapons made for war,

the weapons formed to destroy us.

They will not prosper in His will.

The flashing arrows He shall break;

God did it once and will again.

Only believe; fear not, He says.

Through unbelief, many are lost.

Against such loss, against such plans to do us harm,

I lift a shield of faith and drum,

to keep His Heartbeat known in me

in ways I too long set aside

going my own way in the world.

Of Him I speak, the Mystery with us till the end:

You are resplendent with True Light,

the Light that enters every life,

the Light some choose, that some will not.

You are the One, the Mountain that shall fill the earth.

Majestic, more than mountains rich

with all the game with which they once abounded, rich,

You spread a Table in our midst

with meat the world does not know of.

Because of You, we shall not want.

We shall dwell safely in the land of all the promises You make,

the terror we have known, removed.

Behold, You say, "have I not made all things as new…

Lift up your eyes, beyond the mountains round about,

to Him from Whom all Help has come.

Behold the land I give to you."

Great valiant men of war shall sleep,

unable to lift up their hands.

At Your rebuke such mighty men

lie plundered in the plans they laid,

upon the plains of their reward.

At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, they lie still,

dead in their trespass, lost in sin.

Did horse and chariot prevail?

The gates that loosed them will not win;

the battle is the LORD’s, again.

When You are angered, who can stand,

for You alone are to be feared?

Fear of the LORD is wisdom’s start;

the earth is trembling where I stand.

And what be the End of this?

Life from the dead remains the true reward of Him

Who holds us in His very hand,

our names engraved upon His palms,

Your arm extended and revealed.

O at the Power of Your Love!

Stronger than Death it has remained:

it will not fail.

When You, O God, rose up to judge

to save storm-tossed, afflicted souls,

those of the land that You call Yours,

the City of the King to come,

the chosen place, THE LORD IS THERE,

the city set upon Your hill,

then did the land itself know fear

and reverence You, becoming still

to tremble, struck with awe of You…

Surely Your wrath results in praise

in those who shall survive the sword

and enter into Covenant.

Will You not write upon such hearts?

Come and restrain us from our own ways,

and from our thoughts, which are not Yours?

A counselor, I counsel this:

Make vows to God, your LORD and King.

The vows you make, make sure to keep.

Let all the lands that border you, bring gifts to Him;

as walls come down, don’t keep them out.

To nations you shall be a light.

Open your doors and hearts to all

who come to bring their gifts to God.

He is the One Who all must fear.

Let rulers come and ‘bend the knee’,

to kiss the Son;

to, broken at His feet, be whole

by Your Good Spirit, thus revived.

New Life in you, small Israel,

shall be to all the world, in Him,

life from the dead, His Love unbound

to wrap you in His arms again

with joy unspeakable and full…

Kings of the earth

shall come in fear

and leave

relieved of burdens

here.

This is the land

where I, thus sent, have come to stand

and thus lift up my voice and speak

in meditations on the Psalms.

Selah. Amen.

Psalm 77—a meditation

I Cried to God

According to Thy Word, my Lord,

so has it been:

Your way lies through the sea, My son.

You set the sailing date and course.

Your hand is on me through it all.

You whisper things that I observe.

Grief-grasped, storm-tossed, not comforted,

so often I have felt alone.

Does Israel thus dwell alone

afflicted by ‘surplanters’, Lord,

who seek to rule what is not theirs?

They would have stepped into my place,

replacing tiny Israel

whose name You have applied to us.

Familiar with such sorrows known,

the loss of loved ones left behind,

within such seas as hissed and roared

like charging lions their reach has struck.

‘Shiver me timbers’, hissing like snakes such seas arose,

poised, spitting, leaping with forked tongues

to whisper of a peace that’s false—

strange fire was burning in their depths,

a stirred-up phosphorescent glow

and not the fire of Your shared Love,

to love one’s neighbor as yourself.

I was the living sacrifice; or so some thought,

forgetting Your once and for all.

The blade was stayed, as in the hand of Abraham.

In this, we worshiped and returned.

Seeking a wife for Who You Are

a blessing has been poured on me;

streams in the desert eased my thirst.

The journey took me to the home

of Yours, my Master’s, relatives.

Is it not written, Seek and ye shall find, My son,

when you seek Me with your whole heart?

I play with words, rejoicing Lord—

on such a voyage You brought me through

and all things thus have worked for good.

Such is the promise of my God: You hear our cries.

Though used, abused, and discarded

our foes were not mere flesh and blood.

Your Kingdom came, and they were gone.

All that was stolen is returned.

Your Peace, in me, is on this boat.

The covenant of salt, preserves.

You heard my cries, and saved me by Your Spirit, Lord.

You found us in such desert seas

impossible to drink and live.

And as with Ishmael of old, abandoned,

You were there with us.

Surrounded as I was, You