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ELIJAH'S CHAIR:

A place at the table for you

Psalm 22 - when

August 13, 2019

Psalm 17: Prayer Resung for the sake of Friendship [Tzedek/Justice]

August 2, 2019

Psalm 23 in the wake of tragedy

April 30, 2019

Pre-Passover Reflection

April 10, 2019

Three Keys to Humility: Remember, Give, and Sing Out in the Now.

February 24, 2019

The Thirteenth Moon is Full, Are You?

February 21, 2019

Psalm 19 ReSung for Tu Bishvat

January 22, 2019

Dust in the Wind, Psalm 18

December 28, 2018

Share the Light, an Origin Story for the Solstice

December 23, 2018

Psalm 34

November 15, 2018

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July 16, 2015

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a tribute for memorial day

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Psalm 9 (part 1) – A Song that Love May Endure the Life-Threatening Yoke[1]

Placed upon a Son or Daughter

 

א – I will give thanks with all my heart.

            I will recount your wonder, forward and backwards.

            I will rejoice and exalt in You.  I will voice Your lofty name

ב – Backtrack the torment in me.  Let this sad-mask come off at last.

ג – Get away from inner-gangs lost to misplaced judgement,

            May their names be forgotten for good (Doorways[2] best unopened)

ה – Ha! There. These enemies of pure simplicity

            lay in ruin, in perpetuity,

            the nervous skin shed, busy city-lights fading, forgotten.

ו – And You, Y”H are hidden there, enthroned

             in a humble clause, like “Yes.”

            And in a just cause – haven for the helpless, fortress for the fearful.

ז – Sing for God’s sake, and feel the presence

            where we gather and celebrate our stories, Your story, in song.

            Remember too, the blood-curdling cry, forget not the call,

            connection inspiring action.

ח – Help me heal the hate that seeps from self-afflicted isolation.

            Raise me above fear before death’s door.  Grace me

            that I can sing your praises in the gateways

            where daughters of Zion roll in joy, the hour has come.

ט – The trap set for another ensnares the setter,

            arrested in the net of arrogance and judgement.

            This is folly.  Sela’.

י – You can help me steer clear of that tormented line of inquiry

            that forgets to cede the throne of judgment,

            and never forgets the hope that flows

            from a humility reaching with both hands,

            lifting you up, not settling into a stubborn self-reliance.

           Human, all too human, in your able hands.  Sela’.

 

FOCUS PHRASES:

Odeh b’chol libi – I give thanks with all my heart!

Celebrate in song

Cede the throne of judgment

 

 

 

 

[1] The Hebrew is unclear, here I have divided the word עלמות/Almut, into two words, עול מוות/‘Ol mavet /  literally “the yoke of death [for a son]”

 

[2] The letter ד/dalet, meaning door, is curiously absent from the cloaked alphabetic acrostic of this psalm.

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