My Cry for Mercy

This past Sunday at Lafayette, we wrote and shared poems of resistance, lament and hope with each other, inspired in part by Psalm 140. What “cry for mercy” is rising from your heart today? What do the words of your community draw from your own soul? Perhaps you might like to put pen to paper this morning and see what emerges.

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Those who do harm

May never wonder

How their actions

Cause alarm

We worry, we cry

We scream, we fight

But one thing’s a fact

We never give up

Psalm 140 Reflection

I’ve heard, “The Lord secures the poor and upholds the needy.”

Yet I see laws passed to lift up the greedy.

If the wish of the wicked be granted,

And venomous tongue be amplified,

Then the truth of your love becomes slanted,

And the gap is magnified.

Rescue me… rescue us…

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Psalm 140

1 Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers;
    protect me from the violent,
2 who devise evil plans in their hearts
    and stir up war every day.
3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s;
    the poison of vipers is on their lips.

4 Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
    protect me from the violent,
    who devise ways to trip my feet.
5 The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
    they have spread out the cords of their net
    and have set traps for me along my path.

6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”
    Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy.
7 Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer,
    you shield my head in the day of battle.
8 Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord;
    do not let their plans succeed.

9 Those who surround me proudly rear their heads;
    may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
10 May burning coals fall on them;
    may they be thrown into the fire,
    into miry pits, never to rise.
11 May slanderers not be established in the land;
    may disaster hunt down the violent.

12 I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
    and upholds the cause of the needy.
13 Surely the righteous will praise your name,
    and the upright will live in your presence.