Saturday, April 15, 2006

My Psalm to Jesus

Happy Resurrection celebrations everyone!

So far this weekend has been fun. Yesterday, I did a bit more work on the Catalyst web site, went to the gym to work out, played Wally Ball with my buddy (and new room mate - woo hoo!), his brother and his brother's friends visiting from out of state (Wally Ball is like a combination of volleyball and raquetball in an enclosed room where you can play off the walls and ceiling) - super fun and we won, and then we all played cards til the wee hours of the night.

Today, a bunch of friends and I did a half hour beach clean up at Belmont Shore here in Long Beach. It happens every 3rd Saturday and i've been doing it for the past 5 months. It's great because it's an awesome time of prayer and worship while picking up trash on the beach to help bless the community tangibly. There's usually over 100 people each month, but today there was about 300-400 people because there was an easter egg hunt right afterwards (egg hunters had to participate in the beach clean up) . . . super fun seeing all the kids hunt through the sand! Afterwards our group went to lunch, then after that my buddy and I started moving some of our larger furniture into our new apartment. Yep, we've got keys! I've got until the end of this month to move out of my current apartment so I can move my things gradually.

Tomorrow, i'll most likely go to service, go to a potluck lunch, then continue moving things with my buddy to the new apartment. Fun times. Happy Easter!

In a small group that I go to on Mondays, we all wrote our own psalm to the Lord as a personal devotional to Him. There were no rules to syntax or structure - we just prayed, worshipped, and wrote. I thought I'd share mine with you here.

As I reflected upon Him, I had been thinking about the last several months and this transition season that's been pretty much a rollercoaster - crazy and unnerving but fun and exciting! It's uneditted and may not make complete sense to you - it's probably unpoetic - but it makes sense to me because each phrase has actual and personal context for me.

Anyway, here's my psalm to Jesus . . . .

May the peace of the Lord rest upon my soul
For He is faithful to care for all my needs.

During times when things seem so uncertain
And even when I am hungry
And when the debts continue to rise
And debtors call expecting more
When family question the decisions made
And friends tell me to lift my hand to work
When my body begins to fail
But the physician finds no ailment
When the condemnation of those who don't understand
Seems to weigh down my spirit
And cause me to doubt and question

When the world spins faster and in reverse
The Lord sets me still.

In peace and confidence He reminds me
That He is in control
That He has provided before
That He indeed has revealed to me His will
That He has healed my affliction
That He settles my anxiety
That He opens the doors of new paths
That He reveals new vision
That He has paid my debts
And that there is no condemnation in Christ.

Praise be to the Lord for He has brought rest upon my soul
And He has been faithful to care for all my needs!

3 comments:

Liadan said...

IIRC, one reason Hebrew poetry tends to translate well is because it's based more of the rhythms of the phrases and repetition than on the phonetics of it like English.

I think your psalm has a lot of this quality, as well as its own kind of unmetered poetry.

glenncruz said...

Hi Eric... I found my way into your blog through the Blogger's search. I find your blog very interesting. If I may, I'd like to blogroll you into my list. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts... thanks! --g.

The Rainbow Zebra said...

Eric, as always, your words have such a beautiful grace to them.

To your psalm, I say a heartfelt AMEN!