First Things RSS Feed - Alan Sullivan

Psalm 51

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

to the choirmaster: a psalm of David, when Nattan the prophet came to him, after he had gone to Bat-sheva.

01: Grant your pardon, God.
With your loving-kindness
and abundant pity,
blot out my transgressions.
02: Wash me thoroughly
of my iniquity;
cleanse me of my sin.
03: For I admit my trespass;
my sin will ever haunt me.
04: I sinned against you alone,
my evil done in your sight.
Your sentence will be just,
your judgment clarifying.
05: Behold! I am prone to sin:
so my mother conceived me.
06: Behold! You wish the truth
to imbue my inmost parts,
and inwardly you teach
the wisdom I should know.
07: Purify me with hyssop:
let me be clean. Wash me:
I shall be whiter than snow.
08: Fill me with joy and gladness.
May bones you crushed rejoice.
09: Avert your face from my crime:
erase my depravity.

10: For me, oh God, create
a wholesome heart; renew
within mea steady spirit.
11: Send me not from your presence,
nor withdraw your holy spirit.
12: Restore the joy of your freedom;
uphold me with fulsome spirit.
13: I will teach your ways to rebels.
The sinful will turn to you.
14: Deliver me from blood-guilt,
God, youGod of rescue.
My tongue will sing your justice.
15: Oh Lord, open my lips;
my mouth will declare your praise.
16: For you do not delight
in sacrifice; or I would give it;
nor would you welcome
a burnt offering.
17: The offerings to God
are a humbled spirit,
a humbled, abject heart: ¹
these God shall not despise.
18: Show your favor to Zion:
buildJerusalem’s walls.
19: Then you will be pleased
with rightful sacrifice:
offerings burnt and whole.
Then upon your altar
bullocks may be brought.

1 Hebrew: nishbar v’nidkeh ,literally “quenched, dispirited”; often translated as cliché, “broken heart,”in E.

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Psalm 23

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0400

a psalm of David

01: The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
02: He lays me down
in tender pastures.
He leads me beside
quiet waters.
03: He refreshes my soul.
He guides me on paths
of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
04: Though I walk a valley
shadowed by death,
I fear no evil,
for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff
encourage me.
05: You set me a table
before my foes;
you have anointed
my head with oil;
my cup is full.
06: May God’s goodness
and loving-kindness
be my pursuers
all my life’s days.
07: that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord
forever.

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Annunciation

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

In Madagascar there are moths that sip
tears from sleeping birds. How hushed the wing;
how light the feet; and deft the barbeled tip,
latching the lid! The sleeper feels no sting:

saliva numbs the nerves. A virus goes
from host to host, and when it multiplies
the bird will die. No field researcher knows
its course, which I have glimpsed in Gaia’s eyes.
Goddess, you have drunk too many tears,
and I shall worship you no more. Your drug
ceases to numb my hopes or soothe my fears
that something else exists beyond your bug
and bird-the Lord all beings dimly seek
incarnates in your realm of claw and beak.

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Prayer for Jamaica

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Lord of the storm, spare Kingston’s unkempt port,
spare Spanish Town and even Montego Bay.
Open your eye only on empty sea.
Let vessels reach their quays unscathed, and lashings
never snap. Let shantytowns stay roofed,
and coconuts not cannonball through walls.

Almighty, if it pleases you to rip
the tamarinds with sheets of windblown tin
and whip the alleyways with sparking wires,
if afterward a plague of flies and boils
afflicts the islanders, vouchsafe them faith
that they may bury their dead, build anew,
watch for cyclones, yet believe in You.

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